The Sefirot: A Very Brief Summary And Symbolism

Symbolism begins with the first sefirah, containing an element of specific characterization that can be hinted at by a symbol (most often by “Thought” or “Supreme Thought” or “Will”). The dynamism of the sefirot reflects the constant change in divine providence and the relationship between God and His creation. The sefirot contain elements of divine justice and mercy, each insufficient to rule the world separately. Only when God uses both these symbolic “hands” (justice to the left and mercy to the right) in the correct proportion can creation exist at a given moment. The organic structure of the sefirot is often described symbolically as a family composed of a Father, a Mother, a Son, and a Daughter, Bride and Bridegroom, Husband and Wife.

The divine world is portrayed as an enormous phalanx of intertwined limbs, roots, trunks, appendages, leaves, buds, and sprouts. Once again, it appears that this symbol reached the Bahir from a Gnostic source. It is even possible that the biblical term male’ (fullness), so prominently invoked in the Bahir in describing the divine powers, is nothing more than a translation of the Gnostic pleroma into Hebrew. Many sections of the Bahir are dedicated to an investigation of the evil element in the upper and lower worlds. This kind of emphasis is unusual when compared with the traditional stress given to such considerations in rabbinic literature, and the metaphors for portraying the workings of evil are often quite new. Philosophical notions can be detected in the Bahir’s linkage between matter and evil. In most passages it seems that the evil elements in the universe are no more than divine emissaries: obedient messengers of the divine command. In such a case evil is not an independent force; the messengers are not evil in essence, nor is there an independent divine source of evil in the pleroma. In other sections of the text such an interpretation would run into difficulty, for in these passages it is implied that there are indeed two separate realms, one wholly good and the other entirely evil. Though hints of such a Gnostic and dualist picture are indeed present, the early Kabbalists who studied and commented on the Bahir did not use it to develop a dualistic system. The most important new element in the Bahir is the system of ten divine powers, arranged in a specified sequence and studied in great detail. The main discussion of these begins in the latter half of the work with the question: “What are these ten utterances [with which the world was created]?” Then begins a list, some powers passed over quickly,