Esoteric Coffeehouse

Since last time I wrote about the Christian Kabbalah, I thought I’d briefly talk about the Jewish Kabbalah as well, with the caveat that I’m not an expert in this. My conclusions here come from reading mainly books and articles by the best scholars in Kabbalah – Gershom Scholem and Moshe Idel.

Based on my reading, I would generally divide the Kabbalah into three main categories: Sephirotic, Ecstatic and Lurianic. I will explain each of them in some detail below.

The Sephirotic, or Zoharic Kabbalah is that which is best known to modernity. It has been described as ‘theosophical-theurgical’ in the sense that it involves a complex cosmology and metaphysics, and it also involves a human effort of uniting the lower world to the upper one. The Sephirotic Kabbalah is almost exclusively the product of the Jewish diaspora (the Sephardic Jews) in the Spanish Middle Ages. Their supreme accomplishment is the Zohar, the Book of Splendor, written sometimes in the 13th century, presumably by the Kabbalist Moses de Leon.

According to the Zohar, and other writings, God is the Ein-Soph, the indefinable, indescribable divinity. Out of this infinity, He projects himself into three initial emanations, the first three Sephirot: Kether (Crown), Hochmah (Wisdom) and Binah (Understanding). These, in turn, produce the lower seven: Daat (Knowledge), Hesed (Mercy or Kindness), Gevurah (Strength or Power), Tipheret (Beauty), Netzach (Victory), Hod (Glory), Yesod (Foundation) and Malkuth (Kingdom or Monarchy). The emanations are dynamic and create a complex relationship amongst them – it is often said that the links are more important than the actual emanations.

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