SEPHIROT

Sefer Yetsira
Sepher Yetsira is one of the best sources of writings about the Sephirot. A well known text is the translation by Aryeh Kaplan, (which this material is largely based on), The book also includes the diagram of the "Tree of Life" on the right.

This is ancient Kabbalistic book is believed to be written by Abraham “Avinu”

These pages include:
.32 paths
.. ..10 sephirot and
. .. 22 Letters of the .....the........Alphabet
..................... .3 Mothers
.......................7 Doubles
......................12 Elementals
Table of 10 Utterances
Sephirot Diagrams.
Sefer Yetsira page 1:
.......Creation with 3 books
..............Text
..............Communication
..............Number
Features of Sephirot
............ Division into 3 and 7
Counting the Omer
List of threes
List of Sevens
Reflection
Pardes
Construction Diagram of Sephirot
Sephira unstable DAAT

SEPHER YETSIRA
Sepher Yetsira is one of the best sources of writings about the Sephirot. A well known text is the translation by Aryeh Kaplan, which this material is largely based on.This ancient kabbalistic book supposedly written by Abraham “Avinu”, refers on its opening page, to the

32 paths of wisdom, made up of ten Sephirot joined together by the 22 letters of the alphabet.

The beauty and simplicity of the 32 Mystical paths of creation,

belies the vast fascinating cosmos that they represent, which is what this page will consider.

Below is a diagram, the famous "tree of life" which is made up of the 10 sephirot connected by the 22 letters of the alphabet.

God created the universe with ten utterances.

These are reflected by the 10 Sephirot.

The manifestations of the 10 Sephirot in human beings are a reflection of the creation of the universe with ten utterances.

With 32 mystical paths of Wisdom
...engraved Yah
..........the Lord of Hosts
..........the God of Israel
..the living God
..........King of the universe
..El Shaddai
...........Merciful and Gracious
..........High and Exalted
..........Dwelling in eternity
..........Whose name is Holy
............He is lofty and holy —
And He created His universe
....with three books (Sepharim),
..........with text (Sepher)
..........with number (Sephar)
.........and with communication (Sippur).

THE TABLE OF THE SEPHIROT OR THE TREE OF LIFE

The divine created the Universe with ten steps of energy, from the galaxies to the human being.Similarly, He also created the human being with these ten steps. These 10 steps are like quantum jumps which are called Sephirot. The creation of humanity is an image of the creation of the universe. The macrocosm is a reflection of the microcosm.

A similar example is the DNA structure in the egg cell, which is duplicated in every other cell's DNA, for that individual. Each cells DNA is an image or reflection of every other cell's DNA

Similarly we are a reflection or image of the divine

Sepher Yetsira refers to the Sephirot as Nothingness. AYIN

The whole table of the Sephirot finds itself interposed in a triad between the extremes of Ayin and Ein SOF as in the diagram on the below. It is easy to understand that God is the creator of the vastness of the expanding universe, EIN SOF but a little more difficult to comprehend that God's presence runs through the whole of the creation, getting smaller and smaller, right into the nothingness of AYIN and the Sephirot.

There is a paradox that God is everywhere and nowhere simultaneously. These notes will try to illuminate this paradox

The concept of the Sephirot has been adopted by as many Jewish groups as non Jewish Groups A quick preview of Google will show there are over 300,000 references to the sephirot including the Masonic, Rosicrucian’s, Chakras, Tarot, Musicians and Gnostic groups

Features of the Sephirot

The intellectual triad.

The love of knowledge

We start with the features of Ketter. Ketter means crown and represents the crown which sits above the head but is not part of the head. It is all part of the Ein SOF. It represents God’s will. God decided to create the universe. He did it by his own will (ratson). Why did He create the universe? Scriptures tell us that He did it for His own pleasure (Ta-anug). By his own will for his own pleasure. Ketter is the most difficult of the Sephirot to understand. Sefer Yetsira tells us that the beginning is in the end implying that Ketter, at the beginning is in the end, Malchus.

Chochma is the next Sephira. It may be considered as that part of mind which is forever producing ideas. Its produces ideas in abundance. It is a typical masculine phenomena to produce in abundance, whether it is the human male seed, or the male pollen from a flower. In contrast the next Sephira, Bina, which is a typically feminine takes only one of the seeds and nurtures it. An example of one of these seeds could have been that produced by a Archimedes when he got into his bath and saw the water rising. He spent the rest of his life nurturing this one Idea. Chochma is at the head of the positive column, whilst Bina is at the head of the negative column. Bina represents the quality of discrimination, Chochma produces an abundance of information. Bina selects one of the concepts or ideas from Chochma and develops it, in the same way as a female selects one male and develops him. Bina is also called discrimination from the word ‘BEN’ meaning between. It selects between different alternatives.

Can also be the suppression of Knowledge

The Emotional Triad

The Love of beauty

Chesed , which is the next Sephira, is translated as kindness. It is said that God created the universe with kindness and so kindness runs through the whole universe. But, kindness also needs its limit which is established by Guvura. A good example of the balance between Chesed and Guvura is the overwhelming excessive kindness of a parent towards its child, which needs to be modified or limited by Guvura. The earth needs rain, but an excess of it may produce a flood. The abundant Chesed in the form of rain needs to be limited by Guvura. To stop the nose growing longer and longer like Pinocchio, it’s growth is limited by the power of Gevura. When Guvura and Chesed are in balance they produce the Sephira of Tiferet, which is translated into beauty. Another example of this balance can be understood by the sight of water falling over rocks. This soft flowing water of Chesed is broken up by the hard rocks of Guvura producing the beautiful cascade of Tiferet.

