Prophecy

A prophet has the ability to see beyond our world and into the spiritual world. But all prophets are not equal in their ability to perceive the upper world. There are different levels of prophecy, depending on which level of the upper world the prophet perceives and how clearly he perceives it; and the same prophet does not necessarily achieve the same level with each prophecy.

The lowest stage of prophecy is the ability to see visions only of the lowest level of the spiritual world—Malkhut. (See “The Sefirot – Part I,” posted on 30 July 2009.) The source of prophetic emanation is actually Netzach and Hod, two levels above Malkhut (please refer to the sefirot diagram posted on 5 August 2009); but the prophet who experiences only the lowest form of prophecy is unable to detect Netzach and Hod at all, even through the medium of Malkhut. The prophet sees only those visions that are reflected in Malkhut; and those visions that he (or she) is able to perceive are seen unclearly, as though through a translucent glass.

At the next level of prophecy, the prophet is able to perceive levels above Malkhut, and glimpses of images emanating from Netzach and Hod may be visible, although still only through the perspective of Malkhut itself; and his vision is clouded. He does not have a clear view of those higher levels, and levels above Netzach and Hod are totally beyond his ken. Of all the prophets who ever lived, only Moses was able to see a level higher than Netzach and Hod. Moses was actually able to see as high as Tif’eret, and to have a clear perception, as though through clear, transparent glass. Therefore, Moses never spoke in parables; whereas other prophets often used parables, because their perception was clouded, and their prophetic vision was incomplete.

In the prophetic books of the Bible, the phrasing of the sentence that introduces each prophecy may give a clue to which level of the upper world the prophet’s vision was able to attain. A statement such as “The hand of the Lord was upon me“ (Ezekiel 37:1) indicates that the prophecy was a vision of Malkhut, since “the hand of the Lord” is a code-phrase representing Malkhut. On the other hand, a more direct statement such as “And He said to me . . .” (Ezekiel 2:1, 3:1, and many other places) indicates a communication through Netzach and Hod.

In the above discussion, I mentioned differences between the prophecy of Moses and that of all other prophets. Another difference was that other prophets either received God’s message in a prophetic dream or were awake but in a dazed state. Moreover, even when a prophecy came to the prophet while awake, the prophetic vision resulted in a state of fatigue, and in some cases the prophet fell down or lay down at the completion of his prophecy, as at the end of the first chapter of Ezekiel. But Moses saw his visions clearly, and he was always fully alert when God spoke to him: “. . . When there is a prophet of the Lord, in a vision I make myself known to him, in a dream I speak to him. Not so my servant Moses: he is trusted throughout my house. Mouth to mouth I speak with him, clearly, and not in riddles; and a vision of the Lord he beholds” (Numbers 12:6-8).

© Copyright 2017 by Ben Roshgolin. All rights reserved.



Additional Comments:

For a non-Kabbalistic interpretation of the different levels of prophecy and the significance of various other introductory statements such as “The word of the Lord came to me,” see Moses Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed, II:45.

In the view of the Zohar, the exodus from Egypt was effected through the agency of the Shekhina (i.e., Malkhut). Note the expression “the hand of the Lord” in Exodus 9:3, and the Israelites departing Egypt “with an elevated hand” in Exodus 14:8 and in Numbers 33:3. And finally, note that the Torah says, “for with a strong hand the Lord took you out of Egypt” (Exodus 13:9).

The Divine Names

In the Torah, a name is not just a label that is used to identify someone. A person’s name expresses the essence of that person’s character. Thus, for instance, the first woman is named Chava (Eve in English), because she was em kol chai — the mother of all who live (Genesis 2:20); and similarly, God changed Avram’s name to Avraham to signify that he will be av hamon goyim — the father of a multitude of nations (Genesis 17:5). But not only people have names. God also has a name; or does He? If a person’s name describes his essence, does God’s name describe God’s essence? Is it at all possible to do so? And to complicate the matter further, the Torah refers to God by various names: YHVH, Elohim, Shaddai, and others. Why?

