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Introduction

What Makes This Text Important

If there were only one passage of the Zohar that you were to read, this should be it. Indeed, in many Sephardic prayer books, it is included in the daily rite. Other prayer books, such as the Chabad version, include it once a week, in the service immediately preceding Shabbat.

What makes it so special?

It is special because, as Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, the 16th century master kabbalist of Tzfat wrote, it covers “most of the main body of the divine wisdom in a tight, pithy, yet beautiful form, full of esoteric allusion.”1 In other words, all the essence of the kabbalistic wisdom concerning G‑d and His relationship to our world is here.

Specifically, Rabbi Cordovero writes, the text describes:

  • The fundamental concept of the simple oneness of the Infinite (Ein Sof).
  • The concept of emanation and the World of Emanation (Atzilut).
  • The concept of essence and containment (atzmut v’kelim)—meaning, how the Infinite Light emanates into our world through the medium of the ten sefirot.
  • The reason for the World of Emanation.
  • The number of the sefirot and their necessity.

Yet behind all this, the theme is a simple, yet profound paradox: How is G‑d beyond all things and within all things at once?

Transcendence and Immanence

In the parlance of Kabbalah, these two conflicting roles that G‑d plays are called makif and memaleh. Philosophers call that “transcendence and immanence.” Really, it’s quite a simple problem:

From the very start, we have a G‑d who “in the beginning created the heavens and the earth”—which implies that He stands beyond both of them. Not just beyond the material earth, but also beyond the spiritual heavens. Indeed, there could be no greater chasm than that between creation and Creator.

And yet, the same G‑d is also actively conducting that world, supervising the creatures He has formed within it, punishing and rewarding them according to their deeds. In all ways, very here and now—i.e. immanent.

The problem: How does He get deeply involved and engaged within the world while remaining at once absolutely transcendent, unaffected, and unchanging?

It gets yet stickier. The very notion of free choice—a foundation point in Jewish belief—implies both modalities at once:

Free choice implies that He leaves space for us little creatures to make our own decisions within our own little world—even decisions that directly contradict His will and wreak havoc in His universe. That would seem to demonstrate that He stands far beyond, even absent, from the creation He has made.

And yet, He is described as chiding those who break the rules, flooding the world, dispersing its inhabitants, and even displaying anger or pleasure at the deeds of these tiny, seemingly insignificant creatures. That makes Him immanently involved.

Art by Sefira Lightstone
Art by Sefira Lightstone

Presence and Absence

We can reach yet deeper into this paradox: The entire creation is described by the Kabbalah as a product of light. Turn off the light and the whole production is gone. Who emanates that light, articulating it at every moment to generate the continuous flux and flow of our world if not its Creator? If so, in every movement of the creation, He is there, and nothing else but He.

And yet, at the same time, He plays absent, allowing His creatures room to make their own mistakes and to be blamed for them, to achieve their own successes and take the credit.

So it seems He is both beyond it all and directly involved, transcendent and immanent, here and not here at once.

Which is why we need the “mystery of the ten sefirot.”

The Mystery of the Ten Sefirot

Rabbi Cordovero wrote, “One who does not study the mystery of the ten sefirot will come to heresy.”2 Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explained: If he is a person that demands reason, he will not be able to make sense of a fundamental belief of Torah, namely, this seemingly paradoxical notion that G‑d is intimately involved in a world, and yet unmoved by that involvement.3

“The mystery of the ten sefirot” is then the explanation of this paradox, describing a fusion of divine light with divine containment (today, we might call that energy and matter) in ten harmonious modalities. It would be misleading to call it an answer, for the process by which the sefirot mediate between G‑d’s transcendence and His immanent involvement in the world remains a mystery. Yet it is an explanation, for it is a mystery that resonates with the human psyche—we too, experience a similar dynamic within our own beings.

We are beings of body and mind, sinews and soul, and thereby, of immanence and transcendence. There is no experience more fundamental to the human being than this union of the observable, physical self and the inner, intimate being, together making a single whole, an “I.”

Intuitive Knowledge

In our inner selves, the similarity is more specific:

“In the image of G‑d, He created Man.” That image is said to be the structure of ten faculties that comprise the character of every human being. Those faculties mirror the ten sefirot, “the divine image” through which G‑d creates and directs heaven and earth.

We do not grasp our own inner dynamics—we cannot articulate what it means to love, to abhor, to sense, to perceive, to be conscious—but we experience these things. Which means that they are much closer to us than those things that we can articulate: They are not that which I perceive but the I that is perceiving. Not that which I understand but the I that understands.