THe Physical triad

Love of movement .Sport and Dance.
Sex.

Netzach, which is the next Sephira is translated into victory and represents forcefulness vigour, perseverance, consistency. Like all the other masculine sephirot in this column if it is balanced by the feminine Sephira of Hod. Netzach can also represent the relationship between teacher and pupil or between man and woman or between any two people. When it is healthy, with mutual respect, the pupil learns and the man and woman man combine to have a family. On the other hand it also represents the military general’s understanding and overcoming his opponents. Moses is considered to be a representation of Netzach while his brother Aaron ,who played a more passive role is represented by Hod.

Yesod represents the happy union between male and female or the successful teaching of the student. Yesod also shows the way all the forces from the higher sephirot above, channel into Yesod and then proceed into the kingdom of Malchus. Malchus represents the kingdom on earth. This is where you and I find each

THE FIRST TRIAD

Diagram on the right

Represents the creation of of BOTH the universe and humanity. The spectrum from Ein Sof to Ayin

From Keter, Ein Sof, The Divine, Absolute All

to

Malchus, the Kingdom, AYIN. Absolute Nothing

THE SECOND TRIAD.
See diagram on left

The Second Triad consists of three vertical columns.

An active male column on the right, passive female column on the left and a neutral column in the middle. It is furthermore divided horizontally into three triads

THE THIRD TRIAD

The threefold division of the human being into

head, heart and body

is very common.

Thinking or intellectual or head

Feeling or emotional or heart

Movement or physical or body

The pelvis is subdived into movement and sex

This symbol is so versatile and fundamental that many esoteric groups have used it to enhance and explain their own teaching. SEARCHING ON THE WEB For Sephiroth, we find an astonishing number of web sites which mention Sephirot:-

Total number of references to Sephiroth is about 300,000. A few of the groups distributed as follows

Chakras 18,800
Jung 13,000
Gnostic 1370
Freemason 374
Rosicrucian 307
Tarot 111,000 0
Celtic symbols 4.360

The Table of the Sephirot is a profound concept of the resolution of the tension between 3, 7 and 10 and summarised in the first sentence of the bible, the Torah.
“IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH”.
This sentence is one we will consider in many different contexts because it is so fundamental. It includes beautiful Gematrias and subtle references to the 3 mystical numbers of 3, 7 and 10

The table below shows the relation ship between the Ten Sephirot and the 10 times in Genesis 1 that "God Said".

Words are important in the 10 utterances of creation, but words are made of letters that are just as important if not more so. The 10 sephirot of the table are connected by the 22 letters. The world is made of combinations of these 22 letters.

A) Were the substances of the world created by the vibrations of the sounds of the letters as have been taught
or
B) were the elements of the world only named after they were created."God looked to see how Adam would name the creatures". This implies they were already created.

"Boruch Shemar", the morning prayer ,translates into "God Spoke and the world was created" (many other religions say the same)

THe Hebrew word, Davar, means both

substance and speech (or vibrations of sound)

This is connected with a major 30 year dilema in nuclear physics, ie is the world made of vibration or solid particles?

32 Lev
The 22 letters plus the 10 Sephirot gives us 32, the gematria of LEV (Lamed bet) meaning heart. The Sephirot together with the letters are at the heart of the created universe.

The torah is also enclosed in LEV, the first and last letters of the Torah. The Torah starts with the word Berieishis and the last letter of the Torah is the lamed of Yisrael. The reader may complain that this is in reverse order but imaging is always in reverse order just like your own image in the mirror,. Your left-hand is on the right side and vica versa. (See Reflection)

The beth and the lamed have another interesting feature. They are the only letters to which the suffixes of God's name can be added.

There are 32 hard spinal vertebra with the corresponding number of spinal nerves (Grays Anatomy. Medical text book)

There are 32 hard teeth in the Head.

The text of Sefer Yetsira Page1:1 goes on to talk about the creation of the universe with Three books.

And He created His universe
....with three books (Sepharim),
..........with text (Sepher)
..........with number (Sephar)
.........and with communication (Sippur).

The Hebrew letters, samach pe resh, appear in all 4 of these sentences of creation.

And He created His universe with text (Sepher)

If we look at the text of the Torah, said to be the blueprint or the DNA of the universe, it may help us to understand what this can mean.
There are many examples of the words and letters of the text of the bible having subtle changes that modify our understanding of the text.

Avram changed to Avraham

Our forefather's name Abram was changed to Abraham as well as his wife whose name was changed from Sarai to Sarah. Genesis; Lech lecha 17:5 The addition of the "H" or "hey" in Hebrew, which is one of the letters of the tetragrammaton,( yud hey vav hey which is an abbreviation of God's Name) The addition of this letter is an indication of increased piety

Purchase of Machpela

Similarly the removal of one of these letters from a persons name is an indication of diminished piety. Exemplified by the amazing story of Abraham's purchase of the cave of Machpela in Hebron as a burial place for his deceased wife Sarah. Genesis: Chayei Sarah: 23:16. A careful comparison of the two spellings of Ephron's name in this sentence, will reveal that the Vav is missing in the second spelling. The story seems to be a beautiful story of bargaining and generosity by Ephron, but the sages point out the removal of the Vav is a sign that he was a crook. Further study confirms this.

There is an injunction that nobody is allowed "to alter neither a dot nor a comma in the text" so any changes must be highly significant.There are 4 levels of understanding the meaning of the text (click on pardes for the 4 levels of meaning)

Thus the numeous variations of the original letters of the text as above, of the Old testament, each one giving further clarification (pardes) to the meaning must be highly significant