A report on Ein Sof

The sefirot consist of lights invested in vessels, similar to water poured into a glass. While taking on the shape of the glass, the water is essentially unchanged.

Understood as God prior to any self-manifestation in the production of any spiritual realm, probably derived from Solomon ibn Gabirol's ( 1021 – 1070) term, "the Endless One" (she-en lo tiklah).

- Ein Sof
The sefirot consist of lights invested in vessels, similar to water poured into a glass. While taking on the shape of the glass, the water is essentially unchanged.

20 related topics with Alpha

Overall
Adam Ḳadmon—Diagram illustrating the Sefirot (Divine Attributes). (From Christian Ginsburg, The Kabbalah - its Doctrines, Development & Literature)

Adam Kadmon

4 links

Adam Ḳadmon—Diagram illustrating the Sefirot (Divine Attributes). (From Christian Ginsburg, The Kabbalah - its Doctrines, Development & Literature)

In Kabbalah, Adam Kadmon (אָדָם קַדְמוֹן, ʾāḏām qaḏmōn, "Primordial Man") also called Adam Elyon (אָדָם עֶלִיוֹן, ʾāḏām ʿelyōn, "Most High Man"), or Adam Ila'ah (אָדָם עִילָּאָה, ʾāḏām ʿīllāʾā "Supreme Man"), sometimes abbreviated as A"K (א"ק, ʾA.Q.), is the first of Four Worlds that came into being after the contraction of God's infinite light.

Azriel of Gerona

2 links

The founder of speculative Kabbalah and the Gironian Kabbalist school.

The founder of speculative Kabbalah and the Gironian Kabbalist school.

He laid the foundation for the idea of Ein-Sof, by stating that God can have no desire, thought, word, or action, emphasized by it the negation of any attribute.

Cordovero's grave in Safed

Moses ben Jacob Cordovero

3 links

Central figure in the historical development of Kabbalah, leader of a mystical school in 16th-century Safed, Ottoman Syria.

Central figure in the historical development of Kabbalah, leader of a mystical school in 16th-century Safed, Ottoman Syria.

Cordovero's grave in Safed

While he was a mystic inspired by the opaque imagery of the Zohar, Cordoverian Kabbalah utilised the conceptual framework of evolving cause and effect from the Infinite to the Finite in systemising Kabbalah, the method of philosophical style discourse he held most effective in describing a process that reflects sequential logic and coherence.

The Ancient of Days (1794) Watercolor etching by William Blake

Ancient of Days

2 links

Name for God in the Book of Daniel.

Name for God in the Book of Daniel.

The Ancient of Days (1794) Watercolor etching by William Blake
The Ancient of Days, a 14th-century fresco from Ubisi, Georgia.

In the Zohar, the seminal document of Kabbalah that emerged in 13th-century Spain, there is mention of the Ancient of Ancients, and the Holy Ancient One – Atika Kadisha, variably interpreted as synonymous with the En Sof, the unmanifested Godhead.

Portrait of Johann Jakob Brucker, whose six volume work Historia critica philosophiae (1742–1767) cemented the division between ancient Platonism, middle Platonism and neoplatonism.

Neoplatonism

2 links

Philosophical and religious system, beginning with the work of Plotinus in c. 245 AD, that analyzes and teaches interpretations of the philosophy and theology of Plato, and which extended the interpretations of Plato that middle Platonists developed from 80 BC to 220 AD. The English term "neoplatonism", or "Neo-Platonism", or "Neoplatonism" comes from 18th- and 19th-century Germanic scholars who wanted to systematize history into nameable periods.

Philosophical and religious system, beginning with the work of Plotinus in c. 245 AD, that analyzes and teaches interpretations of the philosophy and theology of Plato, and which extended the interpretations of Plato that middle Platonists developed from 80 BC to 220 AD. The English term "neoplatonism", or "Neo-Platonism", or "Neoplatonism" comes from 18th- and 19th-century Germanic scholars who wanted to systematize history into nameable periods.

