1.
William Blake
–
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a figure in the history of the poetry. His so-called prophetic works were said by 20th century critic Northrop Frye to form what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language. His visual artistry led 21st-century critic Jonathan Jones to proclaim him far, in 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBCs poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Although he lived in London his entire life, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich œuvre and his paintings and poetry have been characterised as part of the Romantic movement and as Pre-Romantic. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the Church of England, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French, despite these known influences, the singularity of Blakes work makes him difficult to classify. William Blake was born on 28 November 1757 at 28 Broad Street in Soho and he was the third of seven children, two of whom died in infancy. Blakes father, James, was a hosier and he attended school only long enough to learn reading and writing, leaving at the age of ten, and was otherwise educated at home by his mother Catherine Blake. Even though the Blakes were English Dissenters, William was baptised on 11 December at St Jamess Church, Piccadilly, the Bible was an early and profound influence on Blake, and remained a source of inspiration throughout his life. Blake started engraving copies of drawings of Greek antiquities purchased for him by his father, within these drawings Blake found his first exposure to classical forms through the work of Raphael, Michelangelo, Maarten van Heemskerck and Albrecht Dürer. The number of prints and bound books that James and Catherine were able to purchase for young William suggests that the Blakes enjoyed, at least for a time, a comfortable wealth. When William was ten years old, his parents knew enough of his headstrong temperament that he was not sent to school and he read avidly on subjects of his own choosing. During this period, Blake made explorations into poetry, his work displays knowledge of Ben Jonson, Edmund Spenser. On 4 August 1772, Blake was apprenticed to engraver James Basire of Great Queen Street, at the sum of £52.10, at the end of the term, aged 21, he became a professional engraver. This aside, Basires style of line-engraving was of a kind held at the time to be old-fashioned compared to the flashier stipple or mezzotint styles. It has been speculated that Blakes instruction in this form may have been detrimental to his acquiring of work or recognition in later life. After two years, Basire sent his apprentice to copy images from the Gothic churches in London and his experiences in Westminster Abbey helped form his artistic style and ideas. The Abbey of his day was decorated with suits of armour, painted funeral effigies, ackroyd notes that. the most immediate would have been of faded brightness and colour
William Blake
–
Blake in a portrait by
Thomas Phillips (1807)
William Blake
–
28 Broad Street (now Broadwick Street) in an illustration of 1912. Blake was born here and lived here until he was 25. The house was demolished in 1965.
William Blake
–
The archetype of the Creator is a familiar image in Blake's work. Here, the
demiurgic figure
Urizen prays before the world he has forged. The
Song of Los is the third in a series of
illuminated books painted by Blake and his wife, collectively known as the
Continental Prophecies.
William Blake
–
Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing (1786)
2.
30 Rockefeller Plaza
–
30 Rockefeller Plaza is an American Art Deco skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Its name is shortened to 30 Rock. The building is most famous for housing the NBC television network headquarters, at 850 feet high, the 70-story building is the 14th tallest in New York City and the 39th tallest in the United States. It stands 400 feet shorter than the Empire State Building, the building underwent a US$170 million floor-by-floor interior renovation in 2014. The building was completed in 1933 as part of the Rockefeller Center complex, the noted Art Deco architect Raymond Hood led a team of Rockefeller architects. It was named the RCA Building for its tenant, the Radio Corporation of America. It was the first building constructed with the elevators grouped in the central core, during construction, a photographer took the famous photograph Lunch atop a Skyscraper on the 69th floor. The National Broadcasting Company, had the red and blue networks housed in the new building, NBC was the first national radio network in the country and was started by R. C. A. in 1926. The office of the Rockefeller family occupied Room 5600 on the 56th floor and this space is now occupied by Rockefeller Family and Associates, whose offices span the 54th to 56th floors. John D. Rockefeller had a vault in the basement of the building. In 1985, the building acquired official landmark status, the RCA Building was renamed as the GE Building in 1988, two years after General Electric re-acquired the RCA Corporation. Some still refer to the building using its old names, out of habit or fondness, the buildings address became the title of the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, which follows the cast and crew of a fictional television show filmed inside the building. KWO35, the NOAA Weather Radio station serving the majority of the Tri-State area, originally transmitted from atop the building, due to interference with a U. S. Coast Guard radio channel, the transmitter was eventually relocated atop the MetLife Building. A weather radar station was located atop the building. In June 2014, Comcast was granted permission from the Landmarks Preservation Commission to make modifications to the building to reflect its ownership of NBCUniversal, the GE Building would be officially known as the Comcast Building. Comcast planned to replace the neon GE lettering from the top of the building with a 10-foot tall, LED-lit Comcast wordmark and NBC logo, and add a 17-foot NBC logo on the building westerns facade. Additionally, a new marquee was added to the Avenue of the Americas entrance, on July 1,2015, the name change and new signage were made official. The building is one of the most famous and recognized skyscrapers in New York
30 Rockefeller Plaza
–
As the GE Building (Oct. 2005)
30 Rockefeller Plaza
–
Rockefeller Center, featuring the RCA Building (Dec. 1933)
30 Rockefeller Plaza
–
Facade (Feb 2007)
30 Rockefeller Plaza
–
Panoramic view looking south from the "Top of the Rock" observation deck.
