A tension exists within Kabbalistic/Hasidic thought between two outlooks on God, man and the world that are so different that it is hard to imagine that they co-exist within a single system of religious thought and practice. On the one hand we find in the Kabbalah, and especially amongst the Hasidim, what can only be […]
Read MoreWhile the Lurianic Kabbalah is highly complex and recondite in its symbolism and ideas, its understanding of the meaning of life is neither hidden nor obscure: It involves the endeavor to realize objective values in the face of the obstacles, suffering, and tragedies of this world. This view if life-meaning follows from what I have […]
Read MoreJewish Review Volume 4 , Issue 1 Sanford L. Drob, Ph.D. The kabbalistic concept of tikkun haolam, the repair of restoration of the world, has been reignited in the Jewish imagination in recent years. Jewish philosophers have adapted this concept for their own use and a major Jewish periodical, Tikkun, has emerged which explicitly adopts […]
Read MoreThe following is a verbal representation of Lurianic Kabbalah account of God, humanity and the world. The story it tells is circular as the end is also the beginning. The Lurianic theosophy represents an “absolute” (Ein-sof) which evolves with, and who is completed by creation. Left: The Discourse on Light. Aquarelle on paper. SanfordDrobart.com. […]
Read MoreThe symbol of the Sefirot is the defining notion of Kabbalistic theosophy. The Sefirot (singular Sefirah) which are almost always conceived to be ten in number, are the building blocks of creation, the archetypes of existence, the traits of God, and the primary values of the world. The earliest reference to the Sefirot is in the proto-Kabbalistic source, Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Formation), where […]
Read MoreThe symbol of Tikkun ha-Olam embodies the most distinctively Jewish, as well as the the single most important ethical injunction of the Kabbalah: the command that humanity must restore and redeem a broken and fallen world (see Shevirat ha-Kelim). As articulated by Isaac Luria in 16th century Safed, Tikkun is a symbol with both metaphysical and theological implications. Luria and his disciples understood every event in the created universe, […]
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 […]
Read More(An expanded version of this article appears in S. Drob, Kabbalah and Postmodernism. These ideas are also placed in a wider context in A Rational Mystical Ascent: The Coincidence of Opposites in Kabbalistic and Hasidic Thought Introduction The doctrine of coincidentia oppositorum, the interpenetration, interdependence and unification of opposites has long been one of the defining characteristics […]
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