If so, when we approach G‑d through a model of our own sense of knowing, we have an understanding that is both mystifying and intimate at once: As mystifying as our own senses, and as intimate as our experience of them.

It is in this way that the “mystery of the ten sefirot” allows us to approach the divine: It forms a parallel of this paradox of being and not being to a similar paradox within the human psyche. In a state of deep contemplation, we too can experience this duality of this is me, but this is not me within our own persona. We can feel “I am thinking,” and then wonder who is the I and what is the thinking. And from there, we can abstract this paradox to its ideal form, to the divine.

Art by Sefira Lightstone
Art by Sefira Lightstone

Elucidated Text

Elijah begins by describing G‑d’s transcendence. Yet note how the phrase “You are He” is used repeatedly. Referring to G‑d as You implies that “You are here right now in front of me.” Referring to G‑d as He implies that He is an absent third party.


Elijah began to speak, and he said:

Elijah stood before Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, his holy circle of colleagues and all the great souls in the supernal Garden of Eden and spoke this praise to the Master of All Worlds, thereby revealing many hidden matters:

Master of the Worlds! You are He that is one, but not one that is counted.

Master of infinite realities! You are a singularity, perfectly simple. You cannot be included in any set, for there is no number two to Your number one. You are not numbered among anything else at all, for there is truly nothing outside of Your oneness.

You are He that transcends all transcendence,

You are not only relatively higher, as the spiritual is higher than the physical; You are entirely beyond Your creations and emanations.

You are concealed beyond all concealments.

You are concealed, but not as other things are concealed; You are essentially unknowable.

No thought can possibly grasp You.

Even the first intellect that emanates from You cannot fathom its own origin within You.

Elijah now begins to discuss G‑d’s immanence, as He invests His presence within the sefirot. The sefirot are compared to “adornments.” Not just ordinary clothes, but clothes that enhance the beauty of the one who wears them.

Clothes, by concealing, allow a person to present himself to others. Fine ornaments and jewelry, though not of the person himself, bring out qualities that would otherwise not be perceived. So too the ten sefirot in regard to G‑d’s essential being: They reveal Him through their concealment of Him.


You are He that brought out ten adornments. We call them ten sefirot.

You are He that emanated ten modalities, called sefirot, that would reveal You by concealing You. They frame particular qualities, concealing the whole to reveal the essence.

You emanated them to direct the worlds,

They are not an essential aspect of You. They are but the interface between You and Your creation.

concealed worlds and revealed worlds

For You created an endless number of realities, some that do not perceive themselves as separate from You, and others that perceive only their own reality.

And within them You disguise Yourself from the sons of men.

You filter Your light through these worlds so that self-cognizant beings may stand within the power of Your light while retaining their sense of being real.

Elijah now describes how the sefirot fuse with the light that emanates through them, thereby also fusing with one another. In this way, the sefirot are to these emanations much more than lenses are to light. Light is changed by the lens through which it flows, but the lens itself is not changed by the light flowing through it. The sefirot, on the other hand, actually fuse with the light within them, as well as with the source of that light.

In this way, the relationship of the sefirot and the light is similar to the way the body and the soul fuse to become a single person. Yet the bond is even greater than that, for the light and the sefirah that receives it are really only two modalities of the same G‑d. Since they both extend from one source, they are able to unite in perfect harmony.

This idea is crucial. If the sefirot were external devices that force the Infinite light into focus, then the act of creating and sustaining the world would pose an actual limitation for G‑d and for His light. G‑d’s light would be affected by the act of creation and the world would be “outside” of Him.

In actuality, however, the sefirot are no more than the Infinite choosing to express Himself in these ten ways, much as an actor playing the role he has chosen for himself in a drama. As far as He is concerned, no real change has occurred.

In this way, a world is created in which G-d remains always accessible, since this world is at its essence a G‑dly world.


You are the force that bonds these sefirot and You unite them.

You bond these sefirot together as a single whole, just as the life within a body unites the many cells and organs into a single person.

And since You are within them,

And since You are the sustaining force of their unity,

if one should separate one sefirah from the other,

if any person should cause a division among the sefirot through destructive actions in his world below…

it is as though he has caused a separation in You.

…it is as though He has caused a division in Your oneness. For He prevents Your light from emanating throughout the sefirot and thereby throughout the worlds.


Elijah now begins a description of the order and relationship of the sefirot. They are not discussed as individual entities, but in terms of their relationship with one another and with the light they contain.

In the harmony of the World of Emanation, everything is described in terms of relationships. Nothing exists as an entity of its own.


