Jewish Mysticism?Kabbalah
Prison called life
 Rocks and Mountains
 The Opponent: Desire to Receive
for the Self Alone
 A window / Potential
 Certainty and help
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History
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Begins around the 2nd century with two
schools of thought the
Merkavah/Chariot and
Hekhalot/Chambers or Palaces
Students of the Chariot wanted to recreate Ez. Experience and ascend in
the Chariot to explore the heavens.
The latter expounded on the journey
through these heavenly precincts
Sefer Yetzirah/ Book of
Formation
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Foundational anonymous work – utterly unique
Creation was achieved through the manipulation of
the 10 numbers and 22 letters of the Hebrew
alphabet, what the book called the 32 paths of hidden
wisdom of God
The ten numbers are referred to as sefirot ( Hebrew
for numbers)
The writer believers that if he can find the right
combination of numbers and letters he can recreate
Creation itself.
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The language is personal and cryptic. It
ends, “Their end is connected to their
beginning and their beginning to their
end as a flame is connected to a coal,
that the master is solitary and there is
no second, and before one what do you
count.”
Sefer ha-Zohar/ The Book of
Splendour –
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pulse with the desire for God on every page
Recovering theosophical truths in the teachings of
Torah, the mystics ascend exegetically into God. The
text becomes a series of complex set of codes and
keys to a higher reality. Torah is part of the very
essence of God and to read Torah in their manner is
to touch the wisdom and energy of the Eternal
Suggests that there is a left side and a right side
within in the cosmos that are in constant tension
The Tree of Life solar eclipse,
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Direct exposure to the power of the Almighty was as
unimaginable as looking directly at a solar eclipse.
God is Eyn Sof/without end
How can Eyn Sof be manifested to us
Holy Texts and the sefiort (numbers) is another
The sefirot are a sort of filters a smoked glass if you
will between us and God – they are channels that
help us hear the radio signals of the All Powerful
Tree of Life
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Each of them represent
one aspect of the
Godhead, Each is
identified with a part of
the body or aspects of
the human personality
Highly interdependent
with each one linked to
several others
Sefirot: Song of the Soul
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"[W]e must remember that, no matter how we define
the sefirot, we must keep these rules in mind: sefirot
are not separate from the Creator, Blessed be He,
but are light emanated from Him in order to create.
The actions of the sefirot are illuminations sent from
the Creator, flashes of spiritual light diffusing from His
source and remaining connected with it when they
reach His creatures. Sefirot themselves are
connected to each other and work through a blending
of their strengths and qualities. The consequences of
the sefirot and results of their actions are the totality
of reality."
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"When we remember, however, that God
created a spiritual dimension in order to
reveal Himself to man, such an expression
takes on a completely new significance. For
now, God's `image' does not refer to God
Himself who is completely beyond all
description. It refers to the basic conceptual
model or structure that underlies all creation.
It refers to the Sefirot.
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"It is the Sefirot that make it possible for an infinite
and transcendental God to interact with His creation.
For they allow us to speak about God's immanence in
creation, what He does, without referring too directly
to what He is. It is in this sense that the Sefirot are
the keys to the precise meaning behind the
anthropomorphisms of the Bible, for they tell us about
God's actions. And it is in this sense that man was
created in "the image of God." For man is thus seen
as a microcosm of God's creative powers. Man is a
microcosm of the Sefirot."
Keter
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Keter/Crown represents the first stirrings of Will within
the Godhead, a primal impulse that precedes even
thought but which is essential for any action to take
place
It is also called Ayin/Nothingness, for it was out of the
infinite void that the Almighty created
The name of God associated with Keter is I am what I
will be
The body part associated with Keter is aura, the
space above the head
Colourless
Hokhmah/ Wisdom
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the first impulse to Create as it arose in the Creator
It is the flash of intuition or inspiration that precedes
conscious thought
Sperm that will impregnate Binah/Understanding as
the first step in the Creative process
The name of God associated with Hokhmah is Yah in
the YHWH
right hemisphere of the brain
Color is blue
Binah/Understanding
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divine inspiration begins to take on a definite form
is seen as the contemplative element of Divine
Thought
is the womb and its union with Hokmah will give birth
to the lower seven sefirot
intuition is refined into a conscious thought
letter hey in the YHWH
left hemisphere of the brain
color is green
Hesed/Loving Kindness
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represents the benevolent side of God,
the quality of unconditional love
associated with the Divine name El
(supreme)
right arm
color is white
Gevurah/ Might
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counter to Hesed
God’s wrath
Without Gevuah, the world would be so overwhelmed
by God’s love that it would be reabsorbed into the
Divine; without Hesed, God’s judgment would
unleash forces of destruction on the world
Balance of justice and mercy
Associated with Elohim
Left arm
Red
Tifert/Beauty (or glory)
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balancing force between Hesed and Gevurah (their
offspring)
unites the upper nine powers
the primary male attribute of God (sometimes called
mercy)
sometimes associated with the Written Torah
YHWH itself
Torso
Purple
Netzakh/Victory and
Hod/Splendor
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counterparts to one another
earthly versions of Hesed and Gevura
the former represents God’s active grace and the latter the
manner in which judgment of the Deity is dispensed on earth
Hod is also associated with prophecy
Names Lord of Hosts/ God of Hosts
Netzakh right leg, Hod left leg
Also linked to the left and right kidneys, the testicles or the
female breasts (sources of fertility and nurturing sustenance,
respectively)
N – pink
H – dark pink
Yesod/Foundation
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Channel that unites the other two middle figures of the tree
It is the means by which Tiferet the male principle of the Divine
impregnates Shekhinah or Malkhut, the female embodiment of
the Divine
Yesod is the way in which Divine Creativity and Fertility are
visited upon all creation.
Is associated with the phallus and is therefore closely linked with
the mitzvah of circumcision
Name is El Shaddai/ God Almighty
Color is orange
Malkhut/ Sovereignty
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Culmination and synthesis of all the attributes of God
The quality that links the Eternal Sovereign to the real world
Malkhut is perhaps more familiarly known as the Shekhinah, the
Divine Presence, God’s immanent and female aspect, the way
in which we experience the Divine.
When the Jewish people are in exile, the Shekhinah travels with
them
Mouth or foot
The final hey of the YHWH
Blue and black
General characteristics
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Left side of the tree corresponds to attributes of power and justice
Represents the feminine side of God representing the fear and awe of
God
Right side, represents qualities of unity, harmony, and benevolence, the
attributes that characterize Hesed
World survival is founded on a balance between the two
Our behaviour in the lower world, our world affects the upper world
Only when the ideal balance of justice and mercy is achieved can there
be peace and fulfillment and that can only be brought about through
human actions – through self-mastery, through prayer and mediation
and the fulfillment of the mitzvot