The kabbalah’s starting point for presenting the structure of the innermost divine realms is surprisingly similar to that of the rationalistic philosophers who were in the center of Jewish theological creativity between the tenth and the fifteenth centuries. The concept of an infinite, perfect supreme being that cannot change, a concept absent from Jewish thought in antiquity, is dominant in both philosophy and kabbalah. This concept, which was expressed in the most powerful terms by Aristotelian thinkers when they discussed the primal cause or the unmoved mover, was accepted wholeheartedly by Jewish medieval thinkers. Kabbalistic terminology often used the term “
ein sof ,”
no end, infinite, to designate this supreme entity. Tishby once wrote that the rationalistic philosophers and the kabbalists presented the same questions; only their answers were different. The process of emanation that brought forth the system of 39
K A B B A L A H
the
sefirot
was the kabbalistic answer to the question, “How can anything different emerge from the unchanging and eternal divinity?”
The term
“ein sof ”
itself does not carry any particular meaning. It is a negative phrase that could be replaced by any other negative one: “no beginning” or “eternal” could be used in its stead, as well as any other designation of divine infinity. Unlike the appellations of the
sefirot,
the
ein sof
is not represented by any anthropomorphic or ethical phrase. Many kabbalists insisted that the
ein sof
is not indicated by any biblical phrase, because its perfection and unchanging character put it beyond language, even divine language. It seems that the convention to call this entity by the term “
ein sof ”
developed from philosophical and poetic series of negatives that were used to denote the Godhead, and
ein sof
was the most common and routine one. The realm of
ein sof
in the kabbalah is therefore beyond language, beyond any kind of description, and essentially it is not different from the rationalistic designations of the infinite supreme eternal entity. Some kabbalists, however, did include the
ein sof
in the system of the
sefirot
and identified it, though often in ambiguous terms, with the first
sefirah keter
. This is
,
found even in some sections of the Zohar.
An indication of the problems that the kabbalists faced when trying to reconcile the infinity of
ein sof
with the distinct entities the
sefirot
is found in a variety of systems that postulated the existence of “roots” of the
sefirot
within the
ein sof
itself.
One formulation of this kind is the concept of the
zahzahot,
which described three kinds of supreme, pure sources of light existing within the
ein sof,
which were the source of the emanation of the
sefirot.
This and other such systems attempt to build a bridge between the timelessness of the
ein sof
and the
sefirot,
which exist in time. In other presentations the ten
sefirot
have an early, pure, potential image within the infinity of
ein sof
.
The most important aspect of
ein sof
in kabbalistic thought is as the ultimate source of the flow of the purest divine light (
shefa
) that constantly provides the power to exist in both divine and 40
M A I N I D E A S O F T H E M E D I E V A L K A B B A L A H
earthly realms. Emanation is not a one-time event, but an on-going vital process that maintains the existence of all beings.
There is a close similarity between these kabbalistic concepts and the teachings of various neo-Platonic schools in the Middle Ages, and the centrality of the process of emanation in the kabbalistic descriptions of divinity attest to this close relationship. The kabbalists differed from the neo-Platonists in the intense dynamism and mythological elements that they introduced into their system, especially in the lower realms of existence, and in their belief in the capacity of human deeds and behavior to influence processes in the divine world.
When kabbalists use a term such as the “
shekhinah”
for the feminine aspect in the divine world, their writings tend to blend together with traditional Jewish culture as a whole, because this term is prominent in Jewish texts in many forms and meanings, so that it cannot be used as a distinguishing characteristic separating kabbalah from nonkabbalah. The term “
sefirot,”
the ten divine powers that comprise the divine realm, and the many other terms that accompany it, however, is regarded as a particularly kabbalistic one. It often serves as the most obvious term that marks the text as a kabbalistic one. This is not a fool-proof observation. There were kabbalists who deliberately opposed this term and everything that it represented, including Abraham Abulafia in the second half of the thirteenth century.
There were kabbalists, such as Rabbi Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto in the beginning of the eighteenth century, who tried to hide their distinctive worldview by avoiding this term, though they conveyed the content in other ways. Some Hasidic writers, and some modern religious thinkers, deliberately avoided the use of distinctive kabbalistic terminology. But bearing these exceptions in mind, in most cases the use of the term “
sefirot”
is the clearest indication of a kabbalistic worldview and of a text’s reliance on kabbalistic traditions and sources. A statement that 41
K A B B A L A H
“a work which employs the concept of the ten
sefirot
using this or parallel terms is a kabbalistic one” is not accurate, but it may be as close as one can get to a definition of a kabbalistic work.
The most important exception to this rule is the work in which the term was coined and used—the ancient Sefer Yezira (The Book of Creation), which used this term to denote several characteristics of the cosmos. It is an original concept in the Sefer Yezira. However, the kabbalists in the late twelfth century and the thirteenth gave it a completely new meaning.
In early kabbalistic works this term is not the dominant one.
The Book Bahir, for instance, despite its comprehensive reliance on the Sefer Yezira, did not use the term for the powers in the divine world; it preferred the term “
midot”
(characteristic, qualities) and “
ma’amarot”
(utterances). The Zohar also did not use it frequently, employing instead many other terms. But most kabbalistic works did use the term “
sefirot,”
and this conception of God is the most prominent characteristic of kabbalistic tradition.
