The Sephiroth
The Hebrew Tree of Life as we have come to know it is a symbolic diagram of the process of Emanation from the ultimate unitary Godhead down to the mundane, myriad and multiplitous world we live in. On the tree there are 10 nodes called "Sephiroth", representing different aspects of this Godhead and the 22 conneting paths between them, represented by the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, together comprising the "32 Paths of Wisdom".
The terms Sephiroth SPIRVTh ספירות (756) and it's singular Sephirah SPIRH ספירה (355), are of uncertain etymology but the root SPR has the various connotations of book or count, saying or communication. The most common definition is "Enumerations". On the Tree of Life this is commonly asociated with the numbers, one through ten. Its first apppearance is the Sefer Yetzirah, an anonymous tractate from the 2nd to 9th century CE (there is a lot of scholarly disagreement) which purports to be a description of the process of Creation of the Universe (or maybe a Golem, or maybe a Human Being) by way of these 32 paths with "three books"; by Letter, by Number and by Communication.
The Sephiroth are ostensibly the Number portion of that formula.
By the time that the Tree of Life diagrams - called Ilanot AILNVTh - began to be used, the Sephiroth had taken on the distinct names that one commonly sees attributed to them, as well as the following order:
| Ord. | Name | Heb. | Eng. | Value | Meaning | Baph. Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kether | כתר | KThR | 620 | Crown | 55 |
| 2 | Chokmah | חכמה | ChKMH | 73 | Wisdom | 314 |
| 3 | Binah | בינה | BINH | 67 | Understanding | 382 |
| 4 | Chesed, Gedulah | חסד, גדולה | ChSD, GDVLH | 72, 48 | Grace, Greatness | 414 |
| 5 | Geburah, Pachad, Din | גבורח, פחד, דינ | GBVRH, PChD, DIN | 216, 92, 64 | Power, Fear, Judgment | 266 |
| 6 | Tiphareth, Rachmim | תפארת, רחמימ | ThPARTh, RChMIM | 1081, 298 | Beauty, Mercy | 301 |
| 7 | Netzach | נצח | NTzCh | 148 | Eternity | 467 |
| 8 | Hod | הוד | HVD | 15 | Glory | 500 |
| 9 | Yesod | יסוד | ISVD | 80 | Foundation | 180 |
| 10 | Malkuth | מלכות | MLKVTh | 496 | Kingdom | 111 | ∞* | Da'ath | דעת | DAaTh | 474 | Knowledge | 247 |
| Ord. | Name | Eng. | Value | Meaning | Baph. Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kether | KThR | 620 | Crown | 55 |
| 2 | Chokmah | ChKMH | 73 | Wisdom | 314 |
| 3 | Binah | BINH | 67 | Understanding | 382 |
| 4 | Chesed, Gedulah | ChSD, GDVLH | 72, 48 | Grace, Greatness | 414 |
| 5 | Geburah, Pachad, Din | GBVRH, PChD, DIN | 216, 92, 64 | Power, Fear, Judgment | 266 |
| 6 | Tiphareth, Rachmim | ThPARTh, RChMIM | 1081, 298 | Beauty, Mercy | 301 |
| 7 | Netzach | NTzCh | 148 | Eternity | 467 |
| 8 | Hod | HVD | 15 | Glory | 500 |
| 9 | Yesod | ISVD | 80 | Foundation | 180 |
| 10 | Malkuth | MLKVTh | 496 | Kingdom | 111 | ∞* | Da'ath | DAaTh | 474 | Knowledge | 247 |
*Traditionally Da'ath is said to be situated in the Abyss below the three Supernal Sephiroth.
These names derive (roughly) from various verses in the Tanakh. The first three (four?) are from Exodus 31:3 "And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship", describing the qualifications of Betzalel to construct the Tabernacle. The spirit of God here would be considered Kether. Knowledge, of course, is Daath.
The next group is (mostly) derived from 1 Chronicles 29:11 "Thine, O LORD is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom". With "greatness" popping in for Chesed and "all" subbing in for Yesod.
