Unit 1- The Term “Sefirot”

The structure of the divine world and its inner dynamics are a central focus of interest

in most Kabbalistic trends and movements, from the late 12 th century until today. A

major concept in most Kabbalistic doctrines is that the divine realm is constituted of

ten divine powers or "Sefirot".

Some of you may have already heard the term “Sefirot”. But what does it mean?

In this lesson, we will clarify the idea of the "Sefirot", and describe some of the major

terms and symbols used by Kabbalists to describe the ten divine powers. In the

following lesson, we will discuss Kabbalistic ideas concerning the interaction

between the Sefirot, and the way these interactions affect our world.

But first, I’d like to say a few words about the word “Sefirot” itself. The word

"Sefirot" is not a common word in Hebrew, and it does not appear in the Bible, or in

the canonical literature of the post-biblical period, the Talmud and Midrash. Hebrew

words have a three letter root. The root of the word "Sefirot", is made up of the

Hebrew letters samech, peh, and reish, which mean “counting” –(lispor) or telling

(lesaper). Indeed it seems that the original meaning of the term Sefirot is related to

these meanings.

The word appeared for the first time in a short and enigmatic ancient text, called Sefer

Yetzira, or the book of creation. This text preceded the appearance of the first

Kabbalistic circles, in the late 12 th century. It was traditionally attributed to Abraham

the patriarch, but its real author and the precise time and location of its composition

remain unknown, and are still debated amongst scholars. What is certain is that the

book had been circulating since at least the 10th century, and became a central text for

Jewish philosophers, and later, for Kabbalists who wrote many commentaries on it.

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The Sefer Yetzira begins with the declaration that God created the universe with

'thirty-two wondrous paths of wisdom'. It claimed that these thirty-two paths of

wisdom constitute the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet together with the ten

"Sefirot". In this context, it is probable that the word "Sefirot" simply means numbers,

and that the idea of Sefer Yetzira is that god created the world using primordial letters

and numbers. However, many later Kabbalist commentaries on the book, embedded

the term "Sefirot" into their different Kabbalistic theories, portraying the Sefirot not

as primordial numbers used by God to create the world, but rather, as ten divine

powers, or the ten major components of the divine system.