The question “What are the
sefirot
?” is one that cannot be answered, because every kabbalist has his own individual conceptions and emphases on this subject. This is the core of envisioning and understanding the divine world, and therefore the most meaningful differences between kabbalists are expressed in their presentations of this realm. Any generalization in this context is necessarily misleading. Many hundreds of kabbalistic writings—intense mythical descriptions on one hand and precise, pseudological presentations on the other—used identical or similar terminology to express radically different worldviews.
Meaningful differences can be found even within the same works, including the Zohar itself. The following presentation of the
sefirot
necessarily overlooks the individual and creative contributions of the kabbalists. It is like describing the structure of a sonnet without discussing the different contents of each poem. It gives the illusion that the kabbalah is a doctrine that can be studied, marginalizing the most important, indi-42
M A I N I D E A S O F T H E M E D I E V A L K A B B A L A H
vidual characteristics. Bearing these reservations in mind, some bold outlines can be drawn.
One of the most common, and most meaningful, descriptions of the system of the
sefirot
is the anthropomorphic one.
The three upper
sefirot
represent the divine head, the next two are the right and left arms, the sixth is the body or the heart, which also represents the masculinity of this figure. The next two represent the legs; the ninth, the phallus; and the tenth represents a separate body, that of the female divine power.
This image is based on the ancient mystical text the Shiur Komah in which the divine body of the creator is described, accompanied by secret names and measurements for each limb (following the description of the beloved in Songs 5:10–16).
Thus portrayed, the divine realm is conceived in mythical, dynamic terms, tending to emphasize processes that are expressed in erotic terms. The image of the
sefirot
as a gigantic anthropomorphic figure is a central one in many kabbalistic works, including the Zohar, while other kabbalists tended to marginalize these terms and use more “logical” ones.
Another most prominent system found in most kabbalistic works is that of the
sefirot
representing the stages of divine emanation. Within the supreme, perfect, and infinite Godhead, the
ein sof,
a point began shining, expressing the divine will to create something beside itself (
keter
). This will was transformed into a plan, a program for the future—this is divine wisdom (
hokhmah
). The third sefirah,
binah
, is portrayed in this system as the supreme fountain from which divine existence emerges; the will and the wisdom, which are just potentialities, are transformed here into actual emanated entities. The first two powers to emerge from
binah
are the modes by which existence is regulated: the right side,
hesed,
expressing love and mercy, and the left,
din
or
gevurah,
representing divine strict law and justice. They are united in the sixth sefirah,
tiferet
, creating a mix-ture that sustains an existence that cannot suffer just pure love or just pure justice.
Nezah
and
hod
represent lower forms of 43
K A B B A L A H
hesed
and
din
, and the ninth,
yesod
, is the vehicle by which divine power is poured into the lower realms. The tenth, the feminine power, is the intermediary that transfers the divine flow to creation, and it is the power of divine revelation to creatures. The system of the
sefirot
is thus conceived as a demiurgic entity, a kind of detailed logos, which bridges the abstract, infinite Godhead and the functions needed to emanate the divine powers, endows them with their specific functions, and enables them to sustain and provide for all existence.
Most kabbalists integrated the biblical names of God into the system of the
sefirot.
Thus, for instance, the tetragrammaton— the biblical name of God written in four letters, YHVH, which, in Hebrew, it is forbidden to pronounce—was interpreted as presenting the first
sefirah,
keter,
in the almost-hidden little point above the first letter, yod, which represents the second
sefirah,
divine wisdom (
hokhmah
). The first letter, he, is the binah, followed by the vav, which represents the number six, and thus relates to the six central
sefirot
from
hesed
to
yesod
. The last he represents the female entity, the
shekhinah.
This just one of the many interpretations of this name, and all other divine appellations in the Bible and Talmud are conceived as representing one or a group of
sefirot
. It can be stated that the system of the
sefirot
is viewed by most kabbalists to represent hidden, secret name or names of God. In this way, the myth of the ten entities and the linguistic expressions of the divine realm are united in the kabbalistic worldview. Kabbalists utilized the names that were used by prekabbalistic esoterics, including the names of twelve, forty-two, and seventy-two letters, and integrated them in this system.
The kabbalists translated almost all the classical—biblical and talmudic—terms into their system of divine emanations.
Every linguistic “pair” has been interpreted as relating to the gender duality in the divine world, the masculine and the feminine: the sun and the moon, heaven and earth, and day and night were understood to represent this duality. The heroes of biblical narratives were identified with these supreme emana-44
M A I N I D E A S O F T H E M E D I E V A L K A B B A L A H
tions; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are
hesed
,
din,
and
tiferet
; Joseph is
yesod
; David is the
shekhinah
; and many other combinations. The structure of the human soul was conceived as reflecting this structure, the various powers in the human psyche being identified with the divine powers. In the medieval kabbalah we find systems in which the realm of the
sefirot
is duplicated, multiplied, and repeated, so that the number of
sefirot
may range from twenty to one hundred. In Lurianic kabbalah the number of the
sefirot
is infinite, because every entity—material or spiritual, high and low—is described as being comprised of different combinations of this system. The
sefirot
cease to be individual entities and become the basic structure of everything.
Various kabbalists described the
sefirot
as personifications of ethical values that are combined by God in order to govern the world by them. Others emphasized the philosophical, pseudorational character of the system, presenting it as an almost neo-Platonic series of divine emanations. Others divided them or duplicated them into “worlds,” various layers of existence descending from pure divinity to more material, physical realms. Most kabbalists presented intricate combinations of these
serifot
and other elements.