Moses Maimonides says that God cannot be ascribed any positive attributes. Therefore, when we say that God is good or just or merciful, what we mean is that if a person were to act thus, we would ascribe to him those characteristics. But God is wholly other, completely beyond our experience or perception, and we cannot categorize or define His true nature in any way.

The Kabbalistic view concurs with Maimonides but goes a step further. If a name reflects an attribute of the entity to which the name refers, how can we give God a name at all? Consequently, it must be that each of the names by which we call God actually refers to an action through which God manifests Himself in our world. But God Himself has no name!

Since the sefirot are the spiritual forces by which God acts in our world (see "The Sefirot – Part I,” posted on 30 July 2009), the “names of God” are actually not His names at all, but are identifiers of His action of the moment; they are names associated with the sefirot. Thus, Elohim, which is a word signifying power or authority that is also used in the Torah in a secular sense, refers to God acting through the sefira of Gevura, which is also known as Din (Law). The name Adonay (meaning Lord) refers to God’s action through the sefira of Malkhut (Kingship). And the highest sefira (Keter, meaning Crown) is represented by the name Eh’yeh, the name that God told Moses when Moses asked God for His name (Exodus 3:13-14).

The idea that God has no name, and that the “names of God” refer only to the actions through which God manifests himself is found in Exodus Rabba, a Biblical commentary that pre-dates the Zohar and is not generally regarded as a Kabbalistic work. Commenting on Moses asking God for His name in Exodus 3:13, Exodus Rabba declares: “Do you want to know My name? By My actions I am called. At times I am called El Shaddai, or Tzeva’ot, or Elohim, or YHVH. When I judge my creations, I am called Elohim; and when I do battle against the wicked, I am called Tzeva’ot; and when I suspend judgement for a person’s sins, I am called El Shaddai; and when I have mercy on My universe, I am called YHVH.”

It should be stressed that the sefirot are not part of God’s essence, because God’s essence cannot be characterized or subdivided. (Again see "The Sefirot – Part I.”) The sefirot are just agents of God’s will. They are receptacles of God’s divine light; and, just as a liquid seen in different colored vessels will appear in the shape and color of its vessel, or the light shining from lanterns of different colored glass will take the color of the glass through which it shines, so do God’s actions in our world manifest themselves differently depending on which sefira is the primary agent of God’s will. The sefirot are inanimate vessels, powerless until they are infused with the light and the life that God projects into them. But, just as Man became a living being when God breathed into him the breath of life, so too does God project His light into the sefirot, animating them and making them His agents to perform His will.

© Copyright 2017 by Ben Roshgolin. All rights reserved.

References:

For the view of Maimonides on God’s lack of positive attributes, see The Guide for the Perplexed I:52 and I:57. Note that Maimonides also says, in I:58, that although positive attributes cannot be attributed to God, He can be described using negative attributes (He is not mortal, He is not evil, etc.)

For an exposition of the idea that God has no name and that the names by which we refer to Him are actually names of the sefirot, see Tikkunei Zohar 17a-b, and Zohar III:225a (Raya Mehemna).

For a discussion of the sefirot as vessels for the divine emanation, having no power at all until God spreads his light upon them, see Zohar II:42b-43a (Raya Mehemna), Zohar III:225a (Raya Mehemna), and Rabbi Moses Cordovero’s Pardes Rimmonim 4:4.

The Flow of Divine Emanation

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 upper world there are multiple channels through which the divine energy may flow (see the sefirot diagram posted on 10 July 2011), the final step – from Yesod to Malkhut – is the only path by which the blessings from above can reach the world below, and if that connection were severed or obstructed, the flow would cease, or slow to a trickle.

