The Tree of Life is the main symbol of Kabbalah and represents the essence of a belief system that can only be described in symbolism. It is essentially a map depicting the ongoing events and forces of Creation as they are described in Genesis. It is the Kabbalists' attempt at visualizing forces that we cannot see. We cannot see Creation itself, but we can see the results of the process of Creation.
In addition to being a map of Creation, the Tree is also the place where we begin to see how Kabbalah relates to us on the human level by showing us our place in the universe and our role in the flow of energy that sustains all things and all life within it.
As we already know, the Tree of Life is composed of ten vessels, depicted as circles (the sefirot) on the Tree, and twenty-two connecting paths that run horizontally, vertically, and diagonally between them. These are the varied paths that the energy of Ein Sof follows. The sefirot and the numbered paths are the engines behind the laws of the universe, the laws of nature. These paths plus the ten sefirot equal thirty-two, which Kabbalists call the wondrous paths of wisdom.
As mentioned before, each path represents a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which are partners with the sefirot in Creation, and each sefira represents a stage of Creation as depicted in Genesis. For instance, each day in Genesis is characterized by a different act of Creation. On one day God creates light, on another day He creates celestial bodies — the sun, moon, and stars — and on another day He creates flora and fauna. According to Kabbalists, each of these acts, each step in Creation, signifies a different sefira coming into play. But there are ten sefirot and only seven days in Creation. This is because the top three sefirot — Keter, Hochma, and Binah — represent “hidden” stages of Creation that occurred prior to the first day described in Genesis: that is, they refer to the tzimtzum, the emanation of the Ein Sof Or, and the emergence of duality at the “tip” of the Ein Sof Or. These events are described in the first and second verses of Genesis, which we examined in chapter 4, that set the scene for what unfolds over seven days. The first day of Creation, then, actually corresponds to the fourth sefira on the Tree (Hesed or Lovingkindness). “Then God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And light appeared. And God was pleased with it, and divided the light from the darkness.”
The second day corresponds with Gevurah (Strength). “Let the vapors [waters] separate to form the sky above and the oceans below.”
The third day corresponds with Tiferet (Beauty). “Let the earth burst forth with every sort of grass and seed-bearing plant ….”
The fourth day corresponds with Netzach (Victory). “Let there be bright lights in the sky to give light to the earth …. They shall bring about the seasons on the earth, and mark the days and years.”
The fifth day corresponds with Hod (Splendor). “Let the waters teem with fish and other life and let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.”
The sixth day corresponds with Yesod (Foundation). This is the day on which human beings were created. “Then God said, ‘Let us make a man — someone like ourselves.’”
The seventh day, the last day of Creation in which no activity occurs, corresponds with Malkhut (Majesty). The seventh day is the Sabbath, the day of rest (coming from the Hebrew word shavatfor “rest”), which represents the finalization of Creation, or at least the finalization of this initial cycle of Creation, since we know that Creation is continuous. Every other sefira contains within it a quality that performs a function; but Malkhut is not active in the same way that the other sefirot are. Instead, it is the result of the work of the others and is the recipient of the energy that flows down through them. Malkhut is viewed as the sum total of the work of all the sefirot, just as the Sabbath is the sum total of the week.
The sefirot are laid out in the order in which Creation unfolded: 1) Keter; 2) Hochma; 3) Binah; 4) Hesed; 5) Gevurah; 6) Tiferet; 7) Netzach; 8) Hod; 9) Yesod; and 10) Malkhut. Visually, the sefirot are depicted on the Tree as three vertically stacked triangles, with Malkhut below them at the bottom. In other words, the top three (Keter, Hochma, Binah) form the top triangle; the next three (Hesed, Gevurah, and Tiferet) form the middle triangle; and the three after that (Netzach, Hod, and Yesod) form the bottom triangle. The top triangle is usually separated slightly from the lower ones, because the three sefirot in it represent the hidden part of Creation, a realm that is beyond our capacity to know (sometimes they are depicted behind a veil), whereas the lower seven represent the realm of the revealed and are more accessible to us.
