Choshech (חושך) — Darkness
Core definition
Choshech is the created reality of darkness and concealment: "the root of light and darkness: the two middot, Chesed and Gevurah. Chesed is in the aspect of light and revelation... Gevurah is in the aspect of the absence of revelation: its matter to contract and conceal" [15911/maamar_011 :: עב׳ 18–20]. Darkness is not the mere absence of light but "an existent creation in its own right" [15911/maamar_011 :: עב׳ 15–16].
How the Rebbeim develop it
Darkness is real. The proof: "ויבדל אלקים בין האור ובין החשך" (and Elokim separated between the light and the darkness) — before the separation, light and darkness "served in a mixture"; were darkness only the absence of light, how could they serve in a mixture? [15911/maamar_011 :: עב׳ 15]. A further proof from "קדרותא דצפרא" — the morning's gloom: before the day's light, the darkness strengthens; were it only absence, what would "strengthening" mean? [15911/maamar_011 :: עב׳ 17].
The plague of darkness in Egypt teaches that light and darkness share one Creator. The heretics say "who created day did not create night — who created light did not create darkness"; therefore there is the inclusion of the day's attribute in the night and the night's in the day [15911/maamar_011 :: עב׳ 7]. He brought the plague of darkness upon Egypt "to remove from their heart their error": at that time "there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt... and for all the children of Yisrael there was light in their dwellings" — both served as one, "teaching that one Keil created them" [15911/maamar_011 :: עב׳ 13]. The root of the heretics' error: in Tohu the middos were "separating branches" — Chesed and Gevurah each apart — so they imagined two creators; but in the Ohr Ein Sof the Emanator there is no division of Chesed and Gevurah at all [15911/maamar_011 :: עב׳ 23–26].
Above, the two are also called light and darkness: the Zohar teaches "לאור — דא אברהם; ולחשך — דא יצחק" — "to the light — this is Yackov; to the darkness — this is Yitzchak" [15911/maamar_011 :: עב׳ 22]. Light and darkness are also lights and vessels: lights are Chesed (revelation), vessels are Gevurah — and from them the root of light's and darkness's coming-into-being below [15911/maamar_011 :: עב׳ 21].
Darkness is the true concealment of the essence. On "ישת חשך סתרו" (He made darkness His hiding, Tehillim 18:12): "His essential hiding being specifically the aspect of darkness" [15962/maamar_010 :: עב׳ 20–21]. The world of Beriah is called choshech — "the Beriah-created — hidden and concealed, not seen and revealed" [15911/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 173–174]. And in this exile, "darkness covers the earth" (החושך יכסה ארץ, Yeshayah 60:2) [15966/maamar_006 :: עב׳ 538].
Key distinctions
- Darkness as existence vs. as absence: the true view — darkness is "an existent creation in its own right," with the morning's gloom and the pre-creation mixture as proofs — against the view that it is only light's absence [15911/maamar_011 :: עב׳ 14–17].
- Darkness above vs. below: above, light and darkness are Chesed and Gevurah, united in the Emanator; below, they appear as separate — the heretics' mistake [15911/maamar_011 :: עב׳ 22–26].
- Darkness of concealment vs. darkness of evil: the darkness of tzimtzum (Gevurah, vessels) is divine; it is distinct from the darkness of kelipah, which opposes holiness.
- The essence's darkness: "ישת חשך סתרו" — the essence hides specifically in darkness, beyond even the hiddenness of the sefiros [15962/maamar_010 :: עב׳ 20–21].
Related concepts
Gevurah (strength/contraction), Tzimtzum, Kelim (vessels), Beriah (called choshech), the plague of darkness, exile (galus), Ohr (light).
Sources
- 15911/maamar_011, עב׳ 7–27 (the plague of darkness; darkness as a created existence; the heretics' error; Chesed/Gevurah as root)
- 15962/maamar_010, עב׳ 20–21 (ישת חשך סתרו — the essential hiding as darkness)
- 15911/maamar_025, עב׳ 173–174 (Beriah called choshech — hidden and concealed)
- 15966/maamar_006, עב׳ 538 (החושך יכסה ארץ — the exile's darkness)