Abraham Abulafia, Moses de Leon, Isaac de Latif and Joseph Gikatilla begin a mystical midrash, based on the Talmudic story of the four sages who enter the orchard (pardes). PaRDes was an anagram of the four senses of scripture: literal (peshat), allegorical (remez), moral homiletic (darash) and mystical (sod).
These four gentlemen gave birth to the practice of the Kabbalah. Drawing on the emanatory creation principles of Ptolemy's universe - the three fixed stars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon descending from God to the material world, the Kabbalah becomes a scripturally-based mysticism through the Book of Splendor (Zohar), a second-century novel that describes the wanderings of R. Simeon ben Yohai, discussing the Torah as he travels with friends, an exegesis that opened directly onto the divine world.
The Kabbalists agreed with the philosophers that God could not be known, but also thought that God could be experienced by the symbols of scripture.
The innermost essence of God is incomprehensible and 'without end' (En Soph). The abstract qualities of philosophy - Power, Wisdom, Beauty, Intelligence, become dynamic potencies, inner dimensions of the divine psyche called 'sephirot'.
The story of Genesis parallels the emergence of the sephirot. Bereshit (the beginning) represents the moment that Kether Elyon (Supreme Crown) breaks through the unfathomable En Soph as a dark flame. This cannot be recognised by mere mortal humans until a hidden supernal light shone forth under the impact of the final breaking through. This was Hokmah (Wisdom), the divine masterplan that represents the limit of human understanding. Hokmah penetrates Binah (Intelligence) whose 'unknowable radiance' is less subtle and translucent than Wisdom. Binah is the Supernal Mother, whose womb once penetrated by the primal point gives birth to the lower sephirot, symbolised as the seven days in Genesis:
Tiphareth (Grace)
Din (Judgment)
Hesed (Mercy)
Netzach (Patience)
Hod (Majesty)
Yesod (Stability)
Malkuth, the Shekhinah, the Kingdom
At the three highest Sephirot - 'it' becomes 'he'
At the next six Sephirot - 'he' becomes 'you'
At Shekhinah - 'You' becomes 'I'.
God is present in each and every individual. The ex nihilo is not outside the Godhead, but is the abyss that is overcome in creation. The Kabbalists noted the two Adams in Genesis - in Ch. 1 there is adam kadmon - primordial humanity, and in Ch. 2 the mundane Adam is created from dust. This Adam was expected to contemplate the Godhead on the Sabbath, but only contemplates Shekhinah, and so he sins, separating the Tree of Life from the Tree of Knowledge. The Kabbalists have the power to reunite Shekhinah by performing the tasks that Adam did not - so Abraham's binding of Isaac shows how Din and Hesed (Judgment and Mercy) should act together to temper each other). The story of Joseph overcoming sexual temptation to provide food in Egypt shows restraint (Din) is always balanced by grace (Tipereth).
Ref: Armstrong, K. The Bible: A Biography, London, Atlantic Books, 2008. pg 146 - 152
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