The ten sefirot, often translated as “emanations” of God, are a concept developed in Jewish kabbalistic theology. The kabbalists understood God as both infinite and hidden as well as manifestly present and pervasive in the world. How can these two things be true? The answer is through the sefirot. They are arguably the most innovative and central concept in all of Kabbalah.
For the kabbalists, God is the Ein Sof, a moniker which literally means “Without End” and is also sometimes translated as “The Infinite.” This aspect of God has no physical form, no gender, no personality, no flaws and — significantly for the purpose of understanding the sefirot — no means of interacting with the world.
This view of God does not square easily with the 2,000 years of Jewish tradition that preceded it. The God of the Bible created the world and revealed the Torah at Sinai, spoke to people through prophets and acted in human history. In contrast, the Ein Sof has no need for human beings or their sacrifices, good deeds or Torah study. How do we square these two visions of God?
This is where the sefirot enter the picture. The sefirot are emanations of the Ein Sof that are not hidden, but revealed. They, and not the Ein Sof, create the world, interact with human beings, affect and are affected by human actions. “The Sefirot are the bridge across the abyss, the connective tissue between the infinite God and the finite world,” scholar David Ariel explains. “They are the link that makes it possible to preserve God’s absolute unity while preserving the relationship between God and man.”
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The sefirot might then be seen as God’s primary instruments in the world, the channels of divine energy. Many metaphors have been employed to understand them. The Ein Sof is the ocean and the sefirot are channels that bring its water. The Ein Sof is a blinding white light and the sefirot are prisms that refract it. The Ein Sof is God’s soul and the sefirot are God’s body. All these ideas hold this in common: The sefirot are a bridge to the Ein Sof. They interact with the world and are in turn affected by human behavior. Mitzvot impact them positively and sinful behavior impacts them negatively.
There are several schema and the sefirot sometimes go by different names, but here is a common list:
At the top of the list is Keter (Crown), the sefira closest to the Ein Sof. As the sefirot cascade downward, they become more interactive and enmeshed in the world, with Malchut (Kingship) being the most imminent. This last of the sefirot is also identified with the biblical concept of the Shekhinah, God’s in-dwelling presence that filled the ancient Temple in Jerusalem and followed the Jews into exile in the diaspora. The precise nature of each of the sefirot and their significant relationships to one another, which function best when maintained in balance, are the subject of nearly endless mystical speculation.
Torah
Pronunced: TORE-uh, Origin: Hebrew, the Five Books of Moses.
