Sefirot
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The Sefirot in Kabbalah | ||
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Category:Sephirot |
Sefirot (
Alternative configurations of the sefirot are interpreted by various schools in the historical evolution of Kabbalah, with each articulating differing spiritual aspects. The tradition of enumerating 10 is stated in the Sefer Yetzirah, "Ten sefirot of nothingness, ten and not nine, ten and not eleven". As altogether 11 sefirot are listed across the various schemes, two (Keter and Da'at) are seen as unconscious and conscious manifestations of the same principle, conserving the 10 categories.[3] The sefirot are described as channels of divine creative life force or consciousness through which the unknowable divine essence is revealed to mankind.
The first sefirah, Keter, describes the divine
In Hasidic philosophy, which has sought to internalise the experience of Jewish mysticism into daily inspiration (devekut), this inner life of the sefirot is explored, and the role they play in man's service of God in this world.
Ein Sof
The Ein Sof (lit: without end) is an important concept in Jewish Kabbalah. Generally translated as "infinity" and "endless", the Ein Sof represents the formless state of the universe before the self-materialization of God. In other words, the Ein Sof is God before he decided to become God as we now know him.[4]
The sefirot are divine emanations that come from the Ein Sof in a manner often described as a flame. The sefirot emanate from above to below. As the first Sefira is closest to Ein Sof, it is the least comprehensible to the human mind, while in turn the last is the best understood because it is closest to the material world that humanity dwells on.<[4]
Ten sefirot
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Sefirot (ספירות, sfirot, singular ספירה sfira), literally means "counting, enumeration", but early Kabbalists presented a number of other etymological possibilities from the same Hebrew root including: sefer ("text" - ספר), sippur ("recounting a story" - סיפור), sappir ("sapphire" - ספיר, "brilliance", "luminary"), sfar ("boundary" - ספר), and sofer, or safra ("scribe" - ספרא, סופר). The term sefirah thus has complex connotations within Kabbalah.[3]
The original reference to the sefirot is found in the ancient Kabbalistic text of Sefer Yetzirah, "The Book of Formation", attributed to the first Jewish patriarch, Abraham.[3] However, the names of the sefirot as given in later Kabbalah are not specified there, but rather are only identified by their attributes "forward", "backward", "right", "left", "down", "up", "light", "darkness", "good" and "evil". Further references to the sefirot, now with their later-accepted names, are elaborated on in the medieval Kabbalistic text of the Zohar, which is one of the core texts of Kabbalah.
The sefirot are 10 emanations, or illuminations of God's infinite light as it manifests in creation. As revelations of the creator's will (רצון rɔṣon),
In Cordoveran Kabbalah, the forces of creation are considered as autonomous forces that evolve independently of one another. By contrast, in Lurean or Lurianic Kabbalah (the Kabbalah of Isaac Luria), the sefirot are perceived as a constellation of forces in active dialogue with one another at every stage of that evolution. Luria described the sefirot as complex and dynamically interacting entities known as partzufim, or faces, each with its own symbolically human-like persona.[3]
Keter, the Crown, is the first sefirah. It is the superconscious intermediary between God and the other, conscious sefirot. Three different levels, or "heads", are identified within Keter. In some contexts, the highest level of Keter is called "The unknowable head",[6] The second level is "the head of nothingness" (reisha d'ayin) and the third level is "the long head" (reisha d'arich). These three heads correspond to the superconscious levels of faith, pleasure and will in the soul.[3]
In its early 12th-century dissemination, Kabbalah garnered
Names in Cordoveran Kabbalah
In Kabbalah, there is a direct correspondence between the Hebrew name of any spiritual or physical phenomenon and its manifestations in the mundane world. The Hebrew name represents the unique essence of the object. This reflects the belief that the universe is created through the metaphorical speech of God, as stated in the first chapter of Genesis. Kabbalah expounds on the names of the sefirot and their nuances, including their gematria (numerical values), in order to reach an understanding of these emanations of God's essence.[3][10]
In the 16th-century rational synthesis of Moses ben Jacob Cordovero (Cordoveran Kabbalah), the first complete systemisation of Kabbalah, the sefirot are listed from highest to lowest:[10]
Category: | Sefirah: |
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Super-conscious | 1 Keter - "Crown" |
Conscious intellect | 2 Chokhmah - "Wisdom"
3 Binah - "Understanding" |
Conscious emotions | (Primary emotions:)
4 Chesed - "Kindness"
|
Man-metaphor in Kabbalah
Kabbalah uses subtle anthropomorphic analogies and metaphors to describe God in Judaism, both the God-world relationship, and the inner nature of the divine. These include the metaphor of the soul-body relationship, the functions of human soul-powers, the configuration of human bodily form, and female-male influences in the divine. Kabbalists repeatedly warn and stress the need to divorce their notions from any corporality, dualism, plurality, or spatial and temporal connotations. As "the Torah speaks in the language of Man",[11] the empirical terms are necessarily imposed upon human experience in this world. Once the analogy is described, its limitations are then related to stripping the kernel of its husk to arrive at a truer conception. Nonetheless, Kabbalists carefully chose their terminology to denote subtle connotations and profound relationships in the divine spiritual influences. More accurately, as they see the emanation of the material world from the spiritual realms, the analogous anthropomorphisms and material metaphors themselves derive through cause and effect from their precise root analogies on High.
