tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3729852582380573182011-12-14T18:15:41.118-05:00This blog, written by Ben Roshgolin, introduces the serious student of Torah to the basic ideas of Kabbalah, drawn from the Zohar and other primary Kabbalistic texts, in undistorted, authentic form.Ben Roshgolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05626414010516777044noreply@blogger.comBlogger111100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372985258238057318.post-50988460852562983852011-08-14T15:50:00.003-04:002011-08-14T15:56:38.774-04:00

The emanation of divine light flows downwards through the ten levels of the sefirot, eventually reaching Malkhut, the lowest sefira, and from there to the worlds below, including our world. (For background, please refer to “The Sefirot – Part I,” posted on 30 July 2009, “The Four Worlds – Part I,” posted on 16 August 2009, and “The Sefirot – Part II,” posted on 7 October 2009.) Whereas in the

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Our physical universe is in a dynamic equilibrium of opposing forces: centrifugal and centripetal forces, positively and negatively charged particles, matter and antimatter, male and female organisms. In the spiritual world also, there are opposing forces, and an equilibrium is reached to navigate between them.As discussed in “The Sefirot – Part I” (posted on 30 July 2009), for illustrative

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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,

Ben Roshgolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05626414010516777044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372985258238057318.post-10519567807192219132009-10-07T00:11:00.003-04:002011-08-09T15:30:02.993-04:00

In a previous article (see “The Sefirot – Part I,” posted on 30 July 2009), I discussed the sefirot, the ten spiritual forces through which God’s will descends and unfolds, and by means of which God acts in the universe. But why, we may ask, did God see fit to create the sefirot at all? And why is it necessary to have a hierarchy of ten sefirot – ten levels of spiritual energy? To understand

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The Hebrew word kabbalah, which literally means “that which has been received,” originally did not refer particularly to any type of mysticism or esoteric knowledge. Rather, the term kabbalah was used to mean the entire body of the Jewish oral tradition that Moses received on Mount Sinai and was passed on from teacher to disciples through an unbroken chain, as described in the Mishnah (see Avot

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In Scripture, the human soul is called variously by five different names: Nefesh, Ru’ach, Neshama, Chaya, and Yechida. However, the last two of these are beyond our perception, and the Zohar concerns itself only with three parts of the soul: Nefesh, Ru’ach, and Neshama.The lowest component of the soul, Nefesh, emanates from Malkhut, the lowest of the sefirot, and is bound up in ’Asiya, the

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According to Kabbalah, God’s creation of the world occurred in four distinct stages: “Then He saw it, and He spoke it; He prepared it, and He probed it” (Job 28:27). In the Zohar’s interpretation, each of the four actions mentioned in this verse occurs in a separate realm or “world.” The highest of the four words is called Olam Ha’Atzilut, the World of Emanation, for it is in this realm that

Ben Roshgolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05626414010516777044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372985258238057318.post-15950509295120007222009-08-05T22:36:00.003-04:002009-08-07T18:53:12.066-04:00

This is one of the diagrammatic representations of the sefirot. Note that there are three sefirot on the right, three sefirot on the left, and four along the midline. Please refer to the discussion in my post of 30 July 2009 ("The Sefirot – Part I").© Copyright 2009 by Ben Roshgolin. All rights reserved.

Ben Roshgolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05626414010516777044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372985258238057318.post-22044150811476638482009-07-30T20:50:00.007-04:002011-07-03T22:58:07.891-04:00

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

Ben Roshgolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05626414010516777044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372985258238057318.post-14416610677093840372009-07-17T18:07:00.006-04:002009-08-05T23:36:20.390-04:00

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

Ben Roshgolinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05626414010516777044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-372985258238057318.post-40384376704840561032009-07-16T09:01:00.003-04:002009-08-05T23:32:06.533-04:00

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

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