Sefirot

From The SpiritWiki
Revision as of 17:35, 26 February 2020 by Michael (talk | contribs) (→‎Notes)

In the Sefir Yezira, the Sefirot are the "directions or dimensions" of the cosmos (north, south, east, west, up, down, beginning, end, good and evil).[1]

Related Terms

Kabbalah > Age of Redemption, Ain Soph, Ain Soph Aur, Breaking of the Vessels, Descent to the Chariot, Messiah, Mitzvah, Nejuda Reshima, Sefirot, Shekhinah, The Correction, The Withdrawal, Tikkun, Treatise on the Emanations on the Left

Notes

The sefirot are a unique feature of the Kabbalah and serve to distinguish a kabbalistic text from a regular Jewish text.[2]


"These sefirot are not divine powers; thirteenth-century kabbalists did not attribute this meaning to this term. The sefirot are described as the directions or dimensions of the cosmos (north, south, east, west, up, down, beginning, end, good, and evil), as well as the holy beasts of Ezekiel’s chariot, the stages of the emergence of the three elements (divine spirit, air or wind, and water and fire), and other characteristics that are unclear. The early commentators interpreted the sefirot as the ten basic numbers from one to ten. Most of the work is dedicated to a detailed description how the various letters and groups of letters served the process of creation and dominate the various aspects of the universe.[3]


Footnotes

  1. Dan, Joseph. Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  2. Dan, Joseph. Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  3. Dan, Joseph. Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. (Kindle Locations 307-312)