 The Kabbalah: Letter and Spirit
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The Kabbalah relates to an exegetical Jewish system, but it extends to something much more universal and that concerns the essential nucleus of all traditions. The word kabbalah comes from the intensive form of the verb kibbel which means to receive; it has the same meaning as the word "tradition", from the Latin tradere, to transmit from hand to hand. The Kabbalists are those to whom something has been transmitted, those that have received the gift of the Kabbalah, or, as they themselves say, those who: "have received the gift of the Torah", which is the spirit that animates the letter of the Scriptures.
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The Kabbalah: Letter and Spirit
The Kabbalah relates to an exegetical Jewish system, but it extends to something much more universal and that concerns the essential nucleus of all traditions. The word kabbalah comes from the intensive form of the verb kibbel which means to receive; it has the same meaning as the word "tradition", from the Latin tradere , to transmit from hand to hand. The Kabbalists are those to whom something has been transmitted, those that have received the gift of the Kabbalah, or, as they themselves say, those who: "have received the gift of the Torah", which is the spirit that animates the letter of the Scriptures. This gift of contains a revelation that has as its object mankind. But not the exterior and carnal man, what the scriptures call Esau, but Jacob, man purified. For this reason in the image is compared to the body of a man with the alchemical athanor where the purification is effected.
Tobias Cohn, Ma'aseh Tobiyyah, Venice, 1707.
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1 of 12. Moses in the Sinai
In order to define what they had received, the doctors of the Kabbalah cited a fragment of the Mishnah, the oldest part of the Talmud, which says the following: "Moses received the Torah of Sinai. Then he transmitted it to Joshua and Joshua to the ancients: the ancients, to the prophets, and the prophets transmitted it to the men of the Grand Assembly". In the text it remains clear that which Moses received was the Torah, that is to say the Law. But here one would have to distinguish between two aspects of the Jewish tradition: the oral Torah, the spirit, and the written Torah, the letter, although one cannot be without the other. The first alludes to a living and vivifying instruction descended from heaven and that is what appears in the image of Moses received the Torah at the time a heavenly horn heralds the benediction.
Reproduction of an Hagadah, Spain, XIII century
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3 of 12. The Unknowable
The unknowable, the origin of everything cannot be defined, the Jewish tradition calls it ein sof, without limits, negation that excludes all definition and that perfectly accords with that which it deals: one can neither know nor limit. It is not, then, an object of revelation. But the ein sof, thinks of itself, or better said, dreams of itself, and this dream is the first of its emanations, that in Kabbalastic language received the name sefirot. According to the Kabbalists, first emanation is like a luminous point that breaks through in the unknowable night, which in the story of Genesis was called tohu va-bohou.
Lucio Fontana, "Concetto Spaziale", 1959.
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6 of 12. The Emanations
Mankind cannot know the ein sof other than through its emanations. To each one of these qualities has been given the name of sefirah. Ten sefirot that are ordered following a diagram called "The Tree of Life". Each sefirah is linked to the reset by means of some threads or channels that go from the most subtle, " keter ", the crown, to the most concrete, " malkut ", the kingdom. In the two trees that appear in the image, the sefirot appear to be ordered into three vertical columns, the one on the left expresses strength, the one on the right expresses mercy, and the one in the middle, justice. This is the longest so it joins the crown with the kingdom, as the stairway of Jacob united the highest with the lowest.
Diagrams of two Sephirotic trees from the Lurian school, Amsterdam, 1708.
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8 of 12. The Most Secret Place
According to the Scriptures, the place where Jacob's ladder was leaning was called Lutz. It deals with a terrible place flooded in the lowest part, where, according to the Kabbalists, "the tekelet is dyed", a blue dye that is used to dye the fringes of the prayer shawl. This place is the one that Rembrandt seems to show. The meaning of these blue fringes is alluded to in a verse from Numbers, relating them with the memory that man should keep the commandments. The great Kabbalist from Gerona , Najmanides explains this verse saying: "Why must the Merciful ask me to complete the commandments? Those who only have a part cannot speak of alliance, but the memory that is in the blue thread alludes to the measurement that includes all". So, the teleket that one dyes on the lowest part of the ladder is like a thread that one must catch for the two extremes in order that it "includes all".
Rembrandt van Rijn, "Philosopher in Meditation", 1632.
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10 of 12. The Archetypal World
In this representation of the Sephirotic tree, some elements proper to the Jewish tradition appear to be drawn. At the bottom, in the "elemental world", are found two communion tables or sacrificial altars, a little higher the table of proposal bread and the seven branched candelabra, associated with the 365 negative precepts and the 148 positives, respectively, that is to say, to strength and mercy. It follows the double image of the tablets of the Law, alluding to the two Torahs, the written and the oral that ought to go together. Ultimately, in the highest, or "archetypal world" a pair of cherubim are found.
In the same way, each one of the channels that communicate the sefirot between themselves is named for a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, showing that the diagram of the sefirot is a way of symbolizing the complete and perfect creation.
Athanasius Kircher, Oedipus aegyptiacus, 1653.
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12 of 12. The Name
The image the reproduces the Name of God, the Tetragrammaton, and that alludes to one of the most profound mysteries of the Kabbalah: the mystery of the reunification of the Name. According to the commentaries in the Scriptures, the Name of God separated itself as a consequence of the fall of the first man, who carried into himself, buried the final two letters of the sacred Name inside of himself, while the first two letters remained in heaven. The great work of the Kabbalist consists of the reunification of the Name, the way in which God and his Name are one.
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The four letters of the Tetragrammaton on a mizrah or menorah. Iran, XIX century.
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