The Nature of Sefirot in Kabbalah

Sefirot (plural of the word "sefira") is the most fundamental concept in Kabbalah, appearing in book after book, starting from the earliest literary monuments of this teaching. We will discuss the etymology and historical development of this term in another article, but here we will examine how to understand the nature of the Sefirot and why it causes controversy and discrepancies.

The Tree of Sephirot (or simply the "Tree of Life") is the most famous model of Kabbalah. It arranges the Sephirot into three vertical lines, or pillars, showing not only their mutual positioning but also the dynamic transitions between them in the form of connecting paths, or channels. However, Kabbalah is not limited to this tree and everything distributed upon it. Kabbalah reveals the ontological sequence of stages that resulted in the formation of this tree. At different stages, the Sephirot were arranged differently, played different roles, and often carried different meanings. However, one should not fall into the extreme here either: these differences do not mean that there is no connection or correspondence at all between the Sephirot at these different stages. Rather, at the initial stages, their meaning was most general and basic, whereas subsequently, this same meaning, finding itself in a more specific context, found a more concrete expression.

To illustrate, let us take the three worlds: Akudim, Nekudim, and Berudim, which are spoken of in Kabbalah. In the world of Akudim, it is said of the sefirot that they were all arranged in a single line (this is clearly unlike the tree of three lines familiar to everyone!) and possessed only one vessel — Malchut. The other sefirot did not possess vessels, which is why the system as a whole is described as "ten lights in one vessel."

In the world of Nekudim, the sephirot are already described differently. The first three are arranged along three lines—right, left, and middle—while the remaining seven are aligned in a single line (as in Akudim). Here, each sephirah acquires its own vessel; however, it is also here that the well-known breaking of the vessels (shevirat kelim) occurs, due to the fact that in this world there are "great lights and small vessels."

In the world of Berudim (Atzilut and beyond), the familiar tree of sefirot with three lines appears. Here, the sefirot are balanced, and a system of compensations and safeguards is established, which prevents the shattering from repeating. All these features become "embedded" into the very organization of the sefirot.

It is obvious that if we were to discuss the meanings and interpretations for each individual sephira, it would depend heavily on which world and which state we are talking about. What is said about one state may turn out to be not entirely true for another. This is one of the reasons for the misunderstandings and the multiplicity of interpretations for the sephirot, among which a beginner can easily get confused.

The second reason is that authors often substitute the sephirot and their original meaning with something else that corresponds to these sephirot. As is well known, the system of sephirot is not only a description of how desire is realized, but also a way to show the connections and relationships between a multitude of analogous objects that are distributed according to this system.

For example, in Kabbalistic literature, one can find a multitude of correspondences for each sephirah. They correspond to parts of the human body, colors, planets of the solar system, letters of the Hebrew alphabet, names of God, angels, and demons. In more specific sources, one can find correspondences of the sephirot with metals and precious stones, with directions in space, with religious commandments, etc. In the Western occult tradition, Tarot arcana are mapped onto the Tree of Sephirot, and in magic, each sephirah corresponds to geometric figures, types of incense, and ritual objects.

Often an author, not aiming to explain Kabbalah but using it at that moment as a system of attribution and correspondence, simply identifies a sephirah with something else that has been placed in correspondence with it. For example, they say "Chesed is the right arm," or "Gevurah is Mars and the color red." It is clear that these statements should not be understood so literally, as if the right arm actually is the sephirah Chesed. It would be more accurate to say that Chesed in the system of sephirot corresponds to that which is represented in the human body by the right arm. All these clarifications are unnecessary for more experienced students of Kabbalah; however, without them, less experienced and more naive ones easily fall into misconceptions, beginning to substitute the sephirot with something else. Subsequently, one should not be surprised why common misconceptions arise, such as the idea that Kabbalah originally spoke of anatomy or astrology, or that it exists solely for the purpose of creating order in a Tarot deck, etc.

Having identified two sources of error, let us ask ourselves what the true meaning of the sephirot is, and how it evolves as the Kabbalistic worlds are constructed.

The Good and the striving for it

The original subject of Kabbalah is contained within two terms — desire and good, or vessel and light. God, Kabbalists say, wished to bestow good upon His creation, and therefore inevitably created within it a desire to receive this good. Indeed, good does not exist without someone to enjoy it. If no one is able to appreciate it as good, it simply ceases to be good. On the other hand, no one will consider it good if they have no desire for it. Just as delicious food brings pleasure only to those who have an appetite for it, so too is any good perceived as such in proportion to the desire to receive it. Therefore, light and vessel are two inseparable concepts, without one of which the other immediately loses all meaning.

