Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Tehiru ilaah
טהירו עלאה
The supernal brightness (tehiru ilaah)
Tehiru ilaah (“supernal brightness”): an illumination from Or Ein Sof in which, the Zohar says, the King “engraved engravings,” forming Keser; also the root of the soul called “pure.”
The word Tehiru is Aramaic for brightness or clarity (Targum renders noon as tihara); the maamarim tie it to tahor, “pure,” as in “like the very heavens for purity.” It is not ritual purity.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2, ¶16On the Zohar’s “at the start of the King’s authority He engraved engravings in the supernal brightness”: tehiru ilaah is a revelation of an illumination from Or Ein Sof, named from “like the very heavens for purity.” The coming into being of Atik and Arich, Keser, from it is called engraving, to show that Keser is wholly one with Or Ein Sof, far above the other Sefiros of Atzilus. Yet the engraving is only in the illumination drawn from Or Ein Sof, not in His essence.
פי׳ טהירו עילאה הוא בחי׳ התגלות הארה מא״ס ב״ה מלשון כעצם השמים לטוהר
- Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 6, ¶9“Like the very heavens for purity”: the letters of the Name Mah, Zeir Anpin, reach tehiru ilaah. According to Emek HaMelech this is above Adam Kadmon; according to the Kabbalah of Rabbi Chaim Vital it is Adam Kadmon, since their end is wedged in their beginning.
באים לטהירו עלאה שהוא לפי פי׳ עמק המלך למעלה מבחי׳ א״ק
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8, ¶24All the hishtalshelus just described, from Gulgalta and the hairs down to Abba, is only from the last yud of the Name Sag in tehiru ilaah (citing Emek HaMelech). All the worlds come from a single thought, like a drop in the ocean; the source of every drawing-down and revelation is Malchus of Ein Sof.
אך הנה כל בחי׳ ההשתלשלות הנ״ל הוא רק מבחינת יוד אחרונה דשם ס״ג שבטהירו עילאה
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 5, ¶23“Like the very heavens for purity” is the refinement of the Name Ban until it is included and raised into tehiru ilaah. So too “one who comes to purify” refines Malchus, so that its end is wedged in its beginning, in tehiru ilaah that is from Malchus of Ein Sof: “I am first and I am last” alike.
שיהיה בבחי׳ נעוץ סופן בתחלתן דהיינו בבחי׳ טהירו עילאה שממל׳ דא״ס
- Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 5, ¶16“The soul You gave me is pure”: pure means brightness of light (Mishpatim 5:15). The soul’s root is drawn from tehiru ilaah, the “ayin” wholly one with G‑dliness, not a separate yesh at all. Afterward it descends into Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah: “You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me.” In its root it is above the Throne and the creation of those worlds.
וזהו טהורה היא שנמשכה מבחי׳ טהירו עלאה שבזוה״ק
Stated differently
Where the soul’s root called “pure” stands, and whether its brightness is a yesh: the vessels of Atzilus, or the ayin before hishtalshelus
אלא שמהות הזה הוא בהיר מאד וזך והיינו בחי׳ כלים דאצילותThe soul is “pure” (as in “the very heavens for purity,” brightness) in the brightness of the light in Atzilus. That name fits only something that is a yesh with some substance, though very bright and clear: the vessels of Atzilus. “Holy,” separate from every definition, is Or Ein Sof itself.
ששרשה מבחינת פנימית העולמות היינו מפנימית הכלים כמאמר טהורה היא ששרשה מבחינת טהירו עלאהThe Divine soul’s mesirus nefesh comes from contemplating the essence of Or Ein Sof, because its root is the inner dimension of the worlds, the inner dimension of the vessels: “it is pure,” rooted in tehiru ilaah.
וזהו בחי׳ הבהירות דהיינו שאינו יש ודבר בפ״ע כללThe soul’s root, drawn from tehiru ilaah, is the “ayin” wholly one with G‑dliness; that is its brightness: it is not a yesh or a thing in itself at all. Only afterward does it descend into Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah to be a yesh.
לשרש נשמתם שהיא בחי׳ טהורה היא טהירו עלאה שלפני ההשתלשלותSpeech in other languages, refined through prayer with mesirus nefesh, is raised to the root of the soul, the level “it is pure,” tehiru ilaah that precedes hishtalshelus.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2, ¶16Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 5, ¶15Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 5, ¶16Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 6, ¶9Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8, ¶24Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 5, ¶23Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 1, ¶8
Where it appears
In 22 paragraphs of 16 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Devarim 1 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 8 ¶24
- Likkutei Torah, Tazria 6 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 15 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 5 ¶6 ¶14
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 1 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 3 ¶6
- Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 5 ¶15 ¶16 ¶30
- Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2 ¶35 ¶40
- Likkutei Torah, Bechukosai 2 ¶16 ¶29
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 5 ¶23 ¶24
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 21 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 36 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 7 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 32 ¶39
- Torah Ohr, Mishpatim 6 ¶9
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.