The Ethical Aspect of God’s Creation and the Sephirot

The focus of the work of Rav Berg at the Kabbalah Center is to help people use the teachings of the Kabbalah to improve themselves and then transform the world into the perfected place which is the goal of creation. Understanding how the sephirot interact with each other and are affected by human behavior helps us to improve our behavior.

When we look at the famous chart of the sephirot we see that there are two outer columns. The column on the right represent the sephirot which signify how God reveals more blessings in the world when mankind and individuals use their previous blessings with compassion. The sephirot on the left side correspond to the way God hides these blessings when people abuse them in a selfish way and without compassion. This is exactly how our behavior is responsible for whether or not God seems present or absent.

By studying the sephirot and the Kabbalah we can learn how to make the world a better place.

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.