RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Cabala
eternal Wisdom. The fifth was Hesedh (" Love "; sometimes called Gedhulah, " Magnitude "), the fifth Din (" Law "; also called Gebhurah, " Might," or Pahadh, "Fear "), the sixth Tifereth (" Beauty"; also called Rahamim, "Mercy "), the seventh Nezah {" Firmness "), the eighth Hodh
4. Names ("Splendor"), and the ninth Yesodh of the ("Foundation"). The tenth sefirah
Sefiroth. was Malkhuth ("Kingdom"; also called Shekhinah, "Royalty"), and was united in marriage with the God who rules the world. The number of the sefiroth was doubtless influenced by the fact that astronomy then postulated the existence of ten spheres, and also by the sanctity ascribed to the number ten.
As early as the eleventh century Hai Gaon (998- 1038) classified the ten primal potentialities into two groups, the first including three which produced the spiritual world, and the second comprising two triads which were united by a seventh, and these formed the source of the material world. The main outlines of this classification were retained by later cabalists. Azriel (1160-1238) distinguished three groups — intellectual, spiritual, and material, a classification evidently due to Neoplatonic influence. Each group forms a triad, and its members stand in the mutual relation of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. The first two members, moreover, sustain a polar relation to each other, and are united by the third. Thus, in the first triad, which consists of " Crown," " Wisdom," and " Intelligence," " Intelligence " forms the connecting link. In the second triad, which consists of " Love," " Law," and " Beauty," " Beauty " (or " Mercy ") forms the bond of union, while in the third triad of " Firmness," " Splendor," and " Foundation," the last recon-
5. Triads ciles the first two. All three triads
of are subject to the tenth sefirah,
Sefiroth. " Kingdom," which binds them into a harmonious whole. The first triad, moreover, contained the " authors of the plan of the world," the second the " arrangers," and the third the " creators." Although the sefiroth are by no means comparable with God and do not condition his independence, they partake of his infinity and transmit his streams of blessings to the various worlds. For this purpose, on which their existence and activity depend, they are united with God by invisible canals (zinnoroth) which proceed from the throne of the divine majesty. In so far as the sefiroth are the earliest manifestations of God, they form an ideal world which bears no relation to the material world, and in this aspect they are termed either " primeval man " (adham kadhmon) or " superman " (adham 'ilai), who is sometimes considered to be the sefiroth collectively, and sometimes regarded as the first manifestation whereby God revealed himself as the creator and ruler of the world. In this aspect he seems to be a revelation interposed between God and the universe, and thus a second god, as it were, or the Logos.
According to a later view, various grades of emanation produced four worlds, in each of which the ten sefiroth were repeated. The first of these
was the 'Olam ha-Aeilah ("World of Radiation"), which contains the powers of the divine plan of the worlds. These powers have the same nature as the world of the sefiroth or the Adham kadhmon, while, according to the Zohar, it also contains the throne of the Shekinah and God's mantle of light. From the 'Olam ha-Aeilah emanated the 'Olam ha-Beriah (" World of Creation "), the home of the organizing powers and potencies. There were
the treasuries of blessing and life,
6. The and there was the throne of the glory of
Four God, as well as the halls of all spiritual
Worlds, and moral perfection, where the souls
of the righteous dwelt. In its turn, the 'Olam ha-Beriah produced the 'Olam ha-Yezirah (" World of Creation ") with the angels and Metatron as their chief. To him are subject the evil spirits (kelifoth, " husks "), who dwell in the planets and other heavenly bodies, or in the ether. The fourth world is the present material and phenomenal 'Olam ha-'Assiyah (" World of Action "), which is subject to constant change and delusion. Like the sefiroth, the four worlds are closely connected with God as the primal principle, and receive continual streams of divine blessing. This cosmology of four worlds is based on the theophany of Ezek. i. and seems to be first mentioned in the Massekhcth Aziluth, a small treatise of the first half of the thirteenth century. The anthropomorphic tendencies of the cabalists led them to make distinctions of sex among the sefiroth. The masculine principle, which is white in color, appears chiefly in " Love," although it underlies both the other two sefiroth of the right side (" Wisdom " and " Firmness "); while the passive red female principle, which owes its existence to the male, dwells chiefly in " Law," yet also forms the basis of the other sefiroth of the left side (" Intelligence " and " Splendor ").
Side by side with the heavenly sefiroth exist the sefiroth of evil, and Adham kadhmon, in like manner, has his counterpart in Adham Beliyya'al. The realms are related to each other as the right and the left wing. In the kingdom of evil, as in the realm of good, there are ten grades. Under the leadership of Samael and his queen, the great adulteress, the dark sefiroth toil unceasingly for the destruction of the world. Since, however, the sefiroth of darkness, like the sefiroth of light, were regarded as emanations, there was danger that the Infinite might be considered the author of evil. To obviate this, the older cabalists advanced the hypothesis that the origin of evil was to be sought in
the distances of the emanations from
7. Origin their divine author, since the further
of Evil, they went from God into the material
world, the more degenerate they became. The younger cabalists like Luria, on the other hand, held that the vessels of the sefiroth were unable to contain and conduct the fulness of the divine blessing and burst, thus giving rise to evil. Penance, self-mortification, prayer, and rigid observance of the prescribed ceremonies, however, would gradually reconcile the upper and lower realms and restore the original harmony of the universe. It is noteworthy that this doctrine of the opposition of the two kingdoms is a late
-Cabala Csedmon