How is the world created with Sephirot?

Rav Isaac Luria, who lived in Sefad, Israel, in the mid-16th century, developed a cosmology to describe how God created the world using the 10 emanations, or sephirot. Each of the sephirot are like the manifestation of God’s will, or ‘ratzon’ in the world. The names of the sephirot are as follows, but each name is need of a description to understand how God manifests his will in a particular way.

1. Keter- this means ‘crown’ in Hebrew and is the equivalent of ‘will’ or ‘ratzon.’
2. Chochmah- wisdom
3. Binah- understanding, which is different than wisdom
4. Chesed- loving kindness
5. Din- judgement
6. Tiferet- harmony or beauty
7. Netzach- victory
8. Hod- glory
9. Yesod- foundation
10. Malchot- kingship or sovereignty

Sephirot and Creation

I thought it might be fun to talk a little bit about some of the more well-known ideas in Kabbalah. We have all heard of the ‘sephirot’, and seen pictures of the charts which illustrate how the sephirot relate to one another, but what does it all really mean?

First off, it is crucial to always keep in mind that the 10 sephirot are not in any way, shape, or form 10 separate ‘gods.’ The sephirot can be best understood as godly ‘emanations’, or more clearly, ten different ways God reveals himself in this world. A good way to think about it is that God himself does not change but rather the ability, or way, to perceive Him is what changes.

More about sephirot later.