Describing the material world below in general, and humans in particular, as created in the "image" of the world above is not restricted in
Inner dimensions and the powers of the soul
As all levels of Creation are constructed around the 10 sefirot, their names in Kabbalah describe the particular role each plays in forming reality. These are the external dimensions of the sefirot, describing their functional roles in channelling the divine, creative Ohr (Light) to all levels. As the sefirot are viewed to comprise both metaphorical "lights" and "
Understanding the sefirot throughout Jewish mysticism is achieved by their correspondence to the human soul. This applies to the outer, Kabbalistic structure of the sefirot. It applies even more to their inner dimensions, which correspond to inner psychological qualities in human perception. Identifying the essential spiritual properties of the soul gives the best insight into their divine source, and in the process reveals the spiritual beauty of the soul. In
Sefirah: Outer function in Divinity and soul |
Inner experience: Inner Divine motivation and human soul response |
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Above conscious: Keter-Crown |
Essence of Keter: Emunah – "Faith" (expresses essence of soul in Infinite) Inner Keter: Taanug-unconscious source of "Delight" (soul rooted in delight) Outer Keter: Ratzon-unconscious transcendent "Will" (soul expresses through will) |
First revelation of intellect: Chochmah -Insight of Wisdom
|
Bittul – "Selflessness" (Revelation inspires self nullification) |
Grasped Intellect: Binah-Understanding |
Simchah – "Joy" (Understanding awakens joy) |
Assimilated Intellect: Daat -Knowledge
|
Yichud – "Union" (Union with idea awakens emotions)[19] |
Primary emotion of giving: Chesed-Loving-kindness |
Ahavah – "Love" of God and Divine in all things (Response of Divine giving) |
Primary emotion of restriction: Gevurah-Might/Severity |
Yirah – "Fear" of God (Mystical awe of Divinity) |
Primary emotion of balance: Tiferet-Beautiful harmony[citation needed] |
Rachamim – "Mercy/Compassion" (Balances kindness with restriction) |
Secondary emotion of giving: Netzach-Victory/Eternity |
Bitachon – "Confidence" (Confidence inspires determination) |
Secondary emotion of restriction: Hod-Splendour/Thanksgiving |
Temimut – "Sincerity/Earnestness" (Sincere response to Divine Glory) |
Secondary emotion of balance: Yesod-Foundation |
Emet – "Truth" (Drive to verify connection in task) |
Emotional vessel for action: Malchut -Kingship
|
Shechinah - "Divine Presence" (The Highest Light) |
The four worlds
These ten levels are associated with Kabbalah's four different "Worlds" or planes of existence, the main part from the perspective of the descending "chain of progression" (Seder hishtalshelut), that links the infinite divine Ein Sof with the finite, physical realm. In all Worlds, the 10 sefirot radiate, and are the divine channels through which every level is continuously created from nothing. Since they are the attributes through which the unknowable, infinite divine essence becomes revealed to the creations, all ten emanate in each World. Nonetheless, the structure of the Four Worlds arises because in each one, certain sefirot predominate. Each World is spiritual, apart from the lower aspect of the final World, which is the Asiyah Gashmi ("Physical Asiyah"), the physical Universe. Each World is progressively grosser and further removed from consciousness of the Divine,[20] until in this World it is possible to be unaware of or to deny God. In descending order:
- World of Emanation (Atzilut): In this level the light of the Ein Sof radiates and is united with its source. Divine Chochmah, the limitless flash of wisdom beyond grasp, predominates.
- World of Creation (creation ex nihilo, where the souls and angels have self-awareness, but without form. Divine Binah, the intellectual understanding, predominates.
- World of Formation (Hebrew: יְצִירָה, Yetzirah): On this level, creation is related to form. The Divine emotional sefirot of Chesed to Yesod predominate.