Ten, like the number seven, is a significant figure in the Bible — there are ten plagues on Egypt and Ten Commandments, for example. In the wider universe, however, ten represents the primordial numbers zero through nine, from which all other numbers are composed. The parallel, of course, is that the ten sefirot represent the forces from which everything in the universe is created.
The reason the sefirot are laid out in triangles is because they tend to work in relationships of three. In the top triangle, Keter and Hochma produce Binah. In the two lower triangles, the middle sefira is the balancing or harmonizing point for the two sefirot on either side of it. Therefore, Tiferet (Beauty) is the balance between the forces of Hesed (Lovingkindness) and Gevurah (Strength); and Yesod (Foundation) is the balance between the forces of Hod (Splendor) and Netzach (Victory). The sefirot on the lower two triangles represent the relationship between opposing forces and a balancing force that is composed of the two opposing forces. Furthermore, the sefirot on the right side are referred to as masculine, the sefirot on the left side as feminine. The center sefirot are a combination of the two sides and therefore contain both masculine and feminine within them. Do not mistake, as many people do, that these labels designate masculine and feminine traits as we know them. The Kabbalists refer to masculine and feminine sefirot simply to illustrate opposing forces. They do not define masculine as something aggressive in the way that we might, and feminine as nurturing; they define them by sefirot that are givers (in sexual terms the man delivers the seed) and sefirot that are receptors (the woman receives the seed). Indeed, it can be confusing to understand the sefirot in terms of traditional beliefs about masculine and feminine because Kabbalists place Gevurah (Strength) on the feminine side, and Hesed (Lovingkindness) on the masculine side. The designation of masculine and feminine can be further misleading because all the sefirot contain masculine and feminine traits in them; all essentially give and receive as the energy of Ein Sof flows down the Tree and through them. All the sefirot together unite the male and female aspects of God. This duality of masculine and feminine is evident even in the God name Elohim that stands for all of the sefirot together. The word Elohim, Kabbalists point out, is composed of a feminine singular root with a masculine plural ending, im.
If the Tree is a map of everything in the universe, then it is also, most significantly, a map of us. As we said earlier, the sefirot created human beings in “their” image; therefore, everything that human beings are composed of — every organ and every body part on an organic level, and every thought and emotion on an inorganic level — existed in the Tree first. Human beings have four elemental parts to them — the spiritual, the intellectual, the emotional, and the physical — and each of these is represented by one of the four worlds that Kabbalists say compose our universe. The first world (Atzilut) represents our spiritual nature; the second world (Briyah) represents our intellectual nature; the third world (Yetzirah) represents our emotional nature; and the fourth world (Assiyah) represents our physical nature. What this means is that if we look at the characteristics of the sefirot in each world and the qualities they manifest, we can begin to understand something about our own nature that corresponds to each sefira. For instance, Keter, in the world of Atzilut that is closest to Ein Sof, represents our individual soul's connection to the universal soul that joins us all. Binah, which deals with knowledge and understanding, represents our intellectual nature or the side of us that attempts to make sense of the world and aid in our awareness of it. The next six sefirot deal with how we process the world and how we act according to the emotions that this processing produces. Finally, Malkhut, in the world of Assiyah, represents our physical nature — such as our five senses, our passions for food, sex, beautiful art.
Following is a list of the sefirot, broken into these four elemental categories, along with a description of some of the characteristics that Kabbalists say are found in each sefira. In chapter 6, we will address in greater detail how each of these characteristics relates to human beings and their nature; for now, however, we'll focus on where each sefira fits into the process of Creation, with a brief note about its relevance to human nature. Keep in mind that over the years different Kabbalists have developed different interpretations of what each sefira represents, so there is no definitive interpretation of the Tree. But the following descriptions offer a general breakdown of the characteristics of the Tree.