What determines the direction and rate of flow of the divine energy to our world? It is human actions and human speech. Divine blessings are poised to rain down upon us, but we must take the initiative. Thus, the Talmud states that the ministering angels in heaven above do not begin to sing until we humans do so first (Chullin 91b). Also, the Torah tells us that if we follow God’s commandments, He will give us rain in its season, but if we do evil, He will “stop up the heavens, and there will be no rain” (Deuteronomy 11:17). We determine our fate. Our world is like the Tree of Knowledge Good and Evil, and it is our words and our actions that decide whether the tree will be for good or for ill.

In the sefirot diagram, please note the lines connecting the sefirot: they represent the channels through which the divine energy flows. Now also imagine figurative valves to regulate the flow along each channel. Human actions produce a resonance in the upper world. A preponderance of good results in acceleration of the flow through the right side, the side of Mercy; conversely, a preponderance of evil in our world results in obstruction of the flow from the right, and an increase in flow from the left side, the side of strict justice.

How, you may ask, are we, who are of the physical world, able to affect the flow of emanation in the spiritual world? To this question there are two answers:

First, as mentioned in a previous post, the upper and lower worlds are built on the same pattern, and everything in one world has its counterpart in the other; the worlds are inextricably bound to each other, each affecting the other.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, we ourselves are a composite of the physical and the spiritual worlds, uniting both worlds within our being. Our bodies are of this world, but our Neshama – the highest of the three levels of our soul – is of the upper world; and even while it inhabits a physical body, the Neshama lives in both worlds simultaneously. Thus our subconscious and our animus are bound to the world above, both affecting and affected by the flow of emanation from the upper world, to Yesod, to Malkhut, and to the world below.


© Copyright 2011 by Ben Roshgolin. All rights reserved.


References:

For more about the Tree of Knowledge Good and Evil, see “The Other Side,” posted on 4 July 2011. See also Zohar I:35b and I:152b.

For more about the soul and its relation to the upper world, see “The Soul,” posted on 9 September 2009.

The Sefirot – Part III – Opposing Forces in Equilibrium

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 purposes we may represent the sefirot in various ways, depending on context. For our current discussion, consider the sefirot diagrammed as in my posting of 5 August 2009:


Note that the sefirot are arranged in three vertical columns. The three sefirot on the right side, the side of mercy – Chokhma, Chesed, and Netzach – constitute the masculine sefirot; the three on the left, the side of Din (Law or Justice) – Bina, Gevura, and Hod – constitute the feminine sefirot; and the remaining sefirot – Tif’eret, Yesod, and Malkhut – constitute the central pillar, which blends the two opposing forces of mercy and justice together. It is the central pillar, and especially Tif’eret, that holds the opposing heavenly forces in equilibrium, “making peace in His heavens” (Job 25:2). Technically, Keter can also be considered part of the central pillar, but, unlike the other central sefirot, Keter does not mediate between two other sefirot, and Keter is so far above the other sefirot that it is in a class of its own.

Note that Tif’eret mediates between Chesed and Gevura, and Yesod mediates between Netzach and Hod. But in the diagram there appears to be no sefira that mediates between Chokhma and Bina. In fact, there is a mediator between those two sefirot, but the mediator – Da’at (Knowledge) – is not considered a sefira, and we will say nothing more about Da’at at this time.

The three highest sefirot – Keter, Chokhma, and Bina – are, to a great extent, beyond our comprehension. Of the seven lower sefirot, the essential characteristic of each may be seen to be embodied in the personalities of certain Biblical characters. Thus, Abraham, whose love for humankind was unbounded, extending even to the sinful people of Sodom, embodies the essence of Chesed (Mercy); while Isaac, who willingly subjected himself to God’s decree and would have submitted to being offered as a sacrifice, embodies the essence of Gevura, also known as Din (Law, or Justice). Jacob, who incorporated characteristics of both Abraham and Isaac, represents the essence of the central pillar, the happy medium − Tif’eret − also known as Rachamim (Compassion) or Emet (Truth). And finally, King David, who solidified the monarchy of Israel and established Jerusalem as the capital of his kingdom, represents the essence of Malkhut, the kingdom of heaven. Just as the sefira of Malkhut rules and sustains the lower world through God’s blessings and justice, so did King David solidify the monarchy of Israel, establishing it as a model of justice on earth.

