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Dibbur elyon

דבור עליון

The supernal speech (dibbur elyon)

Malchus of Atzilus as G‑d’s “speech”: as a king rules by his word, through it, in the Ten Utterances, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah are made and live; it carries the higher Sefiros yet conceals them.

The word דבור is first a person’s speech, and the maamarim use it as the analogy (“from my flesh I see G‑d”): words carry an idea out to another and yet hide it. “Supernal speech” (also דבר ה׳, “the word of Havayah”) is the thing compared, Malchus of Atzilus. עשרת הדברות are the Ten Commandments, a different matter, though Chukat 2:1 relates the two.

Where it’s explained

  1. Likkutei Torah, Tzav 12, ¶1Malchus of Atzilus is the supernal speech, “the end of all levels”: “by the word of Havayah the heavens were made.” The Ten Utterances are drawn from the Ten Sefiros of Atzilus and clothed in letters of speech, and, like a person’s words, which hold the idea yet hide it from a child, the speech covers the light drawn into it.הנה ים סוף הוא בחי׳ מלכות דאצילות שהיא בחי׳ דבור העליון שהדבור הוא סופא דכל דרגין
  2. Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 7, ¶8Malchus is called speech because a king governs his kingdom by his word. Only a contracted glow of Chochmah is clothed in the letters of speech that are revealed in Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah; this is the diminution of the moon, and in the Time to Come the source of speech will rise to receive from the higher Chochmah itself.שם ב״ן הוא בחי׳ מל׳ דאצילות שהיא בחי׳ דבור העליון כמ״ש באשר דבר מלך שלטון
  3. Likkutei Torah, Shabbos Shuvah 2, ¶3That angels and souls are divided into many kinds, no two alike, comes from the supernal speech, because it gives them life only as a King, and there is no king without a people of separate beings. Yet a bittul is drawn into them from Havayah, so that while separate they bow before Him.ושרש ומקור חיות הנבראים להיות התחלקות כל הבחינות הללו הוא דיבור העליון והיינו לפי שאינו ממשיך חיות להם אלא בבחי׳ מלך
  4. Likkutei Torah, Masei 3, ¶3The supernal speech is also called “Adam,” the one who speaks. Where it is revealed, in the holy worlds, the souls and angels that live from it are nullified to it; when it is drawn down to give life to Asiyah, where the kelipos conceal, the speech is in exile, “like a ewe before her shearers, silent,” until one can say “my strength and the might of my hand.”וכ״ז כשהדבור בגילוי והיינו בעולמות דקדושה נשמות ומלאכים המקבלים חיות מדבר ה׳ והם בטלים לבחינת דבור עליון
  5. Likkutei Torah, Tzav 12, ¶18To created beings the supernal speech appears through many contractions, as if they were separate. In the Time to Come, “all flesh shall see that the mouth of Havayah has spoken”: the speech will be revealed as it is with Him, not separate like human speech but wholly one with His essence, even after creation.שיהי׳ גילוי בחי׳ הדבור עליון כמו שהוא אצלו ית׳ שאין הדבור היוצא ממנו בבחי׳ דבר נפרד כמו דבור האדם

Stated differently

Whether the supernal speech is the revealed world (alma de’isgalya) or, as the “sea,” the hidden world (alma de’iskasya)

Torah Ohr, Yisro 6, ¶3ובחי׳ דבור נק׳ עלמא דאתגלייא. ונק׳ אותיות לשון התגלות

Above there is thought, the hidden worlds, and speech, which is called the revealed world; its letters (osiyos) are named for revelation.

Likkutei Torah, Shemini 2, ¶3שהמל׳ נק׳ עלמא דאתגלייא בחינת הדיבור כו׳ משא״כ בחי׳ ים עלמא דאתכסיא מחשבה

Malchus, speech, is called the revealed world; the “sea” is the hidden world, thought.

Likkutei Torah, Tzav 12, ¶2הדבור והאותיות דמל׳ דאצי׳ הם מעלימין ומצפינין על החב״ד והמדות דאצילות המתלבשים בהדבור

Because the wisdom of Beriah comes only from the supernal speech, the speech and letters of Malchus of Atzilus hide the Chabad and middos of Atzilus clothed in them, so only a faint glow reaches Beriah. This is the “sea” (Yam Suf, Malchus of Atzilus), called the hidden world; the splitting of the sea is the hidden becoming revealed.

At what level “speech” and the Ten Utterances stand

Likkutei Torah, Tzav 12, ¶1וכל העשרה מאמרות הם המשכות מע״ס דאצילות ומתלבשים באותיות הדבור

Speech is Malchus of Atzilus; the Ten Utterances are drawn from all ten Sefiros of Atzilus and clothed in its letters of speech.

Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 3, ¶6ובהשתלשל לדיבור עליון נעשה עשרה מאמרות

All is one simple will; as it descends into the supernal speech it becomes Ten Utterances, as human speech divides into details while thought holds them all in one.

Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2, ¶1עשרה מאמרות הם בחכמה דאצי׳ וכנ״ל בשם הזהר בראשית (דכ״ב). ועשרת הדברות הוא בבינה

“Saying” (amirah) is Chochmah, above speech (dibbur), which is from Binah. The Ten Utterances are in the Chochmah of Atzilus, and the Ten Commandments (dibros), being revelation, are in Binah.

Main sources

Likkutei Torah, Tzav 12, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Tzav 12, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Tzav 12, ¶18Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 7, ¶8Likkutei Torah, Kedoshim 1, ¶10Likkutei Torah, Masei 3, ¶3Likkutei Torah, Shabbos Shuvah 2, ¶3Torah Ohr, Yisro 6, ¶3

Where it appears

In 727 paragraphs of 272 maamarim.

Written with AI from the paragraphs of Torah Ohr and Likkutei Torah, each entry checked by a second AI reader and every Hebrew quote checked by code; not yet reviewed by a person. Our English: CC BY-NC 4.0.

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