The Sefirot – Part I

One of the hallmarks of Kabbalah is the premise that God’s creative force – and His continued influence on the universe – is exerted through a series of ten levels, called sefirot, through which His will descends and unfolds. Just as in our world there are forces such as gravity, magnetism, and nuclear forces, the spiritual realm also has forces – the sefirot – by means of which God projects His will throughout creation. The sefirot, then, are a type of force, but – unlike gravity or magnetism – they do not belong to the physical world. And yet, although the sefirot themselves are in the spiritual realm, they exert their influence also in the physical world of our experience, for the created universe – spiritual and physical – is a complete whole, and the spiritual realm interacts with the physical realm.

The first mention of the Kabbalistic term sefirot is found in Sefer Yetzirah (Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation), a book dating from the seventh century or earlier. According to Sefer Yetzirah, the word sefirot (sefira in singular) is derived from the Hebrew lesaper (to tell) – relating to God’s creation of the world through speech – or to the word lispor (to count). Yet another derivation of the word sefirot (although not mentioned in Sefer Yetzirah) is from the Biblical term livnat hasappir, referring to the appearance of sapphire that Moses (Exodus 24:9-10) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:26) saw under the throne of God.

The names of the sefirot are derived from Biblical verses. The names of the lowest seven – Gedula (Greatness, also known as Chesed – Mercy), Gevura (Power, also known as Din – Law), Tif’eret (Grandeur, Beauty), Netzach (Victory, or alternatively, Eternity), Hod (Glory, Majesty), Yesod (Foundation, also known as Kol – All), and Malkhut (Kingdom) – are derived from 1 Chronicles 29:11. References to the two sefirot above those – Chokhma (Wisdom) and Bina (Understanding) – are found in various places, including Job 28:12 and 28:20, and Proverbs 8:1. The highest sefira is called Keter (Crown), to signify its elevation above the others.

Depending on context, the sefirot may be represented linearly (descending from Keter to Malkhut), as concentric circles (with Keter either as the outermost ring or at the center), as a human body, or as a tree. Each of these representations is correct within its own context, but it is important to state that none of these representations accurately expresses the true nature of the sefirot. These representations are for illustrative purposes only, to clarify to the human mind something that is beyond our day-to-day experience. The sefirot are not of our world, and only by analogy to the world of our experience can we hope to have any inkling of their nature. (See my post of 17 July 2009 – “The Iceberg.”)

It must be stressed that the sefirot are not part of God’s essence, nor can any divinity be ascribed to them. God is one, a single unity, indivisible. We cannot speak of parts of God, nor can we have any knowledge of His essence. We can know Him only through His actions in our world, and those actions are executed by means of the sefirot, which are the means that God uses to project His will into the universe.

© Copyright 2009 by Ben Roshgolin. All rights reserved.

The Iceberg

And there was an image over the heads of the creatures, a dome like the awesome ice, stretched over their heads above.
Ezekiel 1:22

Our world is like an iceberg. The iceberg visible to a sailor at sea is just a small portion of the actual iceberg, while 90% of the iceberg lies beneath the surface. Similarly, the physical world that we see is but a small part of God's creation. The major portion of creation – the spiritual realm – is concealed from our everyday vision.

In the physical world, man is able to probe the secrets of nature through the use of technology and scientific observation. The world of microbes, the vastness of space, the depths of the ocean, and the peaks of the highest mountains are all amenable to exploration using appropriate tools and instruments.

But knowledge of the physical world alone does not satisfy us. Man also seeks to understand the divine, and to gain insight into the ways in which God relates to man and thus to find a meaning and a purpose to our existence. Indeed, it is possible for us to probe the depths of the spiritual world and to connect to its essence; but the tools that we must use are not of a physical nature. Rather, they are tools of the spirit, which we may find within our souls, and thus they are harder to use than the physical means by which we approach an understanding of the physical world.

But how can we, who are so rooted in the physical world, hope to understand anything about the spiritual realm, which is so removed from our experience? Fortunately, there are three aspects that facilitate our inquiry.

As the Zohar – the central book of Kabbalah – emphasizes repeatedly, when God created our world, He created it on the same pattern as the world above (the spiritual realm). The world below is thus bound to the world above, and the features of our physical world have their equivalents in the spiritual realm. This analogy of the physical and spiritual realms is one of the factors that enable us to have a measure of understanding of something that is completely removed from our experience.

The second aspect that enables us to connect to the spiritual realm is the human soul. The Zohar discusses three components of the soul: Nefesh, Ru’ach, and Neshama. Of these three components, the Neshama is the divinely-given part of the human soul. The Neshama descends from the world above and comes to inhabit the human body. But even during its sojourn in our physical world, it always remains part of the spiritual realm, maintaining its connection to its source. Thus, the Neshama is the means through which each person can aspire to holiness and can achieve some perception of the upper world.

The third enabler of our understanding of the spiritual realm is the Bible. Throughout the Biblical text, there are many hints to the nature of the spiritual world and to the nature of the interaction of our world with the realm of spirit. But these hints are by no means obvious, and they only become apparent through careful study of the Biblical text and by correlating similar phraseology used in different parts of the Bible.

These, then, are the ways in which we are able to approach an understanding of the spiritual world and how our known world interacts with the spiritual realm.


© Copyright 2009 by Ben Roshgolin. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Since earliest times, man has searched for God. Amidst the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, it is often difficult to transcend the mundane. And yet, man feels a need for spirituality, a need to find meaning and purpose to his fleeting existence.

Judaism teaches that man’s highest purpose is to link his will to God’s eternal Will, through the study of Torah and the observance of its commandments. (See, for example, the conclusion of the book of Ecclesiastes.) Certainly, the study of Torah and observance of the commandments are the primary means by which a Jew can approach God. Yet, in the day-to-day practice of Judaism, a certain amount of rote often sets in; and even in the study of Torah too often there is an emphasis on detail, while losing sight of the spirit within the Torah. Thus, there may be a tendency to lose sight of the divine spirit that flows through the body of the Torah and its commandments, enabling us to rise above the earthly and mundane.

While observance of halakha (Jewish law) has intrinsic value of its own, for many that value may be greatly enhanced through an understanding of the spiritual basis underlying Torah and halakha. The search for spirituality is an age-old quest; but in our generation that quest has taken on a heightened intensity.

In the last decades of the 20th century, amid the growing secularism of the western world, within the Jewish world there arose a yearning for spiritual values. Thousands of Jews reared in non-observant homes began to awaken to religious life. And among already-observant Jews a transformation occurred as well, as growing numbers were drawn to Kabbalah as a means of enhancing their personal relationship with the divine.

But Kabbalah – the Jewish field of study of the divine realm, and the ways in which the divine realm interacts with the physical world and with man – is a very esoteric subject, and even Jews who have a strong background in Jewish learning may be ill-equipped to approach its study. Kabbalah is not generally on the curriculum in most yeshivot, and most books of Kabbalah are purposely written in a manner that makes them almost impenetrable to the uninitiated.

The purpose of this blog is to introduce the basic ideas of Kabbalah to the serious student of Torah who wants to learn about the processes by which the divine realm interacts with our world. Unfortunately, much of what has been written about Kabbalah is gross distortion, often written by people who have little if any knowledge of the Zohar, the central book of Kabbalah. This blog aims to present ideas of the Zohar and other primary Kabbalistic texts in undistorted, authentic form.


© Copyright 2009 by Ben Roshgolin. All rights reserved.