- World of Action (Hebrew: עֲשִׂיָּה, Assiah): On this level creation is relegated to its physical aspect, the only physical realm and the lowest World, this realm with all its creatures. The Divine Kingship of Malchut predominates, the purpose of Creation.
In the Zohar and elsewhere, there are these four Worlds or planes of existence. In the Lurianic system of Kabbalah, five Worlds are counted, comprising these and a higher, fifth plane, Adam Kadmon-manifest Godhead level[clarification needed], that mediates between the Ein Sof and the four lower Worlds.
As the four Worlds link the Infinite with this realm, they also enable the soul to ascend in devotion or mystical states, towards the Divine. Each World can be understood as descriptive of dimensional levels of intentionality related to the natural human "desire to receive", and a method for the soul's progress upward toward unity with or return to the Creator. (The terminology of this formulation is based on the exposition of Lurianic Kabbalah by the 20th century Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag).
See also
- Major Arcana
- Qliphoth
- The path of the flaming sword
References
Notes
- ^ See for example the classic passage from the Zohar beginning "Elijah opened his discourse [...]" that is read every Friday afternoon to prepare for the Sabbath, in the Habad Siddur "Tehillat HaShem."[8]
Citations
- ISBN 978-1783746767.
- ISBN 978-0812218626– via Sacred-texts.com.
Sefirot—the ten creative attributes of God, according to the Kabbalah.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Ginsburgh (2006).
- ^ a b Cohn-Sherbok (2006), p. 9.
- ^ Bar-Lev (1994), p. 73.
- ^ Schneerson (1986): The acronym "RADLA" for this level is identified as the origin of the Torah of Hasidus.
- ^ Ginsburgh (2007).
- ^ Kurzweil (2011), p. 261.
- ^ E.g. Zalman (n.d.), ch. 35.
- ^ a b Schochet (1998), Chapter on the sefirot.
- Berachot 31b and other sources in Chazal
- ^ Schochet (1998), ch. 1, "Anthropomorphism and Metaphors".
- ^ Job 19:26
- Berachot10a, Midrash Tehillim 103:4,5, Tikunei Zohar 13:28a and later Kabbalistic commentary. Cited in footnote 7, chapter 1, Mystical Concepts in Chassidism
- ^ Overview of Chassidut from www.inner.org. Retrieved 1 November 2009
- ^ The Ten Sefirot-Introduction from www.inner.org. Retrieved 1 November 2009
- ^ "Sefirah" in Glossary of Kabbalah and Chassidut at www.inner.org. Retrieved 1 November 2009
- ^ The Powers of the Soul explained at www.inner.org. Retrieved 1 November 2009
- ^ Miller (n.d.).
- ^ "Neohasid.org's Tu Bish'vat Haggadah" (PDF). Retrieved 2020-12-07.
Works cited
- Bar-Lev, Yechiel (1994). Song of the Soul: Introduction to Kabbalah. Bar-Lev.
- Cohn-Sherbok, Dan (2006). Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism: An Introductory Anthology. Oxford: Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1-85168-454-0.
- Ginsburgh, Rabbi Yitzchak (2006). Genuth, Moshe (ed.). What You Need to Know about Kabbalah. Jerusalem: Gal Einai Institute. ISBN 965-7146-119.
- Ginsburgh, Rabbi Yitzchak (2007). Kabbalah and Meditation for the Nations. Canada and Israel: Gal Einai. ISBN 978-965-7146-125.
- Kurzweil, A. (2011). Kabbalah For Dummies. Wiley. ISBN 978-1-118-06862-5.
- Miller, Moshe (n.d.). "Emanations Interact: The sefirot are understood in the shape of the human form". Chabad.org. Kabbalah Online.
- ISBN 978-0-8266-0470-5.
- ISBN 0-8266-0412-9.
- Zalman, HaRav Shneur (n.d.). Mindel, Rabbi Nissan; Schochet, Rabbi Ya'acov Immanuel (eds.). Tanya: Likutei Amarim: Sefer Shel Benonim [It Was Taught: Collected Sayings: Book of Intermediates] (Bi-Lingual Hebrew-English ed.). Kehot Publishing.
Further reading
Early texts:
- The Sefer Yetzirah the book of creation: In theory and practice, translated and explained by ISBN 0-87728-855-0)
- The Bahir, translated by ISBN 1-56821-383-2)
Modern guides:
- The Mystical Qabalah, ISBN 1-57863-150-5)
- Qabalistic Concepts: Living the Tree, William G Gray (1997). ISBN 1-57863-000-2)
- The Decad of Creation by Aaron Leitch (Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition, http://www.jwmt.org/v2n13/doc.html)
Academic study:
- On The Kabbalah and its Symbolism, ISBN 0-8052-1051-2)