In their notion of Ein-Sof the Kabbalists developed a concept of an infinite Godhead which in many ways parallels ancient Indian ideas. Both the Kabbalist’s Ein-Sof and the Indian Brahman refer to an underlying reality that is the substance and energy of all life and mind. Like Ein-Sof, the principle called Brahman (or in its creative mode: Atman), is in effect, beyond any God who […]
Read MoreKabbalah” means “received tradition,” and the term refers to the mystical and esoteric traditions of the Jewish people. However, it is somewhat misleading to speak of “the Kabbalah” as if it were a single, unified set of symbols or ideas. Moshe Idel, for example, has discerned three basic models operating and competing throughout the history […]
Read MoreThe Lurianists held that the Sefirot, in all worlds but the World of Points, are organized into Partzufim, “Visages” or personal aspects of Adam Kadmon, the Primordial Adam. According to Moses Luzatto, both the Sefirot and Partzufim are constructed of ten lights (representing each of the ten Sefirot), each of which are themselves constructed of ten more, and so on ad infinitum. However, when […]
Read MoreIn the Lurianic Kabbalah, the Kellipot (singular: Kellipah) are the “husks” or “shells” imprisoning the sparks of divine light that were exiled from God as a result of the Breaking of the Vessels. The world as we know it is thoroughly comprised of these Kellipot, some of which are completely dark and “unclean” and thus irredeemable by man, other’s […]
Read MoreAccording to Isaac Luria, the ten vessels that were originally meant to contain the emanation of God’s light were unable to contain that light and were hence either displaced or shattered. As a result of this cosmic catastrophe, the Sefirot, the archetypal values through which the cosmos was created, are shattered and out of place, […]
Read MoreThe Sefirot are thought to provide the structural elements for each of the Kabbalist’s “Worlds.” The Olamot comprise a second stage in God’s creative process. In this stage the Sefirot are organized into a series of four (and in some schemes five) basic “World,s” which are thought to be progressively distinct from God’s primordial essence or light. Each of the Olamot serves to […]
Read MoreThe Otiyot Yesod or “Foundational Letters” are first described in the early proto-Kabbalistic work, Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Formation). In this work we find, alongside the notion that the world is composed of ten Sefirot, an additional and at times parallel symbolism in which the entire cosmos is said to be created from the 22 consonant/letters of the Hebrew […]
Read MoreThe symbol of the Primordial Human, the first being to emerge with the creation of the cosmos is common to a number of religious and philosophical traditions. The Upanishads describe a primal man composed of the very elements which were to become the world. According to the Upanishads this “gigantic divine being” is both infinitely […]
Read MoreThe word Tzimtzum has at least two meanings. The first is an ontological meaning connoting “contraction”, “withdrawal”, or “condensation.” The second is an epistemological meaning, which connotes “concealment” or “occultation”. Both the ontological and epistemological senses of the term are necessary to a full understanding of the Lurianic theory of creation. The doctrine of Tzimtzim gives expression to a […]
Read MoreEin-Sof, the Infinite God, has no static, definable form. Instead, the Kabbalists conceive God, the world and humanity as evolving together through, and thus embodying, a number of distinct stages and aspects, with later stages opposing, but at the same time encompassing, earlier ones. The Kabbalistıs God is both perfectly simple and infinitely complex, nothing […]
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Kabbalistic Metaphors: Jewish Mystical Themes in Ancient and Modern Thought (Jason Aronson, 2000) places the major symbols of the theosophical Kabbalah into a dialogue with several systems of ancient and modern thought, including Indian philosophy, Platonism, Gnosticism, and the works of Hegel, Freud, and Jung. The author shows how the Kabbalah organizes a series of ancient […]
Read MoreOver the years I have had occasion to consult with a variety of individuals who entered psychotherapy because of what they described as unbearable ambivalences or contradictions in their mental life. A man who had been completely devoted to his aging father was distressed by daydreams in which he took pleasure in anticipating his father’s death. A […]
Read MoreThe Talmud teaches that gossip is like a three pronged tongue which kills three people: the person who says it, the person who listens to it, and the person about whom it is said. So strong is the condemnation of gossip and slander in Jewish tradition that the founder of the chasidic movement, the great […]
Read MoreDownload PDF here Published in: Religions 2024, 15, 1088. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091088 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions Abstract Freud chose the myth of Oedipus as the foundation for his understanding of human development, obedience to the law, and his theory of civilization, and he wrote that he saw no psychological value in analyzing the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the […]
Read MoreFor the past quarter century James Hillman has been creating a new vision of psychology, one in which psychology becomes a “supreme discipline” concerned not only with the psyche of humanity but the “soul” which is at the heart of the world. Vilified by some, he has been called brilliant, explosive and poetic by others. […]
Read MoreThe Lurianic System (1)Ein-sof (The infinite godhead), of which nothing can be said… (2) is the union of being and nothingness, of “everything and its opposite”, male and female, good and evil, etc. (3) Ein-sof performs a divine concealment, contraction (Tzimtzum) leading to a… (4) Metaphysical Void (tehiru), a circle surrounded by Ein-sof on all sides. (5) This void contains […]
Read MoreThe Lurianic Kabbalah represents the most complex and sophisticated variant of Jewish mystical theosophy. As transmitted by his disciples (notably Chayyim Vital, 1542-1620, see Menzi and Padeh, 1999), and later interpreted by the Hasidim, Isaac Luria’s dynamic understanding and reformulation of the symbols of the Zohar, provides a theological scheme which cries out to be interpreted […]
Read MoreFreud’s reported interest in the Lurianic Kabbalah is explored from both theoretical and psychotherapeutic points of view. The Lurianic symbols are understood both as important historical antecedents to psychoanalysis and as a significant source of both insight and inspiration for contemporary psychotherapists. Download PDF here Abstract The author considers the report of a Lithuanian rabbi, Chayyim […]
Read More(For More on Derrida, Postmodernism and the Kabbalah see: Jacques Derrida and the Lurianic Kabbalah and my book Kabbalah and Postmodernism: A Dialogue.) (Kabbalah and Postmodernism: A Dialogue (Studies in Judaism): Drob, Sandford L.: 9781433103049: Amazon.com: Books) In one of his last meetings with Jacques Derrida, Emmanauel Levinas is said to have asked Derrida to […]
Read MoreIn one of his last meetings with Jacques Derrida, the French-Jewish philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas 1906-1995), is said to have asked Derrida to confess that he was in fact a modern day representative of the Lurianic Kabbalah. I learned of this from the death-of-God theologian, Thomas J.J. Altizer, who related that he had heard it from […]
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