3.
New York City
–
The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
New York City
–
Clockwise, from top:
Midtown Manhattan,
Times Square, the
Unisphere in
Queens, the
Brooklyn Bridge,
Lower Manhattan with
One World Trade Center,
Central Park, the
headquarters of the United Nations, and the
Statue of Liberty
New York City
–
New Amsterdam, centered in the eventual
Lower Manhattan, in 1664, the year
England took control and renamed it "New York".
New York City
–
The
Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the
American Revolution, took place in
Brooklyn in 1776.
New York City
–
Broadway follows the Native American Wickquasgeck Trail through Manhattan.
4.
God
–
In monotheism, God is conceived of as the Supreme Being and principal object of faith. The concept of God as described by most theologians includes the attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, divine simplicity, many theologians also describe God as being omnibenevolent and all loving. Furthermore, some religions attribute only a purely grammatical gender to God, incorporeity and corporeity of God are related to conceptions of transcendence and immanence of God, with positions of synthesis such as the immanent transcendence of Chinese theology. God has been conceived as personal or impersonal. In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, while in deism, God is the creator, in pantheism, God is the universe itself. In atheism, God is not believed to exist, while God is deemed unknown or unknowable within the context of agnosticism, God has also been conceived as the source of all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable existent. Many notable philosophers have developed arguments for and against the existence of God, there are many names for God, and different names are attached to different cultural ideas about Gods identity and attributes. In the ancient Egyptian era of Atenism, possibly the earliest recorded monotheistic religion, this deity was called Aten, premised on being the one true Supreme Being and creator of the universe. In the Hebrew Bible and Judaism, He Who Is, I Am that I Am, in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, God, consubstantial in three persons, is called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Judaism, it is common to refer to God by the titular names Elohim or Adonai, in Islam, the name Allah is used, while Muslims also have a multitude of titular names for God. In Hinduism, Brahman is often considered a concept of God. In Chinese religion, God is conceived as the progenitor of the universe, intrinsic to it, other religions have names for God, for instance, Baha in the Baháí Faith, Waheguru in Sikhism, and Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism. The earliest written form of the Germanic word God comes from the 6th-century Christian Codex Argenteus, the English word itself is derived from the Proto-Germanic * ǥuđan. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form * ǵhu-tó-m was likely based on the root * ǵhau-, in the English language, the capitalized form of God continues to represent a distinction between monotheistic God and gods in polytheism. The same holds for Hebrew El, but in Judaism, God is also given a proper name, in many translations of the Bible, when the word LORD is in all capitals, it signifies that the word represents the tetragrammaton. Allāh is the Arabic term with no plural used by Muslims and Arabic speaking Christians and Jews meaning The God, Ahura Mazda is the name for God used in Zoroastrianism. Mazda, or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå and it is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhā, means intelligence or wisdom. Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian *mazdhā-, from Proto-Indo-European mn̩sdʰeh1, literally meaning placing ones mind, Waheguru is a term most often used in Sikhism to refer to God
God
–
"God the Father", a representation of the theistic version of God, by
Ludovico Mazzolino (1480 –
c. 1528)
God
–
Detail of
Sistine Chapel fresco Creation of the Sun and Moon by
Michelangelo (c. 1512), a well-known example of the depiction of
God the Father in Western art
God
–
Depiction of God in the Catholic Church, Latin America
God
–
St. Thomas Aquinas summarized
five arguments which he believed were proof for the existence of God
5.
