Elokus (אלקות) — Divinity; Elokus

Core definition

Divinity (אלקות, "Divinity") is the Chassidic term for Divinity as it is revealed and knowable — the Divine as light, vitality, and presence in the worlds — as distinct from Awtsmoos, the Divine essence in itself, which is beyond all grasp. When the maamarim speak of "Divinity," they mean divinity, not the unknowable Essence, but as the life that "gives life to them all" (Nechemia 9:6). The term anchors both cosmology (what sustains existence) and avodah (what the contemplative mind grasps).

How the Rebbeim develop it

The most developed treatment opens from the purpose of creation: "the purpose of the creation and coming-into-being of the worlds is so that there be a revelation of Divinity" — "through His being a King over a people," i.e. through kingship and governance "according to His wisdom and His will" [15962/maamar_005 :: עב׳ 51–53]. "This was the main intent: that there be a revelation of Divinity below — as in the teaching: the Holy One, blessed be He, desired to have for Himself, may He be blessed, a dwelling in the lower [realms]" — "lower" meaning "the aspect of yesh-existence" [15962/maamar_005 :: עב׳ 61–64]. Divinity is what creation is for: not the worlds' bare existence, but the revelation of Divinity within them.

What Divinity is metaphysically: "meaning that there is no existence there besides the level of the Divine light; and the existence is Divinity; and the yesh is no existence; the essence is the Divine light that sustains and brings into being the yesh and gives it life" [15962/maamar_005 :: עב׳ 131–134]. This is the contemplation that produces bitul hayesh: "the truth is felt and recognized — that the yesh is no existence at all, and the essence is the Divinity that sustains and brings it into being" — "this is the true nullification of 'there is none besides Him' (ein od milvado): the essence is Divinity, and without Him there is no existence at all" [15962/maamar_005 :: עב׳ 135–138]. And the paradox: "through the existence of the yesh there is a revelation of Divinity specifically below" — both from the yesh's very creation, "which is specifically in the power of the Essence," and from its nullification [15962/maamar_005 :: עב׳ 139–142].

In the soul's terms: when a person contemplates "that the main life is Divinity — for 'ואתה מחיה את כולם' (and You give life to them all) — that the vitality of all the worlds and created beings in general, and of his soul in particular, is Divinity — for He is the vitality" [15911/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 167–170]. "For vitality is Divinity, and for this reason He gives life to everything"; "the coming-into-being of the created beings is also from Him — for were the Divine power that brings into being [removed], this created being would be absolute nothingness" [15911/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 171–175]. The soul, in turn, is "a part of Divinity literally" (chelek me'Divinity mamash) — "not changed in its essence's essence" even after descending below [15962/maamar_001 :: עב׳ 1114–1119]. Such contemplation arouses love "in the aspect of cleaving — that his soul becomes aroused to cleave to the Divinity that gives life to the worlds" — and "running and thirst that Divinity should shine and be revealed in the world" [15911/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 176–182].

Divinity is also the quality the soul's work imparts to the world: the neshamah refines the body and the animal soul, "turning them too to Divinity" [15962/maamar_001 :: עב׳ 1291–1292].

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Sources