We touched last week only very lightly on Kabbalah. This week I want to go into a term called the ten Sefirot, denoting the ten emanations through which the Godhead manifests Himself. The early essene kabbalists adopted this concept of describing the Divine world, comprised of ten Divine powers, originating from the Godhead called Ein Sof. Ein Sof would of course be YHVH the father.

Each of the sefirot has a name. The most common names and characteristics (they vary only slightly in every Kabbalist work) are; the Keter = crown, which identifies with the Godhead, the Father YHVH, Ein Sof ; Hokhmah = wisdom, which denotes the Divine plan for all existence; Binah = intelligence or understanding, which is the source or fountain of all existence; Chesed = charity & mercy, this is the right arm and source of Divine goodness; Gevurah = strength, it’s the left arm which is the source of strict justice; Tiferet = beauty, (Yeshua) it unites the two and represents “Divine mercy”; Netzach = eternity, it represents the right leg; Hod = glory, the left leg, both these last two represent lower manifestations of Chesed and Gevurah.

The nineth sefirah is Yesod, which is foundation and represents the flowing of Divine force in the universe. The tenth is called the Malchut, which is separate and is a feminine word. It has a motherly quality. It includes elements from all other nine sefirot, reflects them and governs the created world. You might say it reminds you of a human man, with a head, two arms, two legs, and a foundation to stand on that would be like your feet. Like everything else in the world, there’s corruption in some of the Kabbalah out there. That doesn’t mean you throw out the baby with the bath water. The ten emanations of the sefirot, quite some material to study!