Kelipah (קליפה) — the Husk

Core definition

Kelipah ("husk," "peel," "shell") is the realm of concealment and opposition to holiness — the sitra achra ("the other side"), whose entire existence is as a husk around the fruit: "as our Sages said of Rabbi Meir: 'rimon matza, tocho achal, klipaso zarak' (he found a pomegranate, ate its inside, threw its peel)" [57652/maamar_021 :: §7]. Like a husk, kelipah precedes the fruit both in time (the husk grows first — "klipah kadmah l'pri") and in root: its root is "from the world of Tohu, which preceded the world of Tikun — only they fell in the shevirah" [57652/maamar_021 :: §135–137]. From the fallen vessels and the 288 sparks of the shattering came "kelipas nogah" first, and "in the descent from grade to grade were made the three impure kelipos" [31680/maamar_011 :: §2215–2218].

How the Rebbeim develop it

The four kelipos. Yechezkel's vision opens with four levels before the holy merkavah: "v'hinei ruach se'arah, v'anan gadol, v'eish mislakachas, v'nogah lo saviv; u'mitochah k'ein ha'chashmal" — "ruach se'arah, anan gadol, eish mislakachas — which are the three klipos ha'temei'os — and 'nogah lo saviv' is klipas nogah — and from within them he saw the merkavah of kedushah" [57652/maamar_021 :: §7].

Nogah vs. the three impure kelipos. "In Tanya it is written that kelipas nogah is a mixture of good and evil. But in the three impure kelipos there is no good at all" [31680/maamar_011 :: §2226–2229]. The precise difference: "In kelipas nogah the good is only mixed with the evil"; "but in the three impure kelipos the little good in them is unified with the evil" — the good is turned into evil itself [31680/maamar_011 :: §2247–2310]. Kelipas nogah is "the translucent husk": the domain of the permitted but non-holy, which can be elevated (food, drink, the physical world used l'shem Shamayim), while the three impure kelipos are irredeemable and must be crushed. "The animal soul is from kelipas nogah" [31680/maamar_011 :: §3111], and the mitzvos "clothed themselves in physical things under the rule of kelipas nogah" — which is why refining the physical world is possible at all [31680/maamar_011 :: §2651].

Kelipah's mirror-image cosmology. "Elokim has made this corresponding to that" (Koheles 7:14): "just as there are the aspects of the four worlds (abi"a — Atzilus, Beriah, Yetzirah, Asiyah) and the ten sefiros in holiness (kedushah), so too there are the aspects of abi"a and a"s in kelipah" [31678/maamar_059 :: §548]. But the proportion is inverted: "in the sitra of kelipah it is the opposite: the Atzilus of kelipah is in the aspect of weakness and of diminished light"; "the lower one comes, the more the power and light of the kelipah intensify, and the greater the number" — in the Atzilus of kelipah "there illuminates only the aspect of za"t (the seven lower sefiros) of kelipah"; in Beriah "there is added the aspect of the chochmah-binah of kelipah" (Ammon and Moav); in Yetzirah "there is added the aspect of the Keter of kelipah"; and "in the Asiyah of kelipah there illuminates also the aspect of the Atik of kelipah, which is the delight of kelipah — which is coldness (kerirus)" [31678/maamar_059 :: §612–771].

The makkifim of kelipah. "In general, the aspect of the makifim (the encompassing lights) of kelipah is far worse than the aspect of the penimi (the inner lights) of kelipah": "honor, which is the aspect of the makif of kelipah, is a far harder kelipah than desire, which is penimi"; and "within the makifim themselves, the aspect of Atik is the hardest kelipah of all" [31678/maamar_059 :: §756–771]. Examples given: the kelipah of Amalek, "whose end is unto destruction" (Bamidbar 24:20), and the kelipah of contention and strife [31678/maamar_059 :: §780–786].

Key distinctions

Kelipas nogah vs. the three impure kelipos. In nogah the good is merely mixed with the evil — and therefore separable and elevatable; in the three impure kelipos the good is unified with the evil — irredeemable [31680/maamar_011 :: §2247–2310].

Kelipah vs. kedushah in the four worlds. Holiness is strongest in Atzilus (all ten sefiros, utter bitul) and weakens downward; kelipah is weakest in Atzilus (seven lower sefiros only, diminished light) and intensifies downward, gaining chochmah-binah in Beriah, keter in Yetzirah, and atik — the "delight of kelipah, which is coldness" — in Asiyah [31678/maamar_059 :: §612–771; 31680/maamar_011 :: Summary].

The two precedences of kelipah. Kelipah precedes the pri "in two meanings": precedence in time (the husk grows first — the nut's four husks, the pomegranate's peel, teven and kash before the wheat) and precedence in root and maalah (rooted in Tohu, which preceded Tikun — the light fallen "in the way of shevirah and nefilah") [57652/maamar_021 :: §121].

Related concepts

Sitra achra ("the other side"); Sheviras HaKeilim (the source of the kelipos); Tohu (their root); the Nefesh habehamis (the animal soul, from kelipas nogah); Sitra achra's makkifim (honor, garments); Kedushah (holiness — kelipah's mirror opposite); the 288 sparks (refined from the kelipos through birurim).

Sources