The primordial nature of the sephirot is the various relationships between the vessel and the light, determined by two fundamental laws.

The first law states: a vessel reaches its completed form only when it has passed through the stage of fullness and the stage of emptiness. Only then is it capable of revealing within itself its own striving toward the light. Fullness gives it the understanding that the good is possible; emptiness gives it the understanding that the good is not guaranteed. These two factors together create the meaning of striving to attain the good. A clear example here is a person who passively enjoyed a certain good—for instance, living in a house—and then lost it. Until they felt what it meant to be homeless, they did not know how to truly appreciate their home. Only the sense of loss gave them the realization that this good has value, and now they strive to regain it. Henceforth, we will refer to this law as the law of formation.

The second law states: assimilation leads to closeness, and the loss of likeness leads to distance. A clear example of this is how people grow closer due to similar opinions and views and drift apart to the extent that their views differ. Thus, it turns out that a vessel draws closer to the light only to the extent that it becomes like it. In other words, to receive light, one must oneself be like the light. This law also has a reverse side: not only does assimilation lead to closeness, but closeness also leads to assimilation. Hereinafter, we will refer to this law as the law of equivalence.

These two laws, considered fundamental and immutable in Kabbalah, define the four stages that a vessel undergoes during its formation. These four stages are a kind of prototype of what will subsequently unfold as the ten sefirot. The number 10, therefore, is not primary, but derivative, as we will see later. Before the four stages of the vessel themselves, there exists their common root, which is sometimes considered the 5th stage (and given that it precedes them, it can be called the zeroth stage). In describing these stages (and subsequently the sefirot), we will use their traditional names accepted in Kabbalah.

Zero stage — Keter (Crown). It consists of God's absolute desire to bestow good. The vessel here is only implied, as nothing is good if no one enjoys it (see above). It follows that the desire to receive is not inherent to God Himself (otherwise He would be incomplete and dependent on some good external to Him), yet it is present in Him as an idea that will subsequently be embodied in His creation.

The first stage — Chokhmah (Wisdom). Here, the vessel (desire) emerges in its primary passive state, devoid of its own will. Simply put, it receives the light not because it wants to itself, but because its Creator wants it to. When you receive not because you want to, but because it is given, this is a sign of an unformed will. Nevertheless, this stage exemplifies the maximum presence of light: in such a vessel, the light can manifest all its aspects and shades, as nothing within the vessel itself hinders it. Devoid of its own will, this vessel does not yet distinguish itself from the light in any way, nor does it create any resistance.

The second stage — Binah (Understanding). Being filled with light, the vessel adopts its properties in accordance with the law of equivalence. A desire is born within it not just to passively receive light, but to literally be like the light. However, in the light, as has been said, there is no desire to receive — it lacks nothing and depends on no one. The vessel wants to become the same. Therefore, it reduces the desire within itself to enjoy the light, refusing to receive it. For clarity, this can be likened to a child who, wishing to feel grown-up and independent of a parent, refuses to accept the bounty from them that they had previously received.

The third stage — Tiferet (Beauty). Here, the vessel encounters the fact that it cannot exist at all without the light, which it had tried to renounce in the second stage. Let us recall that the light and the vessel are so inseparable from one another that they lose all meaning without each other. Without the light, the vessel has no life. However, having now discovered this through its own experience, the vessel itself decides how much light to receive. In fact, this stage represents a balance between receiving the good and renouncing it. This results in the form of partial reception. The key features of this stage become the emergence of compulsion and quantity. Compulsion is linked to the aforementioned impossibility of doing without light entirely — for the first time, the vessel encounters the limitations of its own nature. Quantity is linked to the fact that here, for the first time, light can be received in a greater or lesser amount, whereas previously (1st and 2nd stages) the light was simply either present or absent.

The Fourth Stage — Malchut (Kingdom). Having discovered in the third stage its ability to decide how much light to receive, the vessel for the first time truly experiences the boundless goodness of God, expressed in the fact that God always gives what is desired. Starting from the first stage, the vessel was the passive principle of reality, and the light was the active one. Gradually, as the vessel's own will awakens, their roles are reversed. Now the vessel dictates what it wants to receive, and the light follows its desire. This is what is called a fully formed vessel: in accordance with the law of formation, it has known fullness (1st stage) and emptiness (2nd stage), after which it revealed its own aspiration for the good. Now it receives not just because it is given, but because it wants it itself.

All this logic of the relationship between the vessel and the light, as well as the transition through stages, was, in all likelihood, implied in Kabbalah from the very beginning and was expressed, often briefly and not so definitively, by various authors. The ideas of good and desire (or will) as the fundamental categories of existence permeate Kabbalah from its very origins. However, this logic is most clearly demonstrated in the works of Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam): more concisely in the beginning of his "Introduction to Kabbalah," and more extensively in the first sections of "Talmud Eser Sefirot."

