Assiah

For the tribe of Muslim mercenaries serving the Khazar Khaganate, see Arsiyah.
The Four Worlds in Kabbalah
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Assiah ([עֲשִׂיָּה] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |3= (help); also 'Asiya'[1] or 'Asiyah, also known as Olam Asiyah, עוֹלָם עֲשִׂיָּה "World of Action"[2]) is the last of the four spiritual worlds of the Kabbalah based on the passage in Isaiah 43:7. It is identical with the existing world that we live in.[1]

According to the Masseket Azilut, it is the region where the ofanim rule and where they promote the hearing of prayers, support human endeavor, and combat evil. Their ruler is Sandalphon. According to the system of the later Land of Israel Kabbalah, 'Asiyah is the lowest of the spiritual worlds containing the Ten Heavens and the whole system of mundane Creation. The light of the sefirot emanates from these Ten Heavens, which are called the "Ten Sefirot of 'Asiyah"; and through them spirituality and piety are imparted to the realm of matter—the seat of the dark and impure powers.

Representing purely material existence, it is known as the World of Action, the World of Effects or the World of Making. In Western esotericism, it is associated with the Suit of coins in the Tarot. The world of Yetzirah precedes it.

  1. ^ a b MEIJERS, L. D., and J. TENNEKES. “SPIRIT AND MATTER IN THE COSMOLOGY OF CHASSIDIC JUDAISM.” Symbolic Anthropology in the Netherlands, edited by P.E. DE JOSSELIN DE JONG and ERIK SCHWIMMER, vol. 95, Brill, 1982, pp. 200–21. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctvbqs310.15. Accessed 12 Aug. 2022.
  2. ^ GUETTA, ALESSANDRO. “Kabbalah and Rationalism in the Works of Mosheh Ḥayyim Luzzatto and Some Kabbalists of His Time.” Italian Jewry in the Early Modern Era: Essays in Intellectual History, Academic Studies Press, 2014, pp. 185–226. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt21h4w96.13. Accessed 12 Aug. 2022.