Now, these ten sefirot emerge according to their order:

These sefirot begin as a singularity, but emerge harmonized in three columns:

One order is long,

The right column of Wisdom, Kindness and Victory, by which You deal with the worlds in a positive, giving way;

one is short

the left column of Understanding, Might and Glory by which You deal with the worlds in strict judgment;

and one is intermediate.

and the middle column of Knowing, Beauty and Royalty by which You deal with the worlds with compassion and forgiveness.

Yet You are the one that conducts them

Yet all these modalities are only by Your will

while there is nothing that conducts You.

and there is nothing that restricts You to follow this order other than Your own decision.

Not from above and not from below

Nothing from the higher sefirot of Mind, nor from the lowest sefirah of Royalty

and not from any direction.

and neither from the middle six sefirot that generate the six directions.


Art by Sefira Lightstone
Art by Sefira Lightstone

Until now, Elijah has spoken only about the highest world, a world of G‑dliness, the World of Emanation. Now He discusses how the sefirot of this world relate to the three lower worlds, which comprise the actual creation.

The World of Emanation can be thought of as the Creator in a modality of creating, while the three lower worlds are that which He creates. There is the Storyteller, and the story that He tells, the Thinker and the thoughts that He thinks. The Storyteller himself remains outside His story, even as He invests Himself in its telling.

So too, the sefirot provide the interface to the lower, created worlds, while they remain entirely otherworldly. They remain a singularity, absorbed within their source.

R. Schneur Zalman provides a useful metaphor of sunlight: The sun itself is not light. It generates light and light radiates from it. But it itself is not luminance, but a luminary.

So is there light within the luminary? Yes and no, R. Schneur Zalman answers. Yes—because to us, here on earth, the sun is light. No—because as far as the sun is concerned, it is a luminary and there is no distinct entity of light as long as we are still within the luminary.

So, too, within the context of the World of Emanation, all the ten sefirot are not distinct entities in any way but completely absorbed and united with their source, the Infinite Light. Only to the “garments”—the created worlds below that are conducted by these ten modalities—do they appear as distinct sefirot.

This leads to another metaphor: The sefirot are called bodies and the worlds created through them are called clothing. With this simile, the key distinction between the World of Emanation and the lower worlds is spoken in terms that are an intimate part of the human experience.

We all feel that we are non-physical beings within physical bodies. The body is not something separate from us, but it does not define us. Our clothing, on the other hand, is entirely external to us—we can remove our clothing, or switch it for other clothing at any time.

So too, as explained above, the sefirot do not define G‑d, and yet they are not entities entirely separate from Him. They are modalities by which He is manifest. The worlds, on the other hand, are creations. They are sustained every moment by the will of their Creator, but they are not Him.


You adorned them with garments.

You invested these ten sefirot within three layers of worlds, much as a body invested in clothing: The World of Creation, The World of Formation, and our world, The World of Actualization

And from these garments emerge souls for the sons of men.

And by descending through these three worlds, the soul is able to invest itself within a human body.

You prepared many bodies for these garments.

The sefirot themselves are bodies. And, as well, You first gave each sefirah three layers of interface between them and these worlds, those layers being the names or containers (kelim) by which the sefirot are called.

But they are only called bodies relative to the garments that cover over them.

But they are entirely unworldly and are only called bodies once there are garments that cover over them—meaning that they are only called sefirot from the perspective of the world below them. On their own plane, they are more like garments, covering the more transcendent soul-like lights of the realm of emanation.


Elijah now discusses the function of each of the ten sefirot. He begins with the lower seven, then moves to the two primary sefirot above them and only then discusses the highest sefirah, Ketter.

They are called forth in this configuration: Their arrangement is prototypical of the human body, which the Torah describes as being created “in the Divine Image.”


Kindness is the right arm.

Chessed: The sefirah of Kindness and Love, which is a positive flow, eventually manifests as the right arm of the human form

Might is the left arm.

Gevurah: The sefirah of Might and Awe, which is a withholding of that flow, becomes manifest as the left arm

Beauty is the torso.

Tiferet: The sefirah of Beauty and Truth, which is a harmony between opposites, manifests as the torso

Victory and Splendor are the two legs.

Netzach & Hod: The sub-sefirot that bring Kindness and Might toward action manifest as the two legs

Foundation is the end of the body,

Yesod: The sefirah of Foundation, whereby all flow of the Infinite Light is channeled toward the worlds, is the final extension of the human form, whereby it is complete

the sign of the holy covenant.

It is the place where the brit mila is performed

Royalty is the mouth,

Malchut: The sefirah of Royalty, Dominion and Actualization becomes the human power of speech

we call it the Oral Teaching.