Portrait of Johann Jakob Brucker, whose six volume work Historia critica philosophiae (1742–1767) cemented the division between ancient Platonism, middle Platonism and neoplatonism.
400x400px
291x291px
375x375px
359x359px
330x330px
400x400px
330x330px
A 4th to 6th century AD lecture hall in the archaeological site Kom El Deka in Alexandria. The neoplatonic school of Alexandria was active between the 4th and 6th centuries AD.
566x566px
472x472px
393x393px
356x356px
Modern day Viterbo, showing the 13th century Palazzo dei Papi (Palace of the Popes) that was completed around the same time the Catholic bishop William of Moerbeke and the Dominican friar and priest Thomas Aquinas were working in the city in 1268 AD.
Cornelia de Vogel, whose significant interpretation of Plato's dialogue The Sophist, showed the close connection between fundamental doctrines of Plato and neoplatonism.
376x376px
Modern day Villa Medici at Careggi where the 15th century Catholic priest Marsilio Ficino and his circle of scholars translated works by Plato and the neoplatonists Plotinus and Proclus between 1462 and 1499.
The beginning of a Latin translation of Pseudo-Dionysius' work Ecclesiastical Hierarchy from a manuscript in the Vatican Library. The neoplatonic theology of Proclus is a foundation to Pseudo-Dionysius' works on Christian theology written between 485 AD and 530 AD, now called Corpus Dionysiacum Areopagiticum (CDA).
A 12th or 13th century depiction of Michael Psellos with his student, the Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Doukas, located in the Pantokratoros Monastery. Psellos is a key figure both in the history of Byzantine philosophy and in the reception of neoplatonic theology and philosophy in Constantinople.
A 1975 Egyptian postage stamp depicting the Islamic philosopher al-Kindī who with a circle of scholars translated neoplatonic works by Plotinus and Proclus into Arabic.
A statue of Maimonides in Córdoba, Spain. Maimonides’ philosophical-theological work The Guide for the Perplexed contains many neoplatonic influences.
A 19th-century oil painting of Nicholas Copernicus by Jan Matejko in the collection of the Jagiellonian University Museum in Poland. Copernicus studied the neoplatonic philosopher Proclus and in his famous work On the Revolution of Celestial Spheres included information from Proclus' Outline of Astronomical Hypotheses and also in the same work, cited Proclus' Commentary on the First Book of Euclid's Elements.
Part of the Latin translation of Pseudo-Dionysius' De coelesti hierarchia from a manuscript in the Vatican Library. Neoplatonic influences can be seen in De coelesti hierarchia 2.2.

The 13th century French rabbi and Kabbalist Isaac the Blind refers to the Ultimate as "that which is not conceivable by thinking", which seems to paraphrase a neoplatonic doctrine on the One, and he seems also to be influenced by the neoplatonic doctrines of progressions through a hierarchy of beings, from the One through hypostases to the material world, in his first systematic use of the conception of 'Eyn Sof'.

Chokhmah

4 links

Biblical Hebrew word rendered as "wisdom" in English Bible versions (LXX σοφία sophia, Vulgate sapientia).

Biblical Hebrew word rendered as "wisdom" in English Bible versions (LXX σοφία sophia, Vulgate sapientia).

The light of the Ein Sof becomes unified in the world of Atziluth through clothing itself first in the sefira of Chokhmah.

Panentheism

3 links

Belief that the divine intersects every part of the universe and also extends beyond space and time.

Belief that the divine intersects every part of the universe and also extends beyond space and time.

According to Hasidism, the infinite Ein Sof is incorporeal and exists in a state that is both transcendent and immanent.

Rebuilt synagogue of the Baal Shem Tov in Medzhybizh, Ukraine

Hasidic philosophy

5 links

Hasidic philosophy or Hasidism (חסידות), alternatively transliterated as Hasidut or Chassidus, consists of the teachings of the Hasidic movement, which are the teachings of the Hasidic rebbes, often in the form of commentary on the Torah (the Five books of Moses) and Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism).

Hasidic philosophy or Hasidism (חסידות), alternatively transliterated as Hasidut or Chassidus, consists of the teachings of the Hasidic movement, which are the teachings of the Hasidic rebbes, often in the form of commentary on the Torah (the Five books of Moses) and Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism).

Rebuilt synagogue of the Baal Shem Tov in Medzhybizh, Ukraine
Grave of Elimelech of Lizhensk, leading disseminator of Hasidism in Poland-Galicia
Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, successor to The Holy Jew, who continued the Peshischa School of Hasidism
Shneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Chabad, the intellectual school in Hasidism
Pilgrimage gathering at Nachman of Breslov's burial place in Uman, Ukraine
Plaque on the mausoleum of Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Ishbitz, author of the antinomian Mei Hashiloach
Title page of Toldot Yaakov Yosef, 1867 edition. This work was the first published Hasidic text.
Title page of Maggid Devarav L'Yaakov (Koretz, 1781 edition).

In the beginning, God had to contract (Tzimtzum) His omnipresence or infinity, the Ein Sof.

Image popularly thought to be a portrait of Isaac

Isaac the Blind

2 links

Isaac the Blind (Yitzhak Saggi Nehor (רַבִּי יִצְחַק סַגִּי נְהוֹר)) (c.

Isaac the Blind (Yitzhak Saggi Nehor (רַבִּי יִצְחַק סַגִּי נְהוֹר)) (c.

Image popularly thought to be a portrait of Isaac

Isaac considered the sefirot as having their origins in a hidden and infinite level deep within the Ayn Sof, or Divine Being (lit.

A version of the Kabbalistic tree of life

Tree of life (Kabbalah)

2 links

Diagram used in various mystical traditions.

Diagram used in various mystical traditions.

A version of the Kabbalistic tree of life
A pattern inspired by the tree of life in a window in the Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam
The tree of life based on the depiction by Robert Fludd in the Deutsche Fotothek

On the tree of life, the beginning of the universe is placed in a space above the first sphere (named "Keter" or "crown" in English). It is not always pictured in reproductions of the tree of life, but is referred to universally as Ohr Ein Sof (אֵין סוֹף‎‎‎‎ אוֹר‎ in Hebrew or "endless light" in English).