1 Keter, whose English name is “crown,” is the first sefira and represents the unfathomable divine will in the Creation process. It is the will before there is thought or idea. It is the tzimtzum, the contraction of Ein Sof, that is created at the moment that the idea of Creation emerges in Ein Sof. Keter is assigned the number 1, because it represents singleness and unity. It's the most ephemeral of the sefirot and the least understood because it is the highest up on the ladder of Creation and the closest to Ein Sof. Above Keter is the realm of infinity, which we cannot comprehend with our limited human understanding. While Keter may be closest to the source, Kabbalists say that a vast abyss still separates it from Ein Sof. It is there and yet far from being there. It is sometimes referred to as nothingness — that is, No-Thingness — because, like Ein Sof, it is undifferentiated. Kabbalists do not delve too deeply into the nature of Keter, because it is in a realm beyond our understanding. On the human level, however, Keter represents selflessness and the obliteration of the ego, as it is here where unity of all exists and there are no individuals.
2 Hochma is called “wisdom” in English and is the second sefira, which represents the emanation into the tzimtzum in the process of Creation. It represents pure, undifferentiated thought. It is the thought of Creation that comes out of the will to create. It is thought emanated into the cosmos that gives form to the divine will. It is not yet a good thought or a bad thought, it is simply a thought without personality or characteristics assigned to it; it is a thought or an axiom that just is, without qualifying judgments attached to it. It is E = mc2 without knowledge of what that means, or it is the thought “hunger” without an understanding of what that implies. Hochma is assigned the number 2 because it represents “the Other” that needs to exist before the one can be recognized. Thought exists to acknowledge and recognize the existence of the Will. Hochma on the human level represents pure, undifferentiated awareness; awareness and observation that is unmasked by judgment. It is the act of living in the moment and of simply being aware of our place in the universe.
3 Binah is called “understanding” in English and is the third sefira, which flows from Hochma. It is the point at the end of the emanation at which the lower sefirot representing duality are conceived and from which they are given birth. Binah represents the application of logic and evaluation to thoughts to make sense out of the pure thought of Hochma. It also represents differentiation, understanding the difference between one thing and another or between ourselves and “the Other.” It symbolizes the beginning of duality, the understanding of the difference between good and evil, male and female. On the human level, Binah represents integration, since it is the point in which duality has not yet become differentiated. This is integration on a cosmic level — the integration of all animate and inanimate life — and on an internal level in terms of the integration of all aspects of ourselves — the masculine and feminine, the strong and the vulnerable, the intellectual and the physical.
The next six sefirot together, one could say, make the world go 'round. It is the constant flux of energy among them that determines the defining characteristics of our world at any one time. For instance, if an abundance of Gevurah energy is released and is not balanced by Hesed energy, the result is a world that is harsh and constraining and full of conflict and tension from people fighting restraints that are too tight. In Kabbalah, we get the world that we create. In this sense, Kabbalists view people like Hitler and Idi Amin and events like wars and disease as the result of certain energies and actions. Nothing occurs in a vacuum. Therefore, our actions today create the world we receive tomorrow.
4 Hesed, which is called “lovingkindness” in English, is the fourth sefira and the first to emerge from Binah. Hesed, along with the next five sefirot, represent the formation stage in Creation, in which the forces of God begin to interact to bring the original will and thought to fruition. The aspect or force of God that Hesed represents is unmitigated compassion and mercy. On a human level, it represents charity, healing, nurturing, and all the other ways in which we give ourselves to the world and our compassion to other people. It is the giving of aid to refugees and victims of hurricane and flooding, or simply the giving of time to a troubled friend. All extremes have a downside, however, and the downside of unmitigated love, love that has no limits or boundaries, is obsessiveness and smothering. This is a matter of giving where giving isn't needed or wanted or in which the giving is a matter of ego and focuses more on the person doing the giving than on the person receiving. Hesed also represents the absence of borders, whether this means the absence of laws or mores in a society, the absence of parental discipline in a family, or the absence of boundaries that stop other people from walking all over us.