© Copyright 2011 by Ben Roshgolin. All rights reserved.

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.

The Sefirot – Part II

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 the rationale for the ten sefirot, let us take an analogy to the physical world. In the beginning of creation, God said, “Let there be light.” But that light could not have been the light of the sun and the stars, because neither the sun nor the stars had been created yet. Rather, the Torah is speaking of another kind of light: the emanation of God’s will into the universe, which in many ways is analogous to the radiant energy of our physical universe. Just as the radiant energy of the sun is of such magnitude that it would instantly vaporize anything exposed to its full intensity, the universe would not be able to exist under the full intensity of the emanation of God’s will. And, just as the energy of the sun must be attenuated if life is to exist on earth, so also the flow of divine “energy” must also be attenuated; ki lo yir’ani ha’adam vachai – for Man cannot see Me and live (Exodus 33:20).

To continue the physical analogy, then, the sefirot may be regarded as ten successively lower “energy levels” through which the flux of divine emanation cascades until it reaches our world. And, just as in the physical universe, life on earth depends on having just the right amount of attenuation of the sun’s radiation, so also the divine emanation must be attenuated by exactly the right amount for life to be sustained. If attenuation were insufficient, we would be incinerated; if attenuation were excessive, all life would die of deprivation. Ten sefirot give exactly the correct degree of attenuation – no more, no less.

The above discussion demonstrates that the sefirot are highly complex entities. We may consider them spiritual forces that are the agents of God’s will, each sefira representing a different blend of mercy or justice in God’s governance of the universe. Alternatively, we may view the sefirot as a series of “filters” attenuating God’s light. Or, alternatively, we may see them as levels of the spiritual world, each possessing a different quantity of divine “energy.” The sefirot are the means through which God projects His will into the world, but they are also the means by which God conceals Himself from us. They simultaneously reveal and conceal God’s presence in the world.

As mentioned previously (see “The Sefirot – Part I”), we may represent the sefirot in various ways, depending on context: as a linear hierarchy, as concentric circles, as a tree, or as a human body. For purposes of analysis, we may talk about the action of an individual sefira, but in actuality no single sefira acts independently. As indicated in the sefirot diagram (see posting of 5 August 2009), there are links connecting the sefirot, just as the limbs of the human body connect to the trunk. When a person lifts a heavy object with his hand, it may appear that it is the hand that performs the action, but really the command comes from the brain. Moreover, the hand does not act alone, but the trunk and the legs participate as well, if only in a supportive role. Similarly, it may appear that a certain action emanates from one sefira alone, but in actuality, although one sefira may predominate, there is always participation of all ten sefirot acting in unison. Transcending the sefirot is God, whose relation to the sefirot is similar to that of the human soul to the body. Just as the soul gives life to the body, so also the sefirot would be impotent without God’s spirit to give them vitality, as it is written: “And You give life to them all” (Nehemiah 9:6).

© Copyright 2009 by Ben Roshgolin. All rights reserved.

Historical Background

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 1:1). In the early 3rd century, Rabbi Judah the Prince, fearing that the oral tradition would be lost in the face of Roman persecution, compiled the elements of the Oral Law into a six-volume work known as the Mishnah. But the Mishnah, trying to remain faithful to its oral roots, recorded the law in extremely concise form, merely highlighting the important points and leaving much to be transmitted orally. Also, the Mishnah concentrates on the legal aspects of the oral tradition and for the most part ignores other aspects of Biblical interpretation.

