Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Ilah ve’alul
עילה ועלול
Cause and effect (ilah ve’alul)
Cause and effect: each level comes from the one above, as emotion from intellect; the cause is clothed in its effect, which bears a proportion to it and grasps it, unlike creation from nothing.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 1, ¶18Cause and effect is like an attribute of the heart coming into being from the intellect, and thought from the attribute: the very being of the intellect is held in the attribute, and the effect grasps its cause. The life-force from G‑d cannot come this way; He is sovev and is not held in the worlds, “there is none to compare to You.”
וענין עילה ועלול הוא כמו שמהשכל מתהוה מדה שבלב וממדה מחשבה כו׳ שמהות השכל נתפס בהמדה
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 32, ¶5The effect has proportion and relation to its cause, and each level changes the other: the cause, clothed in its effect, is no longer as it was. One who contemplates a love has his intellect filled with it and cannot then think other intellectual matters; so it is in all cause and effect.
שיש שינוי בהעילה ע״י שמתלבש בהעלול ואינו כמו שהיה במהותו קודם לזה
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 32, ¶10In cause and effect the flow of the cause is truly revealed in the effect: the effect knows something of its cause and is nullified to it through that knowledge. Creatures do not grasp at all the power that brings them from nothing to being, and this is why it is called sovev kol almin.
כי בהשתלשלות עילה ועלול הנה העלול יודע ומשיג איזה השגה בעילתו ובטל אצלו ע״י השגה זו
- Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 2, ¶2Drawing an effect from its cause does not bring a new thing into being, which only the Creator can do; it reveals what was hidden, as speech is revealed from hidden thought. Of this it says “Acquirer (Koneh) of all”: drawing things from concealment to revelation after they were already created from nothing.
אבל המשכת עילה ועלול הוא ענין גלוי ההעלם כמו גילוי הדבור מהעלם המחשבה
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 1, ¶7Had Or Ein Sof been drawn only by spreading and clothing, in the order of cause and effect, no creature could come to be as a thing of its own; all would stay nullified in their source, as the middos are included in the intellect before they are born from it.
לא היו יכולים הנבראי׳ להיות מאין ליש כלל רק היו בטלים במקורם ושרשן
Stated differently
Whether the very essence of the cause is clothed in the effect, or only its outer aspect, its inwardness staying bound to its own source
מפני שעצמות העילה ממש מתלבש בהעלול כמשל ההשתלשלות משכל למדותIn cause and effect the very essence of the cause is clothed in the effect, as the very being of the intellect is clothed in the middos; so the cause is affected and changed by its effect.
ולא כמו עילה ועלול שמהות ועצם העילה מתלבש בהעלולChochmah of Atzilus comes from the hidden Chochmah by a leap, like hair from the brain, and not like cause and effect, where the being and essence of the cause is clothed in the effect.
פנימית העילה הוא דבוק בעילתו רק חיצוניותו הוא הנמשך בההשפעה להעלולIn cause and effect the inwardness of the cause stays attached to its own cause; only its outer aspect is drawn into the effect, so at every step the outer aspect of the higher becomes the inner aspect of the lower.
כי הפנימית של העילה א״א להעלול לקבל אותה כלל מאחר שהוא רחוק בערך המעלה והמדרגהThe effect cannot receive the inwardness of its cause at all, being far below it; so from Chochmah only the outer aspect was drawn into Binah, while its inwardness is above hishtalshelus.
Which relation is called cause and effect: the effect encompassed by its cause and nullified in it, set against the cause hidden within an effect that is felt as its own (as intellect within the middos); or that clothing of intellect in the middos itself
הא׳ הנק׳ בלשון הפרדס בחי׳ עילה ועלול שכל עלול מוקף מעילתוOf two kinds of hishtalshelus, the one the Pardes calls cause and effect is where each effect is encompassed by its cause on every side and nullified to it, as a student’s grasp is held within his teacher’s. The second, where the effect comes out as its own revealed thing and the cause is clothed in it hidden, as intellect in the middos, is the reverse of it.
וענין עילה ועלול הוא כמו שמהשכל מתהוה מדה שבלב וממדה מחשבהCause and effect is the coming into being of the heart’s attribute from the intellect and of thought from the attribute, where the being of the intellect is held in the attribute.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 3, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Emor 1, ¶18Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 1, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 32, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 32, ¶10Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 2, ¶2Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 1, ¶7
Where it appears
In 135 paragraphs of 83 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 10 ¶2 ¶11 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 1 ¶18 ¶21 ¶22 ¶23 ¶30 ¶31
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 2 ¶5 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 6 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 3 ¶13 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 3 ¶2 ¶10 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 3 ¶2 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 7 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 8 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 4 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 3 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 1 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 22 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 28 ¶5 ¶6 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 29 ¶2 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 32 ¶3 ¶5 ¶6 ¶7 ¶8 ¶10 ¶17 ¶18 ¶19 ¶22 ¶34 ¶35 ¶38
- Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 4 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 6 ¶30
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 7 ¶6
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 1 ¶7 ¶13
- Torah Ohr, Vayeishev 5 ¶3
- Torah Ohr, Yisro 7 ¶17 ¶44
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 18 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Behar 2 ¶12 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 2 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 33 ¶2 ¶4
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 4 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 2 ¶19
- Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 2 ¶5 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 3 ¶2 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 2 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 5 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8 ¶48
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 39 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 3 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 9 ¶1
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 8 ¶6 ¶8 ¶13 ¶31 ¶33 ¶36
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 6 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 7 ¶7 ¶13 ¶15
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 10 ¶2
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 2 ¶6
- Torah Ohr, Vayeishev 2 ¶19
- Torah Ohr, Vayishlach 5 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 2 ¶8 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 4 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 2 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 12 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 17 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 11 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 30 ¶12
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 15 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Emor 6 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 1 ¶15 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 6 ¶2 ¶3 ¶10 ¶22
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 3 ¶5 ¶6 ¶7 ¶8 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 1 ¶5 ¶7
- Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 2 ¶1 ¶2
- Torah Ohr, Yisro 6 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 6 ¶4
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 7 ¶18 ¶19
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 2 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 5 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 1 ¶22
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 5 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 6 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 13 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 17 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 31 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 11 ¶1
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 14 ¶15
- Torah Ohr, Noach 4 ¶5
- Torah Ohr, Yisro 4 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 4 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2 ¶35
- Torah Ohr, Vayechi 4 ¶13
- Torah Ohr, Vayeitzei 4 ¶5
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 5 ¶15
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 7 ¶8
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 13 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Pinchas 4 ¶25
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 10 ¶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.