Yosher (יושר) — uprightness; the "straight" order

Core definition

Yosher ("straightness," "uprightness") is one of the two fundamental orders in Kabbalah — the igulim (circles) and the yosher. Where igulim are concentric, undifferentiated, and hierarchical only by proximity to the center, yosher is the "straight" arrangement: ten sefiros ordered as a man — head above, feet below, right and left — with beginning and end, higher and lower, in which the lights flow from one to another. In the maamarim yosher also names the soul's direct, unmediated drawing from the Divine: "והאלקים עשה את האדם ישר" (Koheles 7:29) — "Elokim made man upright."

How the Rebbeim develop it

The structural distinction: "'their beginning is wedged in their end, and their end in their beginning' — belongs only in the aspect of the ten sefirot of yosher, in which there are beginning and end, and all nine sefirot bestow in the aspect of malchus" — "malchus is the end of all levels, which becomes a source for the worlds below it" [31651/maamar_002 :: [עמוד רנה], עב׳ 655–657]. "Unlike the aspect of the igulim, in which there is no aspect of beginning and end at all, and the sefirot do not receive from one another" — "they are all in the aspect of ascent upward" — so that "the matter of 'their beginning is wedged in their end' is not fitting in them... for they are all in the aspect of ketarim" [31651/maamar_002 :: [עמוד רנה], עב׳ 660–666]. Yosher is thus the order of hishtalshelus proper: graded descent, reception and bestowal, each level receiving from the one above. The Etz Chaim's placement of the kelipos is given accordingly: "the standing and station of the kelipos (husks) is between the igulim (circles) and the yosher (straightness), and between the makif and the penimi — their backs to the makif, their faces to the penimi" [15962/maamar_016 :: עב׳ 542–544] — the husks stationed precisely at the seam between the undifferentiated circle-order and the differentiated straight-order.

As an ethical-cosmological term, yosher describes the soul's origin: "והאלקים עשה את האדם ישר" — "man" referring to the Divine soul ("אדם אתם" — "you are called man," Yevamos 61a); "And Elokim made him in the aspect of uprightness — not through concealing intermediaries, but 'upright He made him,' from His very Self, blessed be He, in the aspect of 'אדם אדמה לעליון' ('man — I shall be likened to the Supernal')" [15911/maamar_001 :: עב׳ 247–249]. "Therefore the veils (parsa'ot) do not interrupt or conceal the soul at all; it is drawn in the aspect of uprightness, without change of essence" — "like a thing given from hand to hand, in which there is no essential change" [15911/maamar_001 :: עב׳ 253–254]. The soul's yosher is its straight, unbent line from the Divine — no refracting intermediaries, no change of substance in transit.

The two senses are one: yosher is straightness against curvature — the direct line of descent (the kav in its straight drawing) against the circles' encompassing equality; the soul drawn "upright" from His very Self against the veils' concealment.

Key distinctions

• Yosher vs. igulim: yosher — beginning and end, higher and lower, the sefiros receiving from one another, "their beginning wedged in their end"; igulim — no beginning/end, no reception, "all in the aspect of ketarim," all in ascent [31651/maamar_002 :: [עמוד רנה], עב׳ 655–666].
• Makif vs. penimi at the seam: the kelipos stand "between the igulim and the yosher, and between the makif and the penimi — their backs to the makif, their faces to the penimi" [15962/maamar_016 :: עב׳ 542–544].
• Uprightness vs. intermediaries: the soul is made "upright... not through concealing intermediaries, but from His very Self" — "without change of essence," like a thing given hand to hand [15911/maamar_001 :: עב׳ 249–254].

Related concepts

• Igulim: the circle-order — concentric, undifferentiated [31651/maamar_002 :: [עמוד רנה], עב׳ 660–666].
• Kav: the straight line drawn after the tzimtzum, the root of the yosher-order.
• Adam (the supernal man): "אדם אדמה לעליון" — the yosher-order's human form [15911/maamar_001 :: עב׳ 249].
• Chelek Elokah: the soul's portion-status, drawn "upright" without intermediaries [15911/maamar_001 :: עב׳ 247–254].

Sources

• 31651/maamar_002, [עמוד רנה] (עב׳ 655–666): "their beginning is wedged in their end" only in the ten sefiros of yosher, which have beginning and end; malchus as the end becoming the source for BY"A; the igulim — no beginning/end, no reception, "all in the aspect of ketarim"; the or chozer of yosher.
• 15962/maamar_016, עב׳ 542–544: the kelipos' station "between the igulim and the yosher, and between the makif and the penimi — their backs to the makif, their faces to the penimi" (Etz Chaim).
• 15911/maamar_001, עב׳ 247–254: "והאלקים עשה את האדם ישר" — the Divine soul made "upright... not through concealing intermediaries, but from His very Self"; "אדם אדמה לעליון"; the veils not concealing the soul — "drawn in the aspect of uprightness, without change of essence"; "like a thing given from hand to hand."