Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Techeles
תכלת
The sky-blue (techeles)
The sky-blue of tzitzis, from kilayon, consuming: like the blue flame that consumes its wick, it is the nullification of created being, drawn from Abba into Malchus; it repels evil and draws awe.
The word Techeles is also the plain blue-dyed wool of the tzitzis thread and of the Mishkan’s curtains. Where the text says “the level of techeles” (בחי׳ תכלת) or “the blue light” (נהורא תכלא), it means the spiritual level these stand for.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 12, ¶2Of the four colors in a flame, the lowest, “the blue light,” grips the wick; it turns blue because something not of its kind is being consumed (kilayon) in it. So Malchus of Atzilus is called the blue light: it becomes a consuming for Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, which are nullified to it and included in it.
וכך מל׳ דאצילות נק׳ נהורא תכלא שנעשית כליון לבי״ע שבטלים אליה ונכללים בה
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 11, ¶8“Techeles resembles the sea, the sea the sky, and the sky the Throne of Glory,” His kingship: the worlds receive life from it only by being nullified to it. Since they are created as yesh, like a flame gripping a physical thing, this spreading of life from His Malchus is called techeles, the drawing of nullification so that the yesh is nullified; it comes from the hairs, above Chochmah.
בשם תכלת שהוא המשכת הביטול להיות היש בטל
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 12, ¶8Techeles is from the mochin of Abba and the white from the mochin of Imma. Because techeles is so high, from Abba, Chochmah, the level of nullification, it cannot come down in the time of exile; so today there is no techeles.
ולפי שתכלת מוחין דאבא ולבן מוחין דאימא לכן בזה הזמן אין תכלת
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 1, ¶32Encompassing lights repel and blind the outside forces. The last of them, the makif of Malchus, is techeles, the hardest of all, since Malchus descends into Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, where they could draw from the flow: techeles “consumes and destroys.” The techeles threads of tzitzis draw from it inward, as awe in the soul.
אך המקיף האחרון דמל׳ הוא בחי׳ תכלת שהוא קשה מכולן
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8, ¶42Citing Pri Etz Chaim, in tzitzis the techeles is higher than the white. Techeles consumes evil and drives it off, “you shall not stray,” the prohibitions; the white is “so that you remember and do all My mitzvos,” the positive commands. A higher revelation comes through driving off the kelipos.
ועד״ז מצינו במצות ציצית דהתכלת גבוה מהלבן
Stated differently
Whether techeles stands for awe, or for love in which the soul expires
והתכלת מורה על הפחד שבלבוThe techeles shows the dread in a person’s heart; citing Pri Etz Chaim, the white is drawn from Binah, source of love like flames of fire, and the techeles from Abba: Chochmah is the higher awe, and Abba, who “founded the daughter,” the lower awe.
אמנם ענין חוטי הציצית דתכלת הם המשכות בבחי׳ פנימיות מבחי׳ תכלת הנ״ל והוא המשכת בחי׳ יראהThe techeles threads of tzitzis draw inward from the encompassing techeles, and this is the drawing of awe into the soul; the higher awe is the techeles, Gevurah of Abba.
שהיריעות תכלת וארגמן תכלת לשון כלות הנפש בבחי׳ אהבהAfter standing in awe and nullifying one’s will (the standing beams), one comes to walking, the curtains of the Mishkan, of techeles and purple: techeles means the soul’s expiring (kelos hanefesh) in love.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Shelach 11, ¶7Likkutei Torah, Shelach 11, ¶8Likkutei Torah, Shelach 12, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Shelach 12, ¶8Likkutei Torah, Shelach 13, ¶7Likkutei Torah, Shelach 13, ¶10Likkutei Torah, Korach 1, ¶29Likkutei Torah, Korach 1, ¶32
Where it appears
In 60 paragraphs of 26 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 5 ¶32
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 1 ¶2 ¶3 ¶27 ¶29 ¶30 ¶31 ¶32 ¶33 ¶34 ¶37 ¶39 ¶40 ¶41
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 2 ¶22 ¶29 ¶30
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8 ¶40 ¶42
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 2 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 9 ¶3 ¶4 ¶5 ¶15 ¶19 ¶21
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 13 ¶5 ¶6 ¶7 ¶10 ¶11 ¶15 ¶16
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 9 ¶14 ¶15
- Torah Ohr, Vayakhel 1 ¶21
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 15 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Eikev 2 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 3 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 7 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 1 ¶17
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 11 ¶7 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 12 ¶2 ¶7 ¶8 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 17 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 5 ¶43 ¶44 ¶68 ¶69
- Torah Ohr, Bereishis 9 ¶3
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 2 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 4 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 16 ¶10
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 4 ¶10
- Torah Ohr, Chayei Sarah 4 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 2 ¶12
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 10 ¶40
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.