Book of Daniel
–
The Book of Daniel is a biblical apocalypse, combining a prophecy of history with an eschatology which is both cosmic in scope and political in its focus. In more mundane language, it is an account of the activities and visions of Daniel, in the Hebrew Bible it is found in the Ketuvim, while in Christian Bibles it is grouped with the Major Prophets. Its message is that just as the God of Israel saved Daniel and his friends from their enemies, the book divides into two parts, a set of six court tales in chapters 1–6 followed by four apocalyptic visions in chapters 7–12. The literary structure of the book of Daniel is marked by three prominent features, the most fundamental is a genre division between the court tales of chapters 1–6 and the apocalyptic visions of 7–12. The second is a division between the Hebrew of chapters 1 and 8–12, and the Aramaic of chapters 2–7. This language division is reinforced by the arrangement of the Aramaic chapters. Various suggestions have been made by scholars to explain the fact that the division does not coincide with the other two. It should also be noted that the settings of chapters 1–6 show a progression from Babylonian to Median times. Among them are Daniel and his three companions, who refuse to touch the food and wine for fear of defilement. They are allowed to continue to refrain from eating the kings food, in the second year of his reign Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. When he wakes up, he realizes that he forgot the content of the dream and he then demands that his wise men tell him its content. When the wise men protest that this is beyond the power of any man, he sentences all, including Daniel and his friends, to death. Daniel explains the dream to the king, the statue symbolized four successive kingdoms, starting with Nebuchadnezzar, all of which would be crushed by Gods kingdom, which would endure forever. Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges the supremacy of Daniels god, raises him over all his wise men, Daniels companions Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to bow to King Nebuchadnezzars golden statue and are thrown into a fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar is astonished to see a figure in the furnace with the three, one with the appearance like a son of the gods. So the king called the three to come out of the fire, and blessed the God of Israel, and decreed that any who blasphemed against him should be torn limb from limb. Nebuchadnezzar recounts a dream of a tree that is suddenly cut down at the command of a heavenly messenger. Daniel is summoned and interprets the dream, the tree is Nebuchadnezzar himself, who for seven years will lose his mind and live like a wild beast
Book of Daniel
–
Tanakh (Judaism)
Book of Daniel
–
Nebuchadnezzar's dream: the composite statue (France, 15th century).
Book of Daniel
–
Chapters of the Book of Daniel
Book of Daniel
–
"Nebuchadnezzar" in madness,
Tate
6.
Septuagint
–
The Septuagint is a Koine Greek translation of an Hebraic textual tradition that included certain texts which were later included in the canonical Hebrew Bible and other related texts which were not. As the primary Greek translation of the Old Testament, it is called the Greek Old Testament. This translation is quoted a number of times in the New Testament, particularly in Pauline epistles, the title and its Roman numeral LXX refer to the legendary seventy Jewish scholars who solely translated the Five Books of Moses into Koine Greek as early as the 3rd century BCE. Separated from the Hebrew canon of the Jewish Bible in Rabbinic Judaism, the traditional story is that Ptolemy II sponsored the translation of the Torah. The Septuagint should not be confused with the seven or more other Greek versions of the Old Testament, of these, the most important are those by Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. However, it was not until the time of Augustine of Hippo that the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures came to be called by the Latin term Septuaginta. This narrative is found in the pseudepigraphic Letter of Aristeas to his brother Philocrates, the story is also found in the Tractate Megillah of the Babylonian Talmud, King Ptolemy once gathered 72 Elders. He placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one and he entered each ones room and said, Write for me the Torah of Moshe, your teacher. God put it in the heart of one to translate identically as all the others did. Philo of Alexandria, who relied extensively on the Septuagint, says that the number of scholars was chosen by selecting six scholars from each of the tribes of Israel. After the Torah, other books were translated over the two to three centuries. It is not altogether clear which was translated when, or where, some may even have been translated twice, into different versions, the quality and style of the different translators also varied considerably from book to book, from the literal to paraphrasing to interpretative. The translation of the Septuagint itself began in the 3rd century BCE and was completed by 132 BCE, initially in Alexandria, the Septuagint is the basis for the Old Latin, Slavonic, Syriac, Old Armenian, Old Georgian and Coptic versions of the Christian Old Testament. Some sections of the Septuagint may show Semiticisms, or idioms and phrases based on Semitic languages like Hebrew, other books, such as Daniel and Proverbs, show Greek influence more strongly. The Septuagint may also elucidate pronunciation of pre-Masoretic Hebrew, many nouns are spelled out with Greek vowels in the LXX. However, it is unlikely that all ancient Hebrew sounds had precise Greek equivalents. As the work of translation progressed, the canon of the Greek Bible expanded, the Torah always maintained its pre-eminence as the basis of the canon, but the collection of prophetic writings, based on the Jewish Neviim, had various hagiographical works incorporated into it. In addition, some books were included in the Septuagint
Septuagint
–
Fragment of a Septuagint: A column of
uncial text from
1 Esdras in the
Codex Vaticanus c. 325–350 CE, the basis of Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton's Greek edition and
English translation.
