A Verbal Picture of the Lurianic Theosophy
The 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.
Ein-sof (The infinite godhead),
is Ayin (Nothingness), about which nothing can be said…
Yet it is the Union of being and nothingness, of “everything and its opposite,”
in coincidentia oppositorum, the complementarity of opposing, even
contradictory principles
creating itself out of its own nothingness,
the foundation of yet completed by the world,
creator of, and created by, man.
Ein-sof performs a Tzimtzum (Divine Concealment, Contraction, Withdrawal) which leads to a…
Metaphysical Void (tehiru), a circle surrounded by Ein-sof on all sides…
containing a residue (Reshimu) of divine light, and into which is emanated…
the light of the infinite (Or Ein-sof), a thin line (kav) through which…
Adam Kadmon (Primordial Man) spontaneously emerges.
Lights, also conceived as holy “letters” flashing and recoiling from Adam Kadmon’s eyes, nose, mouth and ears form…
Vessels (Kelim) for containing further lights, thus forming the “World of Points” comprised of…
the Sefirot (Archetypes of Value and Being; constituents of the body of Adam Kadmon):
Keter (Crown, Will, Delight, the highest Sefirah)
Chochmah (Intellect, Wisdom, Paternal) Binah (Understanding, Maternal)
Chesed (Loving-Kindness) Tiferet/Rachamim (Beauty, Compassion) Din/Gevurah (Judgment, Strength)
Netzach (Glory) Hod (Splendor)
Yesod (Foundation)
Malchut/Shekhinah (Kingship/ Feminine principle). …
The vessels are also composed of the Otiyot Yesod, the 22 letters of divine speech.
and are organized into…
Worlds (Olamot)
Adam Kadmon (A’K, identified with Ein-sof and Keter)
Atziluth (Nearness)
Beriah (Creation)
Yetzirah (Formation)
Assiyah (Making, the lowest world, includes our material earth).
The weakness and disunity of the Sefirot leads to their shattering and displacement, known as…
The Breaking of The Vessels (Shevirat Hakelim), which produces…
a rupture in the conjugal flow between Masculine and Feminine aspects of God, and
Netzotzim (Sparks) which fall and become entrapped in…
Kellipot (Husks), which comprise the…
Sitra Achra (The Other Side, a realm of darkness and evil).
Lights from the forehead of Adam Kadmon, also conceptualized
as mystical names reconstitute
the broken Sefirot/vessels as:
Partzufim (Faces or Personalities of God)
Attika Kaddisha (The Holy Ancient One)/ Keter
Abba (The Father)/ Chochmah
Imma (The Mother)/ Binah
Zeir Anpin (The Impatient One) Chesed – Yesod
Nukvah (The Female) Malchut/Shekhinah. …This begins….
Tikkun ha-Olam (The restoration of the World) , which is completed by man, who via
the “raising of the sparks” brings about the
Reunification of the Partzufim , the masculine and feminine principles of God.
The dialectic of Ein-Sof is Mirrored in Man,
but, properly speaking, there is no man, no world, only God.
All of the above, however, is, paradoxically said from the point of view of man
who is himself both an illusory and necessary being.
Yet Ein-Sof is most closely identified with the redemptive activities of humanity, as
Tikkun ha-Olam results in the completion and perfection of Ein-sof
(return to beginning)…