5 Gevurah is called “strength” and is the fifth sefira. It is the opposite of Hesed. Where Hesed is all-out giving, Gevurah represents holding back, boundaries, discipline, and limitations. It is the rules that guide and teach us and put order in society, and it is the restraint that keeps us from overindulging our passions or giving into our lazy side. The extreme side of Gevurah, when it is unbalanced by Hesed, means overly constricting boundaries and oppression. It can range from a fascist police state to an overly disciplinarian parent. It is harsh judgment and mercilessness in the absence of compassion. It is unjust suffering and the punishment of innocent victims.
6 Tiferet, the sixth sefira, is known as “beauty,” not in the sense of physical beauty, but in the sense of balance and harmony. It is the balance between Hesed and Gevurah, a combination of the right amount of lovingkindness with the right amount of structure and strength. This is the balance point of giving and receiving. It is the symbol of justice with her scales equally balanced, and it is the symbol of nature in balance.
7 Netzach is known as “victory” or “triumph” and is the seventh sefira. It refers to domination and confidence, which cause harsh and overwhelming aspects when unbalanced by vulnerabilities, or giving and nurturing when paired with respect and acceptance. Netzach is sometimes compared to a parent, while its counterpart, Hod, is compared to the child. Netzach, as the dominating and confident force, nurtures and leads those who are weaker and innocent. It takes action when action is needed and assumes leadership.
8 Hod, the eighth sefira, is called “splendor” and refers to vulnerability as well as complacency and acceptance. Hod, as mentioned above, is the child to Netzach's parent. It is dependence and admiration compared to Netzach's confident independence.
9 Yesod, the ninth sefira, is known as “foundation,” and is the balance between Netzach and Hod, between domination and innocence. It refers to the dynamic dance of giving and receiving, dependence and independence, and to the admiration, leadership, and respect that balance relationships between people.
10 Malkhut is known as “majesty” or “kingdom” and refers to the physical manifestation of Ein Sof and Creation. Malkhut is the end result of the emanation from Ein Sof. It symbolizes the presence of God in our world. Malkhut is often likened to the moon, because the moon has no power or light of its own but only receives light from the sun. Malkhut is also seen as God in exile. Kabbalists call God in exile the Shekinah, the feminine presence of God. It is the queen exiled from her king, and exile persists for as long as the king and queen are not united. It was believed by the early Israelites that the Shekinah dwelled in the Ark in the Temple in Jerusalem. But Kabbalists believe that, in essence, we are the Shekinah. The king is represented on the Tree by Tiferet, the symbol of balance and harmony. Tiferet stands in the spiritual world while we stand in the physical one. Tiferet and Shekinah were divided with the Fall of Adam and Eve. Therefore when Kabbalists speak of the union of Tiferet and Malkhut, they're talking about a symbolic union that expresses a desire to reunite the physical and spiritual worlds.
If the account of Creation is an account of the creation of everything in the universe, then the Tree of Life must represent everything that the universe encompasses. This means that everything in the universe must fit somewhere on the map, either in a sefira, or on one of the paths. Each sefira has, in addition to the qualities just described, a seemingly unlimited number of things that it represents. For instance, every sefira has a corresponding Jewish ancestor assigned to it (Hesed, for instance, is Abraham; Gevurah is Isaac; Netzach is Moses; Hod is Aaron). This means that each patriarch was defined by a quality that also defines that particular sefira. Moses and Aaron, for instance, were prophets, and Netzach and Hod are viewed as the forces of prophecy. Each sefira has a corresponding name of God; a Jewish holiday; a body part; a plant; an animal; a chemical element; a number; an emotion; even a color assigned to it. There are so many symbols that it can make a crowded map if you tried to include them all. But if you took a sheet of Mylar plastic, like the kind you find in anatomy books, and drew a diagram of one Tree containing just the names of God on the sefirot; then you took another sheet and wrote just the qualities of Ein Sof on the sefirot; and another one depicting the names of animals or body parts on the corresponding sefirot; … if you continued this for a dozen or so Mylar sheets and stacked all the sheets on top of each other, you'd have some idea of all the things the Tree encompasses.