It would seem that the fourth stage of the vessel should fulfill God's intention—to receive boundless pleasure, guided by its formed desire for it. However, paradoxically, it is this stage that becomes the center of the drama that triggers the entire process of further construction of the universe. Having revealed its unlimited potential to enjoy the goodness of the Creator, it becomes fixated on itself and its own receiving, and in a sense, loses sight of the Creator Himself. The law of equivalence applies to it, according to which a difference in properties leads to a rupture. Being opposite to the light, this vessel arrives at restriction (tzimtzum), the establishment of a reflecting screen (masach), and the other features discussed in Kabbalah.

Four stages and ten sephirot

These stages of vessel formation, as mentioned, are the precursor to what subsequently unfolds as the ten sefirot. In fact, the sefirot become not ten, but eleven (including Da'at). Why the emphasis on the number 10 is important for Kabbalah, we will discuss in a separate article.

Anyone who has studied Kabbalah, even superficially, will quickly notice that the names of the listed stages coincide with the names of some of the sephirot. If one were to ask a Kabbalist how these stages and the system of sephirot relate to one another, the answer would be as follows: the zeroth, first, and second stages correspond to the first three sephirot; then the third stage—Tiferet—corresponds to six sephirot at once, and Malchut corresponds to the last, tenth sephira.

At first glance, this sounds quite logical, as it is precisely in the third stage that we discovered a quantitative parameter. Since it can receive more or less light, it is reasonable to imagine that we will find different measures within it. In any case, it can exist in different states and exhibit greater variability than the first two (three, including the zero) stages like no other.

However, this logic can be explored in more detail if we look at how the desire for the good manifests in the real world. In a world forming after the contraction of the light, you cannot receive simply because you want to receive—you must always give something in return to maintain a connection with the light according to the law of equivalence. After all, the light is entirely giving and receives nothing for itself, so the vessel is able to draw near to it (and thus receive it) only when it also becomes ready to give.

Thus, the concept of energy arises in the universe as a form of payment for what is desired. The desire itself no longer comes to us simply because we wish for it—we are separated from it by a set of conditions that must be met in order to obtain it. Thus, passive receiving turns into active goal achievement, for which a certain effort (payment, expenditure of energy) is required. If the logic of the vessel's formation through four stages reflects the relationship between the Creator and the creation, unconditioned by anything extraneous, and seems too ideal for the world we are accustomed to living in, then the subsequent logic of the system of Sefirot is precisely and fully adapted to this world. In it, your desire takes the form of striving toward a set goal, and the good comes not as simple receiving, but as work toward achieving that goal.

For the sake of clarity, let us imagine some common types of goods—love, strength, comfort, knowledge, freedom, power, etc. They do not exist in their pure form in the real world, but manifest through corresponding achievements. Love, for example, through the development of relationships or starting a family; physical strength through athletic exercise; comfort through furnishing a cozy home; knowledge through study and research; freedom through the struggle for rights; power through establishing one's high status in society, and so on. Every good becomes conditioned by the effort we pay for it.

Thus, every will is directed towards a specific goal. This goal coincides with the good that we envision before us. In fact, for us, this is light. Therefore, the goal corresponds to the sephirah Keter (the zero stage). Then, the idea of the sum of possibilities through which this goal can be realized arises. This is already the second sephirah — Chokhmah (corresponding to the second stage of the vessel). Its peculiarity lies in the fact that here the light reveals its full potential, yet in relation to future realization, it is merely an abstraction.

Next is Binah. The second stage, as we recall, was marked by the first manifestation of the ability to refuse the light. This power of refusal gives meaning to the ability to consent—simply put, consent is worth nothing if there was no possibility of refusal. Thus, the sephirah Binah becomes a kind of filter that decides which light to let through and which not to. To make such decisions, it is necessary to have a criterion, and it is precisely the presence of a criterion that defines Binah.

In the system of the Sephirot, Chokhmah and Binah work in pairs: Chokhmah demonstrates all variants and possibilities, while Binah selects the appropriate ones from them, guided by its own criteria. This is why they are usually placed opposite each other on the Tree of Life, on the right and left. Together, they are considered the "father" and "mother" for the subsequent Sephirot.

And then begins the realization of what Binah, based on its criterion, has chosen from the options proposed by Chokhmah. Its choice is, in essence, a decision or a plan, for the implementation of which the forces of the remaining sefirot will now be expended. It is at this point that the transition from conception to realization, or from theory to practice, occurs. These two areas are called the head of the partzuf and the body of the partzuf respectively: the head conceives, the body realizes what has been conceived (a partzuf is any functional system of sefirot).

