The Essential Works of Kabbalah. Bernhard Pick

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The Essential Works of Kabbalah - Bernhard Pick

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Cabalists of the eighteenth century, with the exception of Moses Chayim Luzzatto (born 1707, died 1747), are of little importance. Modern influences gradually put a stop to the authority of the Cabala, and modern Judaism sees in the Cabala in general only an historical curiosity or an object of literary historical disquisitions.

      CHAPTER V.

      THE MOST IMPORTANT DOCTRINES OF THE CABALA.

       Table of Contents

      God arid Creation.—After having become acquainted in previous chapters with the principal actors in the cabalistic drama we are now prepared to examine the tenets of the Cabala.

      Different from the system as exhibited in the Book of Creation or Jezirah is that of the Zohar, because the more difficult, since it embraces not merely the origin of the world, but likewise speculates on the essence of God and the properties of man; in other words it treats of theology, cosmology and anthropology.

      The En Soph, not being an object of cognition, made his existence known in the creation of the world by means of attributes or mediums, the ten Sephiroth, or intelligences, radiations, emanations, emanating from the En Soph, and which in their totality represent and are called the Adam Kadmon, the "Primordial or Archetypal Man."

      The first Sephirah is called Kether, "Crown"; the second Chochma, "Wisdom"; the third Bina, "Intelligence"; the fourth Chesed, "Mercy"; the fifth Din, "Judgment"; the sixth Tiphereth, "Beauty"; the seventh Nczach, "Splendor"; the eighth Hod, "Majesty"; the ninth Jesod, "Foundation" ; the tenth Malchuth, "Kingdom."

      The Cabalists delight in representing the ten Sephiroth under different forms; now as Adam Kadmon, "Primordial or Archetypal Man," now as the cabalistic tree or the Ilan, in which the crown is represented by the first Sephirah and the root by the last.

      The Divine Man.-—As to the Adam Kadmon which is shown in the following figure, the Crown represents the head; Wisdom, the brains; Intelligence which unites the two and produces the first triad, the heart or the understanding. The fourth and fifth Sephiroth, i. e., Love and Justice are the two arms, the former the right arm and the latter the left; one distributing life and the other death. The sixth Sephirah, Beauty, uniting these two opposites and producing the second triad, is the chest. Firmness and Splendor of the third triad represent the two legs, whereas Foundation, the ninth Sephirah, represents the genital organs, since it denotes the basis and source of all things. Finally Kingdom, the tenth Sephirah, represents the harmony of the whole Archetypal Man.

      Now in looking at the Sephiroth which constitute the first triad, it will be seen that they represent the intellect; hence this triad is called by Azariel the ''intellectual world" (olam muskal or olam ha-sechel). The second triad which represents moral qualities, is called the "moral" or "sensuous world" (olam murgash, also olam hanephesh) ; and the third, representing power and Stability, is called the "material world" (olam mutba or olam ha-teba).

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      Fig. 1. ADAM KADMON, THE ARCHETYPAL MAN.

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      Fig. 2. THE CABALISTIC TREE.

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      Fig. 3. THE PILLAR ARRANGEMENT.

      As concerns the cabalistic tree (the ildn ha-cabala), the Sephiroth are so arranged that the first triad is placed above, the second and third are placed below, in such a manner that the three masculine Sephiroth are on the right, the three feminine on the left, whilst the four uniting Sephiroth occupy the center, as shown in Fig 2.

      According to another arrangement the Sephiroth are so ordered that they form three pillars, a right one (sitra

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