Ohr

Ohr (Hebrew: אור, romanizedʾor, lit.'Light', plural: אורות ʾoroṯ) is a central Kabbalistic term in Jewish mysticism. The analogy of physical light describes divine emanations. Shefa "flow" (שפע šep̄aʿ) and its derivative, hashpaʾa "influence" השפעה hašpāʿā), are sometimes alternatively used in Kabbalah and medieval Jewish philosophy to mean divine influence, while the Kabbalists favour ʾor because its numerical value equals ר״ז, a homonym for רז rāz "mystery".[1] ʾOr is one of the two main Kabbalistic metaphors for understanding God, along with the other metaphor of the human soul-body relationship for the sefirot.[2]

  1. ^ Schochet, Jacob Immanuel (1988). Mystical Concepts in Chassidism: An Introduction to Kabbalistic Concepts and Doctrines, 3d Revised Edition. Kehot Publication Society. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-8266-0412-5. The mystics have a special affinity for the term Or because its numerical value (gematriya) is equivalent to that of raz (mystery): "'Let there be light' (Gen. 1:3)-i.e., let there be Raz (Mystery; Concealment); for Raz and Or are one thing"; Zohar I:140a and Zohar Chadash, Bereishit:8d; see Tikunei Zohur 21:53b, and cf. R. Moses Cordovero, Or Ne'erau (Fuerth,1701),111:ch.4.
  2. ^ Mystical Concepts in Chassidism, Kehot pub., chapter 1 "Anthropomorphism and Metaphors": (i Anthropomorphism, ii The Man-Metaphor, iii The Light-Metaphor)