And it is important to note that there is a fundamental difference between the head and the body, which we previously noted between the 3rd stage and all those preceding it. It consists in the compulsion that is revealed precisely here. If Chokhmah and Binah act based on what they want, then Tiferet already does what it must. This is exactly how the transition between the head and the body of a Partzuf is experienced. In the head, any vessel does not contain or limit the light within it, because the light can freely transition and change. This is expressed in the fact that, in theory, one can easily switch from one option to another, change one's point of view, or imagine several possibilities simultaneously. The situation is quite different with practice (the body of the Partzuf): having begun to implement a chosen option, we can no longer switch to another without losses — that would mean abandoning what was previously chosen and rendering the invested efforts in vain. The deeper a person has gone into the practical realization of a certain plan, the higher the price of exiting becomes for them: to abandon everything halfway means to resign oneself to meaningless losses.

Thus, the factor of compulsion is activated precisely where we transition from conception to practical implementation. And here, our 3rd stage (Tiferet) disintegrates into six sephirot, following the same logic that operated in the head of the partzuf. Each time, the sephira in the right line becomes a source of variants or possibilities, the sephira in the left line becomes a criterion for selection, and the sephira in the middle becomes the choice made based on that criterion.

And first of all, the question arises of finding what will serve as a means for realizing the intention formed in the partzuf of the head. Here, Chesed (the 4th sephirah) offers options for means, Gevurah (the 5th sephirah) employs a criterion for selection, and Tiferet (the 6th sephirah, sharing the name with the corresponding stage) becomes the means selected on that basis.

Next, this remedy must be applied to obtain a result. Netzach (the 7th sephira) offers various options for applying the chosen remedy, Hod (the 8th sephira) utilizes a criterion to select from these options, Yesod (the 9th sephira) becomes the chosen method of application and applies it. As a result, Malkuth (the 10th sephira, corresponding to the 4th stage) receives the outcome of the entire process.

As we can see, the four stages of vessel formation discussed at the beginning unfold into ten sefirot due to the fact that the 3rd stage, responsible for realizing the intent of the first two, itself unfolds into six sefirot. In this process, the logic repeats each time: one sefira represents options, the second represents a criterion, and the third represents the choice made. Thus, Chesed-Gevurah-Tiferet (HGT) perform the selection of means, and Netzach-Hod-Yesod (NHY) apply these means.

It is also not surprising that we obtain the result in the sephirah of Malkuth, which corresponds to the 4th stage. After all, the result in any process is always declared to be that which corresponds to the initial desire. Whatever the desire was, the result of anything will be evaluated accordingly. And since it was Malkuth that represented the vessel formed in its final shape and possessing its own will, it is precisely there that the result of achieving any goal (i.e., the attainment of good) will manifest.

The Ten Sefirot and Geometry

Kabbalists placed considerable emphasis on how the four stages and the ten sefirot relate to one another, noting the connection between the numbers 4 and 10 themselves. In particular, they saw a hint of this in the fact that the main and most sacred name of God is written with four letters (which is why it is called the Tetragrammaton): י – ה – ו – ה. Furthermore, in its expansion (transcription), it turns into ten letters and looks like this: יוד-הי-ויו-הי. They perceived this same idea in the fact that, according to Jewish religious law, the space that can be considered a minimum "domain" on Shabbat must measure ten handbreadths vertically and four horizontally. However, all of this is merely allegory and allusion.

The very idea of the connection between the four and the ten dates back to the Pythagorean teachings on the Tetractys and the Decad. In mathematics, this manifests in an arithmetic progression, where for a certain number N, the result is the sum of all natural numbers from 1 to N. Thus, for the four:

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10

Geometrically, this provides an even more visual and convincing representation. A single point has neither size nor shape, but as soon as a second one is added anywhere, a line can be drawn between them. Thus, a one-dimensional extension appears. If a third point is now placed somewhere outside this line, a two-dimensional plane emerges, and the points themselves can be connected by three lines, forming a triangle. If a fourth point is added outside this plane, a three-dimensional volumetric body is created. It will have four triangular faces. In the case of points placed at an equal distance from each other, we get a tetrahedron. There will be six lines connecting each point to every other point.

In total, for four points there are six connecting lines, which again sums up to ten. And since the space of our world is three-dimensional, it is precisely these numbers that fully characterize it, whereas a line and a plane are merely mental abstractions.

In a way, this predetermines the Kabbalistic principle that the four stages unfold into ten sephirot. However, to better understand this, it is also necessary to examine the nature of the sephira Da'at, and why, together with it, the sephirot become 11.