Dveikus (דביקות) — cleaving to Havayah

Core definition

Dveikus ("cleaving," "adhesion") is the soul's binding itself to the Divine — in the verse's idiom, "ואתם הדבקים בהוי' אלקיכם" ("and you, cleaving to Havayah your Elokim" — Devarim 4:4). In the maamarim it denotes both a cosmological state (a light "stuck" in its source) and the summit of avodah: the soul's adhesion to Divinity. The Talmudic gloss "דבוקים ממש" — "cleaving literally" (Sanhedrin 64a) — is the standing prooftext that dveikus can be an ontological fact, not a metaphor [58840/maamar_018 :: עב׳ 18–19].

How the Rebbeim develop it

The central treatment is the 5684 Va'eschanan maamar on "ואתם הדבקים בהוי' אלקיכם חיים כולכם היום." It opens: "It is implied: there are two kinds of dveikus, whose advantage and level are equal in that they cleave to Havayah, only that they differ in their matters: some cleave to Havayah, but their dveikus does not bring them to life — their aim not being to be in life; and some whose dveikus to Havayah adds life to them — the dveikus bringing them to an aim, and the aim being life specifically" [58840/maamar_018 :: עב׳ 3–9]. Both are genuine dveikus to Havayah; they are "equal in advantage and level" — the difference lies entirely in the aim [58840/maamar_018 :: עב׳ 11]. The verse then adds a further advantage: "aside from that — that you, cleaving, live... there is yet this: 'live — all of you — today'" — glossed by the Gemara (Sanhedrin 90b): "even when the whole world is dying, you live" [58840/maamar_018 :: עב׳ 22–25].

The two dveikus-kinds are mapped onto tohu and tikun, and onto chesed and gevurah: tohu is "running" without "returning" — small vessels; the dveikus with no life — "truly gevurah"; tikun is the integration of "running-and-returning" — wide vessels — the dveikus whose aim is life, "truly chesed" [58840/maamar_018 :: Overview]. Ben Azai "gazed and died" — the tohu-type dveikus; Rabbi Akiva "entered in peace and left in peace" — the tikun-type [58840/maamar_018 :: Overview]. And Torah is from tikun's side: "all who engage in the Torah — as if he holds onto the Holy One" — hence "and you, cleaving to Havayah your Elokim, live"; hence "cleaving literally" — tikun's dveikus is also essential [58840/maamar_018 :: Overview].

In the cosmology of the Chanukah maamar, dveikus is the criterion distinguishing lights from vessels: "it may be said: that this is whether in the aspect of dveikus or not in the aspect of dveikus. And this is the general difference between the aspect of the lights and the keilim: for the light of Atzilus is in the aspect of dveikus in its source; in contrast, the keilim — their Atzilus is not in the aspect of dveikus" — "a dveikus that is not discernible in knowledge" [58837/maamar_017 :: עב׳ 70–76]. The same criterion divides the Divine names: "this is also the difference between Havayah and Elokim: for the name Havayah is in the aspect of dveikus... in contrast, the name Elokim, which is not in the aspect of dveikus" [58837/maamar_017 :: עב׳ 77–81]. And in the dynamics of influence: "closeness, which is in the aspect of dveikus; and pushing away is not in the aspect of dveikus" — "closeness = revelation" [58837/maamar_017 :: עב׳ 88–89].

The deepest form is "דביקות עצם בעצם" — "the cleaving of essence to essence," expounded on "ובו תדבקון" (Devarim 13:5): "This is the aspect of Keser, which is the language of silence: the bitul there is actual bitul b'metziyus... This is the matter of 'ובו תדבקון' (and to Him you shall cleave): the cleaving of essence to essence" [58846/maamar_017 :: עב׳ 116–117]. In avodah, dveikus is love's work: "in the spiritual avodah, love is the soul's ascent and dveikus in Divinity" [58840/maamar_018 :: עב׳ 243]; "as the lover's love to the beloved — this is the aspect of the lover's nearness and dveikus to the beloved, drawn to him" [58840/maamar_018 :: עב׳ 246]; and through contemplation of the higher comprehensions, "he is aroused in love and dveikus — cleaving to the Divine light," by which "he is detached from the world's physicality and coarseness" [58840/maamar_018 :: עב׳ 323–324].

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Sources