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Domem, tzomeach, chai, medaber

דומם צומח חי מדבר

Inanimate, growing, living, speaking (domem, tzomeach, chai, medaber)

The four kinds of creation in every world: inanimate, growing, living, speaking. Each includes those below; in the soul they are letters, middos, intellect and its source. In their roots the lower are higher.

The word Each word also has a plain sense: מדבר is also “wilderness” (midbar, as in במדבר), חי is “alive” and also a name of Yesod, and דומם and צומח are also used loosely for silence and growth. They mean the four kinds when they appear together (דצח״מ, דצ״ח) or are set against one another in rank.

Where it’s explained

  1. Torah Ohr, Vayigash 1, ¶2Every world has these four: the inanimate is lowest, then the growing and the living, and the speaking is the highest. Yet the earth brings forth plants, because the inanimate, though lower in rank, has an advantage in its root, above the growing and the living: in G‑d’s thought the earth came before the heavens.שיש בכל עולם ד׳ בחי׳ דצח״מ והדומם הוא למטה במדרגה מצומח והצומח למטה מן החי
  2. Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2, ¶6Each level includes the one below it: plants have more life than the inanimate, the power of growth, yet the wood itself is like the inanimate. The inanimate has only the “composing soul” that binds its four elements; the plant adds a growing soul, but has no living soul.והצומח כמו האילנות והעשבים יש בהן חיות יותר מבדומם שהוא כח הצמיחה ומ״מ הוא כולל ג״כ בחי׳ דומם
  3. Likkutei Torah, Vezos Haberachah 3, ¶9The four are also within the speaking: in the body, bones are inanimate and hair is growing; in the powers of the soul, the letters are inanimate, the middos growing (they grow from small to large), the intellect living (“wisdom gives life”), and the source of intellect is the speaking.וכן ג״כ יש דצח״מ רוחני בכחות הנפש המדברת האותיות הם בחינת דומם והמדות הם בחי׳ צומח
  4. Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2, ¶12Keser, the speaking, includes the other three, and each includes those below. Below, the living (intellect) is above the growing (middos), but in their roots the order turns: Z”A is attached to Atik, above Abba and Imma, and the letters (the inanimate) are rooted in the Avira above Mocha Stima’ah, higher still.נמצא בשרשם הצומח גבוה מהחי
  5. Likkutei Torah, Matos 2, ¶9In Tikkun the order goes from below upward, with man, the speaking, highest of all; in Tohu the inanimate is above the growing and the growing above the living. So salt, though inanimate, is very high in its root, and the intellectual animal soul in man, though above the other three in rank, is “behind” them, since in their root in Tohu they are higher.כי התיקון הוא ממטה למעלה דצח״מ, והאדם שהוא המדבר העליון מכולם משא״כ בתהו דומם הוא למעלה מהצומח והצומח מהחי

Stated differently

Which level above is the “speaking” and which the “living”: Keser (or Chochmah Stima’ah) and Chochmah, or Chochmah Ila’ah and Binah

Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2, ¶10וכתר שלמעלה מהשכל הוא בחי׳ מדבר

The intellect is the living (“wisdom gives life”); Keser, above the intellect, is the speaking, the place speech comes from.

Likkutei Torah, Vezos Haberachah 3, ¶9ומקור השכל שהוא בחי׳ ח״ס הוא בחי׳ מדבר

The intellect is the living; the source of intellect, Chochmah Stima’ah, is the speaking, and its middos (the hairs) are the growing within the speaking.

Torah Ohr, Bereishis 4, ¶9שהם בחי׳ ו׳ ובחי׳ ה׳ עלאה דשם הוי״ה הסמוכה לוי״ו אבל בחינת מדבר הוא יו״ד וקש״י

The growing and the living are the vav and the upper hei of Havayah, next to each other; the speaking is the yud and its tip, and the inanimate comes from the lower hei.