In addition to the aspect of God that defines each sefira, each sefira also comprises all the other sefirot. Each sefira contains within it a microcosm of the entire Tree of Life. Furthermore, all sefirot are active in each world. You could represent this by drawing a vertical column of four trees on a sheet of paper, one above the other. This is why we say that everything under the sun exists in the sefirot; every emotion, feeling, or action we could possibly think of, has its parallel somewhere in the Tree. There is nothing that exists in this world that is not modeled in the Tree and the sefirot. Which means that each sefira contains all of the forces of Creation in some measure, with one defining force being the dominant one. This is similar to the way that people contain a compendium of attributes, but one defining characteristic is usually more pronounced in each person than others. Each sefira, then, has many layers within it, and each layer combines and mixes with the layers of other sefirot, creating numerous, possibly infinite combinations of new energies. It is similar, for instance, to a basic cake recipe containing flour, sugar, eggs, butter, baking powder, and milk. Slight variations in the amount of each ingredient produce a different flavored cake. Leave one ingredient out, or add another one, such as cinnamon or chocolate, and the cake takes on an entirely different flavor and texture. Such is the way with the sefirot.
Following is a chart of the sefirot listing the Hebrew name for each (along with the English translation of the name), the quality of God that defines it, the name of God in the Bible that refers to it, and the body part to which it corresponds.
The Tree is a blueprint of us. It represents Creation in theory, while we represent Creation in practice. It is sometimes referred to as Primordial Adam, referring to Adam in thought, the blueprint or prototype of Adam. We, of course, are Adam and Eve in reality. Remember, the sefirot made us in their image and therefore our structure mirrors the structure of the Tree. What goes on in the Tree is mirrored in our world, in our society, in our daily life. The Tree is us. We can show this literally by placing the figure of a man over the Tree. Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing of a man with his two pairs of arms and two pairs of legs is the perfect model to lay over the Tree. Each sefira corresponds to a part of the body, as depicted in the right-hand column of the chart above. The head of da Vinci's man represents Keter; the top two arms raised higher than the shoulders represent Binah and Hochma; the arms spread at shoulder height represent Gevurah and Hesed; the two legs spread outward represent Hod and Netzach; the genitals represent Yesod; and the two feet planted firmly on the ground are Malkhut. Some Kabbalists say that Malkhut represents the body of the man in its totality, but because Malkhut is also the Shekinah, the feminine presence of God, other Kabbalists see Malkhut in this sense as the female companion to the man represented by the other sefirot together.
All the sefirot worked together to create us, based on a map of how the universe itself was created. Our microcosm fits snugly into the macrocosm of the universe. All human logic, emotions, and relationships are represented somewhere in the Tree. The mixing of the energy among sefirot, picking up qualities here and there and creating new recipes as it goes, results in different situations and emotions played out in our lives. They say, for instance, that history repeats itself. But in truth, nothing repeats. The overall events may appear similar, but the simple fact that time, people, and specific circumstances change, results in what we could call “a very different cake.”
The idea that the Tree mirrors the physical world and that the energy from it influences this world has led some people to find links between astrology and Kabbalah. The difference, however, is that Kabbalists don't believe the sefirot control us; they believe that our world is modeled on the sefirot, but our thoughts and actions reverberate back to the sefirot, adding new ingredients to the recipe, so that new situations and consequences are produced. This is crucial to understanding Kabbalah, because Kabbalists believe that we affect change, that it is our actions that repair or prevent repair in the world.
