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| The Sefirot in Kabbalah | ||
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The Tree of Life | |
Sefirot (/sfɪˈroʊt, ˈsfɪroʊt/; Hebrew: סְפִירוֹת, romanized: səfiroṯ, plural of Koinē Greek: σφαῖρα, lit. 'sphere'[1]),[2] meaning emanations, are the 10 attributes/emanations in Kabbalah,[3] through which Ein Sof ("infinite space") reveals itself and continuously creates both the physical realm and the seder hishtalshelut (the chained descent of the metaphysical Four Worlds). The term is alternatively transliterated into English as sephirot/sephiroth, singular sefira/sephirah.
As revelations of the creator's will (רצון rāṣon),[4] the sefirot should not be understood as ten gods, but rather as ten different channels through which the one God reveals His will. In later Jewish literature, the ten sefirot refer either to the ten manifestations of God; the ten powers or faculties of the soul; or the ten structural forces of nature.[5]
Alternative configurations of the sefirot are interpreted by various schools in the historical evolution of Kabbalah, with each articulating differing spiritual aspects. The tradition of enumerating 10 is stated in the Sefer Yetzirah, "Ten sefirot of nothingness, ten and not nine, ten and not eleven".[6] As altogether 11 sefirot are listed across the various schemes, two (Keter and Da'at) are seen as unconscious and conscious manifestations of the same principle, conserving the 10 categories.[5] The sefirot are described as channels of divine creative life force or consciousness through which the unknowable divine essence is revealed to mankind.
The first sefirah, Keter, describes the divine superconscious Will that is beyond conscious intellect. The next three sefirot (Chokmah, Binah and Da'at) describe three levels of conscious divine intellect. In particular, Da'at represents Keter in its knowable form, the concept of knowledge. Will and knowledge are corresponding somewhat dependent opposites. The seven subsequent sefirot (Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod and Malkuth) describe the primary and secondary conscious divine emotions. The sefirot of the left side and the sefira of Malkuth are feminine, as the female principle in Kabbalah describes a vessel that receives the outward male light, then inwardly nurtures and gives birth to the sefirot below them. Kabbalah sees the human soul as mirroring the divine (after Genesis 1:27, "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them"), and more widely, all creations as reflections of their life source in the sefirot. Therefore, the sefirot also describe the spiritual life of man, break down man's psychological processes, and constitute the conceptual paradigm in Kabbalah for understanding everything. This relationship between the soul of man and the divine gives Kabbalah one of its two central metaphors in describing divinity, alongside the other Ohr (light) metaphor. However, Kabbalah repeatedly stresses the need to avoid all corporeal interpretation. Through this, the sefirot are related to the structure of the body and are reformed into partzufim (personas). Underlying the structural purpose of each sefirah is a hidden motivational force which is understood best by comparison with a corresponding psychological state in human spiritual experience.[5]
In Hasidic philosophy, which has sought to internalise the experience of Jewish mysticism into daily inspiration (devekut), this inner life of the sefirot is explored, and the role they play in man's service of God in this world.
- ^ Schulte, Christoph (2023). Zimzum: God and the Origin of the World. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-5128-2436-0.
- ^ Khan, Geoffrey (2020). The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew. Vol. 1. Open Book Publishers. ISBN 978-1783746767.
- ^ Trachtenberg, Joshua (2004) [1939]. "Glossary of Hebrew Terms". Jewish Magic and Superstition. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 333. ISBN 978-0812218626 – via Sacred-texts.com.
Sefirot—the ten creative attributes of God, according to the Kabbalah.
- ^ Cohn-Sherbok & Cohn-Sherbok (1994), p. 49.
- ^ a b c Ginsburgh (2006).
- ^ Kaplan (1997), p. 38.