The Kabbalistic
Creation Story
Shivirat Ha Kaylim/The Shattering of the Vessels
In the beginning, God’s infinite light filled the entire universe. There was no room for anything else. There was only God and therefore no possibility of relationship. According to the Zohar, the driving force behind creation was God’s desire for an autonomous “other” with whom to create the possibility of relationship. The Zohar describes a long and rather intricate process that sets the stage for the creation story as told in Genesis. The following is a brief synopsis of the Genesis prequel.
Because the infinite light was overwhelming, allowing no room for anything else, God drew back the light from a small space, creating a void. This withdrawing of the light was called the tzimtzum. Into the “empty” space, a narrow ray of light was projected. This light would eventually organize into the vessels or sefirot of the Tree of Life (chapter 4), the template of the created world as we know it.
However, before the Tree evolved into its current form there were several failed attempts to organize the light into vessels. In summary there was:
Plan A: The Bound World
Ten emanations of God’s light, primitive sefirot, were all contained in a single vessel. They had no individual way to express themselves. This world failed.
Then came …
Plan B: The World of Points
The lights were each placed in separate vessels. These vessels now had individual expression but no connection to each other. They were unaware that any other light existed outside themselves. There was no possibility of relationship. The vessels could receive the light, but without any way to give to another they became so full of light that they shattered. This is the kabbalistic version of the Big Bang called Shivirat Ha Kaylim/shattering of the vessels.
And finally:
Plan C: The Tree of Life
After the shattering dispersed fragments of the vessels from Plan B throughout the universe, the Tree of Life was created. The sefirot in the form of the Tree had both individual expression and interaction. This time around, relationship was paramount. The rectified sefirot could both give and receive the light of the divine life-force. Giving and receiving is the model for our lives. We are individuals fulfilling our purpose in the context of relationship. The Tree is discussed more fully in the next chapter.
Tikun Olam
The idea that a perfect and infallible God would need several tries to create the world is a philosophical conundrum.
The Ari taught that the shattered vessels were an important part of the process of creation because they represent the origin of free will. Rabbi Eliahu Klein, in Kabbalah of Creation, explains the Ari’s teaching: “If it became known to humanity that the Creator failed initially with cataclysmic mistakes, and nevertheless recreated and re-established existence as it is, then all human beings can do the same with their lives … Divine failure is God’s way of creating the possibility within human consciousness of repairing what has been destroyed.” 23 This process of repair is called tikun olam, literally repair of the world, and is symbolically based on redeeming the shattered sparks.
When the vessels shattered, some of the light returned to the higher realms where it had originated, but some fell lower and lower, until it reached the the lowest plane of reality, the physical world. There, the shards of light that had made up the vessels coarsened. They became klipot or shells/husks (singular klipa), dense knots of unactualized potential, surrounding, obscuring and trapping the sparks. Klipot contain fragments of the original light from the shattered vessels. Our job is to unconceal, reveal, and elevate the sparks, for they are fragments of the divine lights of our souls.24 The process takes work, like refining oil or freeing diamonds from rock.
Tikun olam is the main intention of kabbalistic meditation and study. In our day-to-day lives tikun occurs through the life lessons we learn and the consciousness we integrate as a result of our growth. No matter what religion we practice if any, we can “free the sparks” by living with integrity, being kind, doing good deeds, offering charity, blessings, and prayers, and learning from our mistakes. The work we do to heal our individual wounds and shadow places may be the richest source of our growth for Kabbalah teaches that there are concealed sparks even in the core of our darkest shames and most severe trials. Recall that the shattered first set of the Ten Commandments were kept in the Mishkan and honored along with the tablets that were whole. Our broken or unconscious parts contain the opportunity for us to grow and should be honored as such.
Shattering is often a part of life, reflected in expressions such as “falling apart,” “coming unglued,” or “losing it.” We shatter because as in Shivirat Ha Kaylim, the give and take, push and pull of our homeostatic equilibrium has become unbalanced. Shattering, even in the form of a minor annoyance, is an opportunity to examine what triggered us. With that new self-awareness, that now revealed spark of consciousness, we have the opportunity, as the Ari suggested, to put ourselves back together in a new and improved way. Interestingly, the Japanese have a beautiful way of expressing a similar concept. Kintsukuroi is the art of repairing broken pottery with a special gold lacquer to emphasize the cracks. Broken vessels that have been reassembled are more prized than the original, whole piece.