What does this mean in real terms? Life changes and evolves. The world evolves. Things that happen today affect what will happen tomorrow. The people we meet today, the relationships we have, the paths that we take, the choices we make, all determine the paths, choices, and relationships we will have tomorrow — both on an individual level and on a global one. With the continuing evolution of the world, new paths and choices develop. Today, we face situations and events that our great-grandparents never encountered — divorce, social security, HMOs — in the same way that our great-grandparents faced situations we don't see today. Feelings of disconnection and discontent in our society, increased crime rates, and greed today are the direct result of events and choices made in society yesterday. But these are only the negative results. There are also positive aspects of our world today that are the result of decisions and actions taken by people yesterday: health and safety laws that protect us from the spread of disease or dangerous work conditions; better pay for women and family leave plans; recycling and clean-air legislation. The interaction of the forces of the sefirot make our world, but our world continues to stimulate the sefirot to alter the nature of Creation and bring us closer to spiritual awareness.
Take nuclear armament. Twenty years ago it seemed we were on the brink of destruction. Nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union seemed inevitable if not imminent. The world teetered on annihilation. But something happened to put it back in balance. Through the work of people like Dr. Helen Caldicott and the Physicians for Social Responsibility, through the labor of diplomats and politicians, and ordinary citizens crusading for sanity, the situation gradually defused. In Tree terms, the forces of Gevurah were leveled off by the forces of Hesed.
When we seek to balance the imbalances in our world, we heal our world. And when we heal imbalances on the micro level, it causes a ripple effect up the Tree to heal the upper worlds as well. In Kabbalah, there are no punishments or rewards, only consequences; actions and reactions. Creation is not a static process. We act, and a ripple of our act flows out from us. Throw a rock in a placid lake and the ripples spread out in even, concentric circles. In this way, our actions ripple through the upper worlds. What occurs in the upper sefirot reflects what occurs in the lower sefirot, but what occurs in the lower sefirot also stimulates change in the upper sefirot, so that the next round of energy that flows down to us is altered. The recipe changes.
Why should we care about how God created the Universe? Kabbalists say we should care because everything that happens on the spiritual plane is a reflection of what happens to us here. The imbalance, the separation of God depicted in Genesis, is a reflection of the separation in each of us. We are disconnected from God when we do harm to the world and other people, and we are disconnected from ourselves when we do harm to ourselves, when we create an imbalance internally or fail to heal an existing imbalance. Kabbalists tell us that Creation was the act of God removing all elements except judgment from a space in Himself and creating an imbalance in that space. Into this He poured balance. We are meant to mimic that repair.
We are not only created beings, but creating beings, just as the sefirot are creating forces. Human beings are the activators of tikkun, who transform the forces of the sefirot and help redirect them back to the source. This requires awareness of our role in the Creation scheme. The ability to repair is in our hands, and we've been given free will to choose what to do with it. Kabbalists say that a kind word or deed travels farther than an evil one. We have the ability to affect great change with the simplest acts of lovingkindness, therefore we have tremendous power. It is left to us to decide what we are going to do with it and how we are going to act.
Repair consists of two types: those that restore the world on the outside — on the physical level — and those that restore it on the inside — the psychological and spiritual levels. The outside is repaired through thoughts, words, and actions; the inside is repaired through developing spiritual awareness by study, meditation, and prayer. If both types work together, there will be good done through conscious intention and awareness. Good deeds have wings that propel them. All good deeds lead to tikkun, but Kabbalists say that deeds done in full consciousness and awareness have the greatest effect and accelerate tikkun. It's simple; every act that is harmful causes further division in the world, while every act that is healing creates unity. Kabbalah has to do with creating a balanced world on every level, and that includes finding balance within ourselves. One way to achieve this is to unite the divided aspects of ourselves, to balance our physical, intellectual, and spiritual natures.
Kabbalah teaches us that Creation is continuous and is happening now. It teaches us that we can experience Creation today. Once we see the forces in action, and become in tune to them, once we understand the process and our role in it, then we can push up our sleeves and begin the work of repair. That's why the Torah has been called an “owner's manual,” because it shows us the way to spiritual development; it shows us from where we originate and how the forces of nature interact to create us and everything else. We don't need to know all the intricacies of Judaism or to understand precisely how the Kabbalists arrived at their beliefs. We simply need to take the next step from what they've given us. We need to put it into practice.