Torah Ohr, Bereishis 5, ¶18ואמנם בחי׳ אדה״ר היינו בחי׳ ח״ע שהיא ראשית האצי׳ ממש

Adam is Chochmah Ila’ah, the very beginning of Atzilus, so his body was inanimate; the living soul could not clothe itself in an inanimate body, since from Binah comes only the growing.

Likkutei Torah, Tzav 6, ¶22שכמ״כ בד׳ בחי׳ דצח״מ שבאצי׳ חכמה עילאה היא בחי׳ מדבר

Of the four in Atzilus, Chochmah Ila’ah is the speaking.

Discussed by

  • The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Vayikra vol. 2, p. תקפט

    Having matched the living and speaking to the yud and heh of Havayah (Chochmah and Binah), the Tzemach Tzedek asks why the speaking is then beyond the living, and answers that the speaking is rooted in Keser, the source of Chochmah.

    אך לפ״ז למה מדבר אינו מערך החי כנ״ל אך כי מדבר שרשו מבחי׳ כתר נפש המשכלת מקור החכמה

Which of the four are near each other: the growing and the living, or the inanimate and the growing, both set apart from the living

Torah Ohr, Bereishis 4, ¶9כי צומח רחוק מבחי׳ מדבר רק לבחינת החי הוא סמוך

The growing is far from the speaking and near only to the living: they are the vav and the upper hei of Havayah, next to each other. So man’s soul, the speaking, clothes itself in the inanimate and not in the growing.

Torah Ohr, Bereishis 5, ¶20שהחי מתלבש בצומח והם סמוכים כאחד

An animal’s living soul and its body, which is of the growing, came out of the earth together, being near in rank; above in Atzilus too the living clothes itself in the growing and they are close as one.

Likkutei Torah, Vezos Haberachah 3, ¶9שדומם וצומח הן קרובים זה לזה ומובדלין בערך מבחי׳ חי

In the physical example the inanimate and the growing are close to each other and set apart in rank from the living, which has a vital soul, and all the more from the speaking; as hair, the growing in the body, bears no comparison to the limbs.

Further in Chassidus

  1. The Tzemach Tzedek · Or HaTorah, Vayikra vol. 2, p. תקפט

    The Tzemach Tzedek lays out the four levels and their gaps, maps them onto letters, middos, intellect and its source and onto the letters of Havayah, and shows how the higher includes the lower (a person’s hair is the ‘growing’ within the ‘speaking’).נמצא שהדומם והצומח אע״פ שזה למעלה מזה מ״מ הם מערך אחד אבל החי וכ״ש המדבר אינו מערכם כלל

  2. The Rebbe · Sefer HaMaamarim (bilti muga, old ed.), 5732–5733, p. 463

    Citing Likkutei Torah Re’eh, the Rebbe explains why the lower kinds stand higher in their root (Tohu is the root of the inanimate, growing and living, Tikkun of the speaking), so the human depends on them and they were created first.וזהו הטעם שהאדם אינו יכול להתקיים מבלי חי צומח דומם, והחי אינו יכול להתקיים בלי צומח ודומם

  3. The Rebbe · Sefer HaMaamarim (bilti muga, old ed.), 5717–5719, p. 493

    Following Torah Or Bereishis, the Rebbe applies the four levels to how man was made: other creatures are a ‘growing’ body with a ‘living’ soul, close to each other, while man is an ‘inanimate’ body with a ‘speaking’ soul, worlds apart, so his soul had to be blown in.לפי שבכל הנבראים הרי גופם הוא בבחי׳ צומח ונפשם בחי׳ חי, דצומח וחי הם קרובים זה לזה

Short quotes, © their publishers; each page opened by a second AI reader.

Main sources

Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2, ¶10Likkutei Torah, Chukas 2, ¶12Likkutei Torah, Vezos Haberachah 3, ¶9Likkutei Torah, Matos 2, ¶9Torah Ohr, Vayigash 1, ¶2Torah Ohr, Bereishis 5, ¶18Torah Ohr, Bereishis 5, ¶20

Where it appears

In 221 paragraphs of 110 maamarim.

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.

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