One of these other aspects of the oral tradition is the area that was known as sitrei Torah (mysteries of the Torah), Torat hasod, or just plain Sod (secret, or mystery). Later, various other appellations were applied to that field of study. It was only in the 13th century that the term Kabbalah started to be used specifically in reference to sitrei Torah.

One of the earliest works of sitrei Torah is Sefer Yetzirah (Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation), written in the 6th or 7th century but probably transmitted orally for centuries before that. It is traditionally ascribed to Abraham. Some have attributed it to Rabbi Akiva (second century Israel), but that attribution is tenuous. Sefer Yetzirah, which is written in poetic Hebrew, contains the first known use of the term sefirot as used in the Kabbalistic sense. (See “The Sefirot – Part I” – post of 30 July 2009.) The first chapter of Sefer Yetzirah is of central importance in understanding later Kabbalistic thought.

Many other books on sitrei Torah came out over the several centuries following the writing of Sefer Yetzirah, but the work that had the most profound influence in this field was Sefer haZohar (The Book of Radiance), also known simply as The Zohar. This book, attributed to Rabbi Shim’on ben Yochai (second century Israel), first appeared in Spain in the late 13th century. Initially, it was distributed in manuscript among a closely-knit group of Castilian Kabbalists. Written in poetic Aramaic prose, the Zohar’s linguistic beauty, artful imagery, and spiritual elevation captured the hearts and minds of its readers. Although the Zohar was not published in printed form until 1558, in the 14th and 15th centuries it was widely disseminated in manuscript.

With the rise of the Spanish Inquisition, many Jews sought solace in the study of Kabbalah in general, and in the Zohar in particular. The Zohar, which repeatedly emphasizes the holiness of the people of Israel, associates the enemies of Israel with the satanic realm (thus turning the tables on the Medieval accusation that Jews were agents of Satan on earth), and asserts that Israel will rise again in Messianic times, struck a chord among the downtrodden Jews of Spain. Soon the Zohar became revered above all other Kabbalistic works.

After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, the influence of the Zohar continued to increase. Many of the Spanish exiles settled in Israel, and especially in the city of Safed in northern Israel. The leader of the Safed Kabbalists in the mid-16th century was Rabbi Moses Cordovero (1522-1570), also known as Ramak. Ramak sought to do for Kabbalah what Moses Maimonides had done for Jewish law and for Jewish philosophy: i.e., he sought to present Kabbalah in a systematic, organized framework.

In his book Or Ne’erav (the Sweetened Light), Ramak outlines the reasons why any Jew who has sufficient background in Jewish learning should study Kabbalah and gives a concise summary of the basic principles of the Kabbalah. His short book on ethics, Tomer Devorah (The palm tree of Deborah) has become popular in recent years, even among non-Kabbalists. But Ramak’s crowning achievements are Or Yakkar, his massive commentary on the Zohar, and Pardes Rimmonim (Pardes Rimonim - Orchard of Pomegranates - Parts 1-4), in which he analyzes in depth all of the major issues of Kabbalah.

After Ramak’s death in 1570, his student, Rabbi Isaac Luria, became the leader of the Safed Kabbbalists. Rabbi Luria, also known as The Ari, introduced a whole new approach to interpreting the Zohar, which differed in many ways from the more traditional Kabbalah of Ramak. Where Ramak’s approach is analytic, Lurianic Kabbalah employs metaphor and symbolism. The Ari’s tenure as leader in Safed lasted less than two years, until his death in 1572, but his approach to Kabbalah captured the imagination of many. Although the Ari wrote almost nothing, his teachings were systematized by his disciple Rabbi Chayyim Vital in his book Etz Chayyim (The Tree of Life: The Palace of Adam Kadmon - Chayyim Vital's Introduction to the Kabbalah of Isaac Luria). Lurianic Kabbalah spread rapidly and eventually became the most prevalent form of Kabbalistic thought, as it is still today.


© Copyright 2009 by Ben Roshgolin. All rights reserved.