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Kabbalah, from the Medieval circles around study of the Zohar, distinguishes between four different "worlds" or "planes of existence" that successively link the Infinite Divine essence (Ein Sof), with our physical finite Creation.[1] It finds an allusion to these different levels of reality, and their names, in the verse in Isaiah:
Even every one that is called by My name: for I have created him for My glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.[2]
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Enumeration
In descending order:
- Atziluth (אֲצִילוּת), or World of Emanation. On this level the light of the Ein Sof (Infinite Divine) radiates and is still united with its source. This supernal revelation therefore precludes the souls and Divine emanations in Atzilus from sensing their own existence.
- Beri'ah (בְּרִיאָה) or World of Creation. On this level is the first concept of creatio ex nihilo however without any shape or form. This is also where the Highest Ranking Angels are to be found.
- Yetzirah (יְצִירָה) or World of Formation. On this level the created being assumes shape and form.
- Assiah (עֲשִׂיָּה) or World of Action. On this level the creation is complete; however, it is still on a spiritual level. At a later stage there is the 'physical Assiah' comprising our physical Universe with all its creatures.
Each of these worlds is progressively grosser and further removed from any revealed Godliness, but the ten Sephirot manifest in all of them.
Whereas in the Zohar and elsewhere there are these four worlds of existence, in the Lurianic system, five worlds are described. A higher, fifth plane, Adam Kadmon-manifest Godhead level, mediates between the Ein Sof and the four lower worlds.
Meaning
These four worlds are spiritual, Heavenly realms in a descending chain, although the lowest world of Assiah has both a spiritual and a physical aspect. The physical level of Assiah is our physical finite realm, including the cosmological Universe studied by Science. Consequently, as Kabbalah is a metaphysical study, its reference to Ohr ("light") is a metaphor for Divine emanation, and the terms "higher" and "lower" are metaphors for closer and further from Divine consciousness and revelation.
The 16th-century systemisation of Kabbalah by Moshe Cordovero brought the preceding interpretations and schools into their first complete rational synthesis. Subsequent doctrines of Kabbalah from Isaac Luria, describe an initial Tzimtzum (withdrawal of the universal Divine consciousness that preceded Creation) to "allow room" for created beings on lower levels of consciousness. Lower levels of consciousness require the self-perception of independent existence, by the created beings on each level, to prevent their loss of identity before the magnificence of God. This illusion increases with more force in each susequent descending realm. The number of graduations between the Infinite and the finite, is likewise infinite, and arises from innumerable, progressively strong concealments of the Divine light. Nonetheless, the four worlds represent fundamental categories of Divine consciousness from each other, which delineates their four descriptions. Consequently, each world also psychologically represents a spiritual rung of ascent in human consciousness, as it approaches the Divine.
Kabbalah distinguishes between two types of Divine light that emanate through the 10 Sephirot (Divine emanations) from the Infinite (Ein Sof), to create or affect reality. The continual flow of an immanent lower light ("Mimalei Kol Olmin"), the light that "fills all worlds" is the creating force in each descending world that itself continually brings into being from nothing, everything in that level of existence. It is this light that undergoes the concealments and contractions as it descends downward to create the next level, and adapts itself to the capacity of each created being on each level. A transcendent higher light ("Sovev Kol Olmin"), the light that "surrounds all worlds" would be the manifestation on a particular level of a higher light above the capacity of that realm to contain. This is ultimately rooted in the infinite light ("Ohr Ein Sof") that preceded Creation, the Tzimtzum and the Sephirot, rather than the source of the immanent light in the "Kav" (first emanation of creation after the Tzimtzum), in the teachings of Isaac Luria. Consequently, all the worlds are dependent for their continual existence on the flow of Divinity they constantly receive from the Divine Will to create them. Creation is continuous. The faculty of Divine Will is represented in the Sephirot (10 Divine emanations) by the first, supra-conscious Sephirah of "Keter"-Crown, that transcends the lower 9 Sephirot of conscious intellect and emotion. Once the Divine Will is manifest, then it actualises Creation through Divine Intellect, and "subsequently" Divine Emotion, until it results in action. The reference to temporal cause and effect is itself a metaphor. The psychology of man also reflects the "Divine psychology" of the Sephirot, as "Man is created in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27). In man the activation of willpower through intellect and emotion until deed, requires time and subsequent cause and effect. In the Divine Sephirot and their activation of Creation, this does not apply, as limitations only apply to Creation.
The book of Job states that "from my flesh I see God". In Kabbalah and Hasidism this is understood to refer to the correspondence between the "Divine psychology" of the Four Worlds and the Sephirot, with human psychology and the Sephirot in the soul of man. From understanding the Kabbalistic description of the human soul, we can grasp the meaning of the Divine scheme. Ultimately, this is seen as the reason that God chose to emanate His Divinity through the 10 Sephirot, and chose to create the corresponding chain of four Worlds (called the "Seder hishtalshelus"-"order of development"). He could have chosen to bridge the infinite gap between the Ein Sof and our World by a leap of Divine decree. Instead the Sephirot and Four Worlds allow man to understand Divinity through Divine manifestation, by understanding himself. The verse in Genesis of this correspondence also describes the feminine half of Creation: (Genesis 1:27) "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them". Consequently some of the Sephirot are feminine, and the Shechina (immanent Divine presence) is seen as feminine. It is the intimate relationship between the Divine sceme of four World and man, that allows man's ascent more easily to Divine consciousness (see Dveikus).
Notes
See also
Concepts:
Texts:
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