The names and attributes come primarily from the book Bahir, meaning "clarity' or "illumination", which was most likely written in the later 12th/early 13th Centry CE, though most scholars do attribute it to contain, and be based on, earlier writings from 8th or 9th Centuries CE. The Bahir was used (and possibly authored) by the circle around Rabbi Isaac ben Abraham, known as Isaac the Blind, the first individual to be positively identified as a "Kabbalist". His father Rabbi Abraham ben David (known as the Ravad) is widely credited as being the first to come up with the diagram we now know as the Tree of Life.
In the Sefer Yetzirah however, the Sephiroth are known only by their ordinal values - first through tenth - and are indeed called "Sephiroth belimah", BLIMH (87), an obscure word that literally means "without what", but in context has the meaning of "nothingness" or "ineffable", each one being described as a "Depth". And it is in this term "Depths" - AVMQIM (266) that an important insight about the nature of the Sephiroth is revealed.
As noted in Trees of Life 1, the term refers to each Sephirah being an infinite depth (sometimes this is translated as "height") representing the infinite recession of one half of five paired extensions (dimensions) that constitute ou4 universe: good and evil, begininning and end, above and below, East and West, South and North. A five-dimensional hypercube. (We here at Baphometrics.com however, prefer the terms "transcendence and immanence" in lieu of good and evil... less immediate baggage and all). All that is, all of our universe lies within this "cube", just shy of the ends of the axes. Above will ever be above us, no matter how far up we travel, North (in an absolute sense rather than on a globe) will always extend further to the North. We will always be west of East and east of West, more transcendent than immanence and more immanent than transcendence. The Sephiroth are without limit, they are AIN SVP (207), Ain Soph, the Kabbalistic infinity that is the unknowable Godhead. Our world is limited.
A question that is oft debated in Kabbalistic terms is how, if the Godhead is without limit - filling the universe totally with its total totality - does limit come about? How is there distinction in the face of the infinite?
In the Kabbalistic thought of Isaac Luria, the shining light of Rabbinical Kabbalism of the 16th Century, there is developed the notion, first introduced several centuries earlier in the schools around the Zohar, of Tzimtzum; Restriction.
Tzimtzum TzMTzVM (266), according to Luria occured prior to the Creation. Ain Soph, in all its glory, was pure light - the AIN SVP AVR (414) - Light Without Limit - filling all of existence. When it arose in its Will to emanate the Universe, it contracted (tzimtzum) itself to a point (NQVDH 165) perfectly and infintely equidistant on all sides from the Aur Ain Soph, which was restricted (tzimtzum) to the sides of the Void. From the surrounding Aur Ain Soph, it pulled a single line of light down into the void, forming a series of concentric circles, all chained together solely by this line of the Divine light. For all Sephiroth are at essence, one with the infinite light, as (in Kabbalistic methaphor) a flame is one with an ember, or how the light of a candle is not diminished when it is used to light another - each one perpetuating the light unto infinity, yet each is progressively further away from its original source.
In the earlier conceptions of Tzimtzum, this was a process occuring not prior to Creation, but constantly, in fact, it was only through the process of Tzimtzum, distinction, that anything could be differentiated from aything at all. This allowed room for change, and more importantly, for Free Will itself... for the Godhead (in this conception) is utterly Good, perfect and eternal, and it is only through the withdrawal of the Godhead from its creation - a form of self-abnegation if you will - that there would be room for anything else to have a will of its own - the freedem to change, to choose. Of course, this is also the source of Evil.
In Kabbalistic thought, the Root of Evil lies within the Sephirah Geburah - Strength or Power, which is also known as Din - Jusdgment, and as Pachad - Fear. This is the Left Hand of God. The Sitra Achra, the "Other Side". Source of all pain and suffering and misery and demons, of death and decay and the Evil Inclination.
(“The word of sin is Restriction. O man!")
Of course, without all that, there wouldn't be anything at all - no change, no new life, no aesthetics, not even any Beauty.
("For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union")
Not even love.
On the Tree 528, The Baphometric Value of the Sephirah Geburah is thus appropriately enough, 266. Restriction, Depth, TzMTzVM, AVMQIM. It's mirror, the eternal and undending Mercy and Grace and Goodness of the Godhead, Chesed, has the Value of 414, AIN SVP AUR. This is the secret of That Which is Above and That Which is Below.