Sitra Achra (סטרא אחרא) — The Other Side

Core definition

The Sitra Achra — Aramaic for "the Other Side" — is the realm of kelipah (the "husks"): the forces opposed to holiness, the domain of evil and impurity, the "chitzonim" (the outer ones). It has no independent being: its entire nourishment is only from holy light, drawn down through sin. Yet paradoxically, its subjugation is the very purpose of creation — "when the sitra achra is subdued, the Holy One, blessed be He, is exalted in all the worlds" [15893/maamar_021 :: Overview; 58835/maamar_020 :: Overview].

How the Rebbeim develop it

The corpus opens the question with the sitra achra's hatred: it seduces man with toil, then prosecutes him and demands judgment — the strange economy by which the tempter becomes the accuser [15893/maamar_021 :: Overview]. The answer: the chitzonim's entire nourishment is only from holy light. The proof is eschatological — in the future, "uvala hamaves lanetzach" (death shall be swallowed forever) and "es ruach hatumah a'avir min ha'aretz" (I shall remove the spirit of impurity from the earth): the holy parts will be clarified ("chayil bala vayki'enu" — the swallowed wealth disgorged), and the chitzonim will be nullified of themselves [15893/maamar_021 :: Overview]. Through sin, holy light flows to the sitra achra — the Zohar on "lesusati b'richvei Pharaoh" (the left chariots in the sitra achra's secret) — as Adam is aleph-dam, blood the soul, the Divine vitality clothed in the sefiros' breaths is "spilled" to the other side's Adam [15893/maamar_021 :: Overview].

Yet the sitra achra's subjugation is creation's purpose: "when the sitra achra is subdued, the Holy One, blessed be He, is exalted in all the worlds" — "in all the worlds" meaning the aspect of light that is in all worlds equally, the sovev kol almin, above the light that became a source to the worlds [58835/maamar_020 :: Overview]. For "the light's advantage is specifically from the darkness": through the sitra achra's refinement specifically is drawn the light's advantage — that the revelation shall illuminate below, in all worlds equally [58835/maamar_020 :: Overview]. This was the avodah of the Beis HaMikdash — its main was the refinements' avodah, iskafya and ishapcha — and it is the avodah of the private Mikdash within each Jew: the nefesh habehamis included in the nefesh ha'Elokis's flashes of fire, "with all your heart" — even the evil inclination having love of Divinity [58835/maamar_020 :: Overview].

The cosmic scope: souls and sparks fell to the seventy ministers of nogah; the nine lower aspects of Malchus descended into the kelipos — the good-and-evil mixture. Every exile's intent is the gathering of the sparks until the refinements' completion: "lo galu Yisrael ela k'dei she'yisafu aleihem gerim" (Israel was exiled only so that converts would join them) — the sparks clarified in avodah [15893/maamar_021 :: Overview]. In the soul's own avodah, the goal is formulated as "le'iskafya sitra achra ve'is'hapcha chashocha linehora" — to subdue the other side and transform darkness into light [58837/maamar_047 :: Overview].

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Kelipah, the Chitzonim, Nogah, the 288 Sparks, Iskafya and Is'hapcha, Teshuvah, the Beis HaMikdash.

Sources