Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Hamtakah
דינים והמתקתם
Dinim and their sweetening (hamtakah)
Sweetening of dinim (judgments): harsh Gevuros are softened by Chesed and mercy drawn to them from above, or through their root, as “dinim are sweetened only in their root.”
The word דינים also means laws or rulings, as in the Gemara’s rulings in Matot 6:4, and דין is the judgment of Rosh Hashanah. As a Kabbalistic term, dinim are the harsh outcomes of Gevurah, and “sweetening” (המתקה, ממתיק, נמתקים) is what softens them.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 7, ¶2The purpose of man is “to turn bitter into sweet” (Zohar). This is possible because dinim are sweetened in their root: the root that gives life to every evil and judgment is good, like the harlot in the Zohar’s parable of the king’s son, whose whole wish is that he not listen to her. Only as it descends does it become real evil and harsh judgment.
והענין הוא כי הדינין נמתקים בשרשן. דהנה כל רעות ודינים ר״ל שנתהוו בעולם שרשם ומקורם המחיה אותם הוא טוב
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 4, ¶1Salt sweetens meat though it has no taste itself: it comes from the Gevuros of Abba, which become the Chasadim of Imma. Its root is the botzina dekardinusa, the kav hamiddah that measures every flow of light. Being the root of all Gevuros, salt on the table sweetens dinim and shields from suffering.
כי מפני שהוא שרש כל הגבורות ע״כ הוא ממתיק הדינים שאין הגבורות נמתקין אלא בשרשן
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4, ¶1Rosh Hashanah now depends on the arousal from below and is a day of judgment. Its reading, the binding of Yitzchak by Avraham, is the Chasadim of Avraham prevailing over the Gevuros of Yitzchak, the sweetening of judgment; yet it is not like the first day of creation, which was Chesed alone.
שהוא סוד התגברות החסדים דאברהם על הגבורות דיצחק והמתקת הדין
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 15, ¶25In a person: the evil inclination comes from the dross of the Gevuros. One who conquers it and sweetens it, so that it is nullified to the good inclination, which is from love and Chesed, draws down the sweetening of the Gevuros from “slow to anger and abounding in kindness.”
שעי״ז שכובש את היצה״ר שהוא מבחי׳ סיגי הגבורות וממתיקו שיהי׳ בטל ליצ״ט שהוא מבחי׳ אהבה וחסד
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 2, ¶6When David was among enemies he sang of the Torah’s laws as the life of all the worlds: dinim are sweetened only in their root, the root of the worlds’ coming into being from absolute nothing. Drawing the Torah’s light below, all who oppose it, since they receive their life from it, are nullified.
ואין דינים נמתקין אלא בשרשן דהיינו בשרש התהוות העולמות כשנתהווה ונמשך מאין המוחלט
Stated differently
Which root is meant in “dinim are sweetened only in their root”
ושרש של בחי׳ מלח הוא בחי׳ בוצינא דקרדוניתא שהוא בחי׳ קו המדהSalt is rooted in the Gevuros of Abba and, above that, in the botzina dekardinusa, the kav hamiddah; because it is the root of all Gevuros, salt on the table sweetens dinim.
והענין הוא ששרש הרע המחייהו הוא טובThe root that gives life to all evils and dinim is good: their source above is good, and they become evil and harsh only as they descend.
כ״א ע״י שרשה של הנה״ב שמקור חוצבה הוא מחיות הקדש שבמרכבה פני אריה פני שורThe animal soul can be subdued under the G‑dly soul only through its own root, the holy chayos of the Chariot, the face of the lion and the face of the ox; hence the two blessings before the Shema.
דהיינו בשרש התהוות העולמות כשנתהווה ונמשך מאין המוחלטThe root is the root of the worlds’ coming into being, as they are drawn from absolute nothing; the Torah drawn below as their life nullifies what opposes it.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Chukas 7, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 4, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 5, ¶24Likkutei Torah, Emor 6, ¶16Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 15, ¶25Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 2, ¶6Torah Ohr, Vayeira 2, ¶12
Where it appears
In 88 paragraphs of 58 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 1 ¶20
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 6 ¶4 ¶8 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4 ¶1 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 41 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 4 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 1 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 21 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 25 ¶4 ¶6 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 33 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Sukkos 1 ¶6
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 4 ¶4 ¶40
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 4 ¶4 ¶5 ¶15
- Likkutei Torah, Tazria 3 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 6 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 7 ¶6 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 5 ¶1 ¶24
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2 ¶22
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 6 ¶9 ¶14 ¶15 ¶16 ¶17 ¶27
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 15 ¶25
- Likkutei Torah, Behar 1 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 4 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Metzora 1 ¶5 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 23 ¶11
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 2 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 1 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 3 ¶15
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 3 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 28 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 21 ¶2 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 2 ¶3
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 13 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 7 ¶26
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 4 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 6 ¶8 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 5 ¶49 ¶50 ¶51 ¶53 ¶67
- Torah Ohr, Bo 1 ¶6
- Torah Ohr, Bo 2 ¶1 ¶9
- Torah Ohr, Va’eira 4 ¶11 ¶26
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 2 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 6 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 32 ¶29 ¶31
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 4 ¶1
- Torah Ohr, Va’eira 5 ¶12 ¶24 ¶43
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 19 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 7 ¶2 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 10 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6 ¶26
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 3 ¶42
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 2 ¶33
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8 ¶38
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 3 ¶22
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 3 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Tazria 5 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 4 ¶26 ¶27
- Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 1 ¶11 ¶39
- Torah Ohr, Vayeira 2 ¶12
- Torah Ohr, Chayei Sarah 1 ¶7
- Torah Ohr, Vayishlach 2 ¶2
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.