Free will offers us the choice to change, or not change, in every moment. Doing the personal work necessary to clarify our soul’s purpose allows us to manifest our gifts, revealing and shining out our unique light to the world. In kabbalistic terms, as we reveal the truths of our being the rectified sparks rise, returning to their original divine source. They bring down new light, new consciousness, and the world is repaired through us one spark at a time. Rabbi Simon Jacobson states: “These sparks must be elevated in holiness for the world to achieve perfection as per the divine plan.” 25
The divine plan is revealed when in Genesis, Elohim, the God-force of creation, pauses throughout the six-day process with the words:
“And God saw that it was good.”
Restoring God’s original plan of the goodness of creation is one of the main goals of tikun olam. The illusion of being separate from the light of the divine is the kabbalistic definition of evil. The opacity of our skin and bodies is regarded as a klipa for it gives the illusion that we are separate. Only in our world, the physical world of the Shechina, can good come close enough to evil, and light come close enough to darkness, to perform tikun. In higher realms, like attracts like, so such transformation is not possible. Opposites repel except in the physical world. According to the Zohar, the highest form of tikun is the balancing of opposites, the ability to hold paradox, and it can only be done by us because we live in the physical world.
According to the Zohar, God created Creation to actualize the potential of relationship with an autonomous other, symbolized as the Shechina. The work of kabbalists is to bring light to world through tikun olam so that eventually Creator and Creation will be One as in the very beginning. When all the sparks have been raised, Creation will be “enlightened” and we will delight in the Olam Ha Ba, the world to come.
Tikun olam begins with our individual journeys of personal growth and underlies the practices in Part 2. The practices strengthen us to receive, hold, and reveal more of our inner light, our true divine essence, the Shechina.
Duality and the Nature of Light
Creation began with the statement: Let there be light/Y’hee aur/
. Light is the fabric of everything that was subsequently created, including us. In Kabbalah, everything is made up of light and vessels for the light, which are said to be light in a denser form. The analogy of physical light can be used as a way of describing metaphysical divine emanations. The light of divine emanations is the link to higher consciousness and its delights. Both physical and metaphysical light illuminate what is concealed. Both are transmitted immediately and stay in constant connection with their source. White light divides through a prism into seven colors much as the Tree is divided into the seven lower sefirot. Although this appears to be a multiplicity, in both cases all seven derive from the One.
Scientists have discovered that light exists simultaneously as particles called photons, and as waves. Because we are made of light, we also then, exist as particles and waves. This concept can be very helpful when trying to resolve the idea of duality verses Oneness. Like light, we are both physical and spiritual. Our photon-ness is matter, our physical being, our individuality. Being physical, photons can be thought of as a metaphor for the Shechina. The wave aspect can be thought of as cosmic consciousness, the divine flow, metaphorically the K”BH. Thus the union of the Shechina and the K”BH becomes a metaphor for wholeness and “enlightenment.”
We seek to be in sync with the cosmic flow. It is the flow of Oneness, the highest frequency or vibration we can attain. Having a high vibration means we feel positive, at peace with ourselves and others.26 The challenge is to connect with the highest vibration of Oneness and yet fulfill our individual destinies. A solution can be found in the term tikun olam, repair of the world. The word olam in tikun olam has another meaning besides “world.” Olam also means hidden, so tikun olam can also be translated as “repair of what is hidden.” Our inner work is to illuminate and activate the potential of our concealed divine sparks so we become more and more in sync with the divine flow of higher consciousness. As we free the sparks, we raise our vibration. Individually and collectively we are able to hold more light.
In order to reach the highest level, we must become whole in ourselves by doing the spiritual work of illuminating our darkest shadow parts. According to the Zohar, every soul, including the darkest forces of society, must be included in this process. Eventually, we will become light again, as it was in the beginning.
23 Rabbi Eliahu Klein, The Kabbalah of Creation, 70.
24 Technically, the word tikun means to create a vessel that enables the revelation of some increment of previously transcendent light—Sarah Yehudit Schneider, Still Small Voice Correspondence School: Zohar class, 5/15/16.
25 Rabbi Simon Jacobson, www.meaningfullife.com.
26 Check out: “The Benefits of Being in a Higher Vibration” by Pamela Dussault, http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/positive-energy_b_1715767.html.