Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Tal
טל
Dew (tal), as a level
Dew as a level: an arousal from above that no arousal from below reaches, so sin never withholds it; drawn from the “crystal dew” (tala debedolcha) of the hidden brain, above hishtalshelus.
The word טל is also plain dew (the manna lay on it; we pray for it). It is the level when the text writes בחי׳ טל, טלא דבדולחא or טל אורות, reads verses such as אהיה כטל לישראל, שראשי נמלא טל or תזל כטל אמרתי, or sets dew against rain as arousal from above against arousal from below.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 27, ¶9Dew is never withheld: Eliyahu stopped the rain but not the dew, because dew comes from a place far above hishtalshelus, from which the manna came. It is tala debedolcha, one of the seven tikkunim of the Gulgalta, like the moisture in the brain that houses the intellect: the moisture of the hidden brain (Mocha Stima’ah). There sin does not hold it back, for it does not depend on arousal from below; yet for it to shine within the worlds there must first be completeness below.
והיינו מפני שהטל יורד ממקום גבוה שלמעלה מעלה מהשתלשלות
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 1, ¶25Rain is drawn through arousal from below; G‑d’s answer, “I will be like the dew,” is a level too high for the deeds of those below to arouse. Yet once their arousal comes like rain, the dew is drawn of itself (Sukkos). It comes from the lights called tala debedolcha, above the source of the souls and the mazalos; what comes through the mazal is only “remnants of the dew,” while the resurrection will come through the dew of lights itself.
טל הוא בחי׳ ומדרגה גבוה מאד נעלה מה שא״א להמשיך ע״י אתעדל״ת
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 2, ¶3The manna came down through the dew, a “dew of lights,” drawn from lights above vessels, above Tohu and Tikkun (like Akudim above Nekudim). So it had no waste, unlike food rooted in the shattering: it is tala debedolcha, clothed in the hidden brain above the Chochmah of Atzilus, drawn only through hairs and not through vessels.
כי טל אורות שנמשך מבחי׳ אורות שלמעלה מהכלים וא״כ הוא למעלה מתהו ותיקון
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 7, ¶18Other flows reach this world from the outer dimension of the worlds, through the mazalos and their ministers; the manna came from the level of dew, a very high place. Since it is above the chain of cause and effect, it comes down only through “drops of the night,” the level of hairs.
משא״כ המן הוא נמשך ממקום גבוה מאד מבחי׳ טל
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 3, ¶27In Torah study, rain rises from below like mist: learning for one’s own sake, to grasp the law. Dew comes down from above: when from that one comes to study for its own sake, “G‑d reads and repeats opposite him,” and the word of G‑d is revealed in the soul as it is above, as at Sinai.
אבל מה שאח״כ מתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה הוא בחי׳ הנק׳ טל
Stated differently
How the dew of lights came down into the manna
אלא ודאי היינו ע״י התלבשות בסדר ההשתלשלות ממדרגה למדרגה שמי השמים לבחי׳ שמיםThe dew of lights is above even the vessels of the ten Sefiros of Atzilus and could not come down as it is; it came down by clothing itself in the order of hishtalshelus, level by level, from the heavens of heavens to the heavens and then to earth, so the manna became physical below.
שנמשך ממקום עליון שלמעלה מהשתלשלות עילה ועלול שלכך נמשך רק בבחי׳ שערותOther flows reach this world through the outer dimension of the worlds, the mazalos and their ministers; the manna came from the dew, a place above the chain of cause and effect, and so came down only through “drops of the night,” the level of hairs.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 26, ¶27Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 27, ¶9Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 1, ¶25Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 3, ¶27Likkutei Torah, Eikev 2, ¶3Torah Ohr, Beshalach 7, ¶18Torah Ohr, Vayakhel 2, ¶4
Where it appears
In 67 paragraphs of 41 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 6 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 6 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 1 ¶1 ¶3 ¶4 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 4 ¶1 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 7 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 26 ¶26 ¶27 ¶29
- Torah Ohr, Vayakhel 2 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Behar 3 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 9 ¶1 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 12 ¶9 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 9 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 24 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, V’Zos HaBerachah 6 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 2 ¶3 ¶9 ¶14 ¶38 ¶40 ¶41
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 1 ¶25 ¶26 ¶36
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 3 ¶2 ¶27 ¶39 ¶43 ¶46
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 27 ¶9 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Tazria 4 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 2 ¶6
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 7 ¶12 ¶15 ¶16 ¶17 ¶18
- Torah Ohr, Yisro 7 ¶47
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 3 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Behaaloscha 3 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 5 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 3 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 7 ¶33
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 1 ¶15
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 9 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 3 ¶7 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 4 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 7 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 5 ¶22
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 4 ¶12 ¶13
- Torah Ohr, Beshalach 8 ¶19
- Torah Ohr, Toldos 5 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 3 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 4 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 17 ¶25
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 6 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 3 ¶34
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.