Klipot — The Husks of Impurity
Hebrew: קְלִיפּוֹת
Klipot (singular: klipah) — literally “husks” or “shells” — is the Kabbalistic term for the forces of spiritual impurity and concealment that oppose holiness.
The Metaphor
As a fruit has an outer shell that conceals the inner fruit, so too spiritual impurity conceals the inner Divine light. The klipot are not intrinsically evil; they serve a function — they are the forces that make the concealment of Divinity possible, enabling free will and the spiritual work of birurim (sifting/elevating).
Three Types of Klipot
The Three Completely Impure Klipot
These represent complete spiritual impurity — no spark of holiness resides within them:
- Ruach S’arah — “spirit of storm”
- Anan Gadol — “great cloud”
- Eish Mitlakahat — “flashing fire”
These correspond to the three completely forbidden categories of sin: those that carry the death penalty, karet (spiritual excision), and the cardinal transgressions.
Klipat Noga (קְלִיפַּת נוֹגַהּ) — The Glowing Husk
The intermediate klipah — containing both good and evil. It is from this level that the nefesh ha-behemit (animal soul) draws its vitality.
Klipat noga is the realm of the neutral — pleasures, pursuits, and activities that are not forbidden but are also not intrinsically holy. Through intentional mitzvah-orientation, activities from this realm can be elevated to holiness. Through sin, they sink to complete impurity.
The Spiritual Geography
The Alter Rebbe maps the inner spiritual universe:
- Kedushah (holiness): the three impure klipot → klipat noga → kedushah
- The human being is positioned at the boundary of klipat noga and kedushah
- Every act either elevates klipat noga toward kedushah or sinks it toward the three impure klipot
Evil as Concealment
Chabad’s approach to evil is fundamentally different from dualism: the klipot are not independent negative forces but concealments of Divinity. They have no independent existence — they derive all their vitality from “stealing” sparks of holiness (nitzotzot).
The tikkun (repair) of the klipot is accomplished through:
- Fulfilling mitzvot (which liberate trapped sparks)
- Torah study (which illuminates even dark places)
- Teshuva (which transforms the very vitality of the klipot into holiness)
Sources
- Tanya, Chapters 6-8
- Alter Rebbe
- Torah Or, Likkutei Torah — many discourses on birurim