KABBALAH AND PSYCHOLOGY

The Torah Science Foundation

Part 1
General Overview
Kabbalah teaches that God created the entire world with the letters of the Hebrew language, the Holy Tongue, and in Torah literature, mankind is referred to as , a speaker. The uniqueness of humans is in their ability to speak and understand language. Language reflects the most profound levels of the human soul. For this reason, when approaching any subject from a Torah perspective, it is crucial to see and connect to the key terms and concepts in the original Hebrew. This is even more significant when the subject is the psychological health of the human speaker. In the Zohar, Man is referred to as a miniature world, created with the same order as the physical world. Just as God created the world via the emanation of the ten sefirot, so, too, Man reflects the ten sefirot of creation in his psyche. In addition, the seven primordial worlds of chaos correspond to the seven midot (spiritual character traits) of the soul (love, fear, compassion etc). Just as each primordial king (see Gen. 36: 31-39) wanted to rule over the world (with the phrase,"I will rule"), so each of the psyches midot want to be in control. Yet, the (sometimes subtle) desire of the ego for absolute control is a chaotic state of mind that is liable to lead to psychological breakdown. In order to achieve balance in his soul, Man must work to achieve interinclusion between all his midot.

Creation, Health and Creativity

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Torah describes the creation of the world. The first two words of the story of Creation

In order to better understand the psychology of Man, we must first see how the

are , in the beginning [He] created. Taking a look at these two words we see that the first three letters of the first word are identical to the three-letters of the second word. In fact, one interpretation of the word in the Zohar reads it as a composite of two words: , meaning, He created six [days]. In this context, the second word, ,refers to the creation of the Seventh day, the day of Shabbat. Our sages teach that All sevenths are beloved. In the context of language, the reference to six in the first word alludes to the fact that every three-lettered root in the Hebrew language has six possible permutations. Creation began on the 25th of Elul. Adam and Eve were created on Rosh Hashanah, the sixth day of Creation. On that very day, God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Yet, they disobeyed the single commandment given to them by their Creator. The prohibition against eating from the Tree of Knowledge was only intended to last until the Shabbat would enter at twilight a matter of a mere three hours. Adam and his wife ate from the tree while the fruit was yet unripe. The Tree of Knowledge represents science, and psychology in particular. The word ,meaning tree, is also the root of the word, ,meaning advice. A good psychologist is a counselor who gives sound advice. Thus, the lesson to be learned from the primordial sin is that it is not possible for sound advice to contradict the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.1 Psychological growth occurs best in the fertile ground of the Torahs positive commandments and prohibitions.

The ultimate rectification of the Tree of Knowledge is alluded to in the Chassidic rendering of the verse, "the Tree of Knowledge of Good --- and evil you shall not eat."

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