The Other Side

Until now we have considered only the world of holiness. But there is also a whole other dimension – the dimension of Evil, which in the Zohar is generally called the sitra achara (the Other Side). It is the other side of the coin of creation, so to speak: whatever exists in the realm of holiness has its counterpart in the sitra achara. Thus, just as there are ten sefirot in the holy realm, so are there also ten sefirot of the Other Side.

We must not regard the Other Side as completely separate from the holy realm. The two realms are in proximity to each other, and their point of contact is Malkhut. As long as man follows God’s will, the forces of evil do not readily enter our world. But when man sins and turns to evil, he thereby opens a door to the Other Side and invites the forces of evil to penetrate our world.

In the realm of holiness, God’s light is transmitted downward to Malkhut and to the physical world. Similarly, in the realm of evil, at the level of Tif’eret of the sitra achara, there is a lord named Samael, a great angel whose power is transmitted through Malkhut of the sitra achara; and when human actions open the door, his spirit enters our world also. His power is embodied in the serpent (Malkhut of the sitra achara), upon which he rides, sowing death and destruction in his wake. Thus he appeared to Eve in the Garden of Eden and tempted her to sin, and it is he who continues to tempt man through the ages and to send his forces to wreak havoc in the world.

The Tree of Knowledge Good and Evil represents Malkhut and the world in which we live. If man does good, then it is a Tree of Good, and its blessings descend to us through the world of holiness; but if man does evil, then the Tree of Knowledge becomes a Tree of Evil – a Tree of Death – causing curses to flow from the Other Side, and evil befalls us. In Kabbalah, just as the Tree of Knowledge Good and Evil represents Malkhut, the Tree of Life represents Tif’eret. (Please refer to the sefirot diagram in my post of 5 August 2009.) According to the Zohar, man must seek to maintain the connection of the Tree of Knowledge to the Tree of Life – i.e., the connection between Malkhut and Tif’eret, between the lower world and the world above. The sin of Adam and Eve in tasting the fruit that the snake offered Eve, according to the Zohar, consisted of separating the Tree of Knowledge from the Tree of Life, of separating Man’s knowledge of this world from his awareness of the higher world, thus allowing the sitra achara to enter.

The foregoing discussion may suggest to the reader that the Other Side is autonomous and that Samael is a power equal to and rivaling God, but such a view is not correct. We see in the Bible (see Job 1:6-13) that Satan, like all the other angels, can do nothing without God’s consent. In fact, Satan and the entire sitra achara are God’s creation no less than is the realm of holiness. As the Bible says, “I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil; I am the Lord Who makes all these” (Isaiah 45:6-7). The sitra achara, then – although apparently opposing God – is also an agent of God’s will. It is at once the antithesis of, and yet dependent on, and nourished by, the world of holiness.

As we see repeatedly in the Bible, beginning with the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God gave man free will to choose between good and evil, to observe God’s commandments or to disobey them. Thus, the sitra achara plays an important role, in offering man an alternative to God’s commandments, and a temptation to follow that alternative course. Without the sitra achara, man would not truly have any choice but to observe God’s will.

An additional role of the sitra achara is as an enforcer of God’s judgement. The angel of death and the forces that wreak divine punishment on people for their sins are also aspects of the sitra achara. Therefore it should not surprise us that the Other Side originates from the attribute of Din (Justice, or Law), the attribute contained within the sefira of Gevura. (Again, please refer to the sefirot diagram posted on 5 August 2009, and to “The Sefirot – Part I,” posted on 30 July 2009.) Just as in the process of making wine, dregs are produced as an inevitable byproduct, and just as dross is an inevitable byproduct in the production of gold, so also when God created the sefirot, the process of creation of Gevura resulted in the creation of a byproduct: the Other Side.


© Copyright 2011 by Ben Roshgolin. All rights reserved.