In its most essential form, it descends as the teachings that we generate through our learning of Torah.


Having discussed the sefirot that correspond to the lower, external body, we now move upward to the higher, inner faculties.

Chochmah is translated as wisdom, but this is imprecise. Elsewhere, the Zohar breaks the word into two parts: Koach Mah. “Ko’ach” means potential. “Mah” is the interrogative “What?” referring to that which cannot be known.

Chochmah is a potential insight into the unknowable. Chochmah is the first and most subtle containment for the Infinite Light, because it does not distort it in any way. It simply sees that which cannot be known and provides Binah the potential for some insight that is graspable.

Binah is translated as understanding. Binah attempts to grasp the light and integrate it so that it can be knowable in some form. To do this, it must remain always faithful to Chochmah—the two are called “two friends that never part.” It is most successful when it feels the quintessence of that which Chochmah is providing it, and in this way it is able to bring yet more light into Chochmah.

Through this process, Binah gives birth to emotions, i.e. the lower sefirot.


Wisdom is the inner mind, from it comes thought.

Chochmah: Wisdom is the dominant power of the mind, residing in the right orb of the brain, the seat of creative thought.

Understanding is the heart and with it the heart understands

Binah: Understanding manifests in the left orb of the brain, but its effects are more apparent in the heart, both of which allow for intuitive understanding, to bring Wisdom to fruition.

It was concerning these two that it was written,

But these two remain beyond the world,

“The hidden things are for Havaye, our Elokim.”

as hinted to in this verse, which means, “The two sefirot which remain hidden in the act of Creation are Wisdom, where the name Havaye is manifest, and Understanding, where the name Elokim is manifest.”

The world was created through the emergence of the seven lower sefirot in the seven days of creation. These higher sefirot remain transcendent of creation. We are only able to bring them into creation through study of Torah, and thereby revealing the meaning and purpose of each thing.


The classic Kabbalistic chart of the Sefirot - Art by Sefira Lightstone
Art by Sefira Lightstone

Often, Da’at (Knowing) is counted as the third sefirah and Ketter (Crown) is not counted. In this passage, Da’at is not counted and Ketter is. In general, when the principle subject is the light within the sefirot, Ketter is counted, since Ketter is pure light—somewhat compromised, yet without containment. When the outer containment of the sefirot is the principle subject, then Ketter is not counted since it has virtually no containment–and so Da’at is counted instead.


The Supernal Crown

Ketter: Just as a crown is entirely transcendent beyond the body, so the sefirah of the Crown is the highest level of the world of Emanation

is the crown of royalty,

and it is simultaneously the sefirah of Royalty of the Infinite Light that lies beyond the world of Emanation

concerning which was said, “He tells the end from the beginning.”

as hinted to in this verse, which means, “The end of the previous world becomes the beginning of the next.”

And it is the skull upon which rests the tefillin

On the human form, this is manifest as the skull that envelopes and transcends the brain—and especially by the tefillin which rests even beyond that. It also relates to the power of will and desire, which transcend and dominate all faculties.

From within, it is the name Mah,

All this discussion of the ten sefirot is only an external description of the World of Emanation, similar to describing a person by his physical form. From within, however, the essence of the World of Emanation is the divine name of four letters, each letter spelled out, calculated to the sum of 45.

that being the path of emanation

This name being the path which reveals the Infinite Light from its concealed state.

it is that which nurtures the tree, its branches and its boughs

This name is the vital force from which extends the tree, the branches—Kindness and Might, and the boughs—Victory and Glory.

as water waters a tree and the tree grows from its watering.

and is the hidden force behind all that occurs from them.


       

Until this point, Elijah was describing the worl of Atzilut, a G‑dly world which is one step beyond the Creation. Now he begins discussing G‑d’s relationship with the created worlds, including our lowest of all worlds:    

   

Master of the Worlds!

Master of all Realities!

You are the origin of all events,

You are the Infinite Light, the origin of all.

the cause of all effects

You are not a direct cause that is affected by causing, but the cause of all causes, remaining unaffected by that which you cause. (The term used is “seba,” which could mean something more like a catalyst— something that causes change, but itself is not changed.)

that waters the tree with that stream.

And this aspect of You, also known as the Infinite Light, is the current underlying all that occurs in the World of Emanation

That stream is like a soul to the body.

You are the active force behind all that occurs from that world

It is life to the body.

And You sustain all that occurs

Yet in You there is no similarity or image

And in this, there is a paradox, for none of this provides any glimpse of what is truly there

of all that is within or without.

Neither from the higher, concealed worlds, nor from the lower, revealed worlds.

You created the heavens and the earth

You created the two realms of the heavens and of earth

and You brought out from them the sun and the moon and the stars and the constellations.

Out of the heavens, you extended the sun, the moon, the stars and the formations of stars.

and from the earth, trees and grass and the Garden of Eden, herbage and wild beasts and animals and birds and fish and people

From the earth, you extended nine other forms, corresponding to the ten sefirot: (2) trees, (3) grass, (4) the Garden of Eden, (5) herbage, (6) wild beasts, (7) animals, (8) birds, (9) fish and (10) people

To make known through them that which is above

So that by knowing and understanding each and all of these creatures below, we will be able to know how things are above

How above and below is conducted

How that which above is conducted according to that which occurs below

How You are known from that which is above and below

And from both above and below we know Your greatness

Yet nothing knows You at all.

Yet none of this knowledge tells us what You really are.

Each of the sefirot has a knowable name

Although the sefirot are all expressions of the same Infinite Light, nevertheless, they are each defined and delimited by a distinct name. There are two sets of such names: One is the set of Divine Names and the other is the set of names mentioned above (Wisdom, Understanding, etc.) These names provide for us a way to relate to the Infinite and call upon Him.

And the angels are called by those names.

Similarly, when an angel is sent on a mission, it carries the name of the sefirah related to that mission. For example, Gavriel is the angel of Gevurah. This angel when performing his mission is truly nothing more than the Infinite Light entering the world in a modality of Gevurah.

But You have no knowable name

Yet at the same time, You have no name that describes You, nor are You affected or changed in any way by being called upon by these names,

For You are He who fills all names

For You are the light that pervades each sefirah, much as a soul fills the body.

And You are the fulfillment of all of them

For whatever they do, it is You doing it.

And when You depart from them

So that if You should remove Your light from them

All of them would remain empty, like a body without a soul.

the containment of the light would remain, since the origin of containment precedes the origin of light. But they would be entirely inactive and impotent.

You are wise, but not with a knowable wisdom.

Your light activates the sefira of Wisdom. But You do not require this sefira in order to be wise, since You are the origin of wisdom. The only reason for this sefira is because wisdom within its origin is unknowable.

You are understanding, but not with a knowable understanding.

Your light activates the sefira of Understanding. But You do not require it in order to understand, since You are the origin of understanding. The only reason for this sefira is that understanding, as it is within its origin, is unknowable.

You have no place from which You can be known.

There is no sefira or name that defines You.

Rather, they are to make known Your power and Your might to human beings.

Rather, the sefirot are to make actual Your capacity for all things, that it may be recognized by cognizant beings.

And to show them how You direct the world with judgment and with compassion.

And to reveal how their world is directed from Above, through the judgment of the sefira of Royalty and the compassion of the sefira of Beauty.

For righteousness and justice is according to the deeds of humanity.

And that the balance of the righteous judgment of the sefira of Royalty and the compassionate justice of the sefira of Beauty all depends on the behavior of human beings, since we are treated in measure to our deeds.

Judgment is Might

The primal origin of the judgment of the sefira of Royalty is in the sefira of Might, for it is the place of constriction of light.

Justice is the middle column

But the balance of justice depends on the middle column, dominated by Beauty.

Righteousness is the Holy Royalty.

Strict judgment originates in how the sefira of Royalty measures out righteousness when disconnected from the middle column of Compassion.

The balances of justice are the two supporters of truth.

The sefirot of Victory and Splendor are called the two supporters of truth, because they channel, weigh, and balance the justice of the sefira of Beauty according to the state of the lower world

A just liquid measure is the sign of the covenant.

The sefira of Foundation is the means by which the light of Wisdom arrives in the sefira of Royalty, only that this light must be carefully measured and limited by the containment of this sefira.

All of these are to show how the world is directed.

And yet, all this is not You in essence, but rather for the sake of revealing within Your world how it is directed by You.

But not that You have a knowable righteousness that is judgment.

But within Your Infinite Light, none of these dynamics or descriptions apply. There, in the origin of all things, all is an absolute and immutable oneness. There is no distinct realm in which righteousness becomes judgment.

Nor a knowable justice that is compassion.

ONeither is there a distinct realm of justice—which comes to the world through the sefira of Beauty, which is also Compassion.

And so, no change or division occurs within You when justice is meted out from these sefirot.

And You are not any of these modalities at all.

There is no sefira that describes You, and none of them are distinct entities within You. You are not defined by any of them in any way.