Septuagint
–
Beginning of the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 11th century.
7.
Vulgate
–
The Vulgate is a late fourth-century Latin translation of the Bible that became, during the 16th century, the Catholic Churchs officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible. The translation was largely the work of St. Jerome, who, in 382 AD, was commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina collection of biblical texts in Latin then in use by the Church. Once published, it was adopted and eventually eclipsed the Vetus Latina and, by the 13th century, was known as the versio vulgata or, more simply. The Catholic Church affirmed it as its official Latin Bible at the Council of Trent, the Vulgate has a compound text that is not entirely the work of Jerome. Its components include, Jeromes independent translation from the Hebrew, the books of the Hebrew Bible, usually not including his translation of the Psalms. Translation from the Greek of Theodotion by Jerome, The three additions to the Book of Daniel, Song of the Three Children, Story of Susanna, and The Idol Bel and the Dragon. The Song of the Three Children was retained within the narrative of Daniel, translation from the Septuagint by Jerome, the Rest of Esther. Jerome gathered all these additions together at the end of the Book of Esther, translation from the Hexaplar Septuagint by Jerome, his Gallican version of the Book of Psalms. Jeromes Hexaplaric revisions of other books of Old Testament continued to circulate in Italy for several centuries, free translation by Jerome from a secondary Aramaic version, Tobias and Judith. Revision by Jerome of the Old Latin, corrected with reference to the oldest Greek manuscripts available, Old Latin, more or less revised by a person or persons unknown, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah,3 Esdras, Acts, Epistles, and the Apocalypse. Old Latin, wholly unrevised, Epistle to the Laodiceans, Prayer of Manasses,4 Esdras, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. Jerome did not embark on the work with the intention of creating a new version of the whole Bible, how much of the rest of the New Testament he then revised is difficult to judge today, but little of his work survived in the Vulgate text. Jerome first embarked on a revision of the Psalms, translated from the revised Septuagint Greek column of the Hexapla and he also appears to have undertaken further new translations into Latin from the Hexaplar Septuagint column for other books. But from 390 to 405, Jerome translated anew from the Hebrew all 39 books in the Hebrew Bible, including a further version of the Psalms. This new translation of the Psalms was labelled by him as iuxta Hebraeos, the Vulgate is usually credited as being the first translation of the Old Testament into Latin directly from the Hebrew Tanakh, rather than the Greek Septuagint. Moreover, Augustine in that passage demonstrates his own preference for the Greek thus eliminating any possibility that Saint Jerome translated the OT from Greek. In these letters, Jerome described those books or portions of books in the Septuagint that were not found in the Hebrew as being non-canonical, Jeromes views did not, however, prevail, and all complete manuscripts and editions of the Vulgate include some or all of these books. Their style is markedly distinguishable from Jeromes
Vulgate
–
Saint Jerome in his study, by
Domenico Ghirlandaio
Vulgate
–
A page from
Codex Amiatinus
Vulgate
–
Vulgata Sixtina
8.
Eternity
–
Eternity in common parlance is either an infinite or an indeterminately long period of time. In classical philosophy, however, eternity is defined as what exists outside time while sempiternity is the concept that corresponds to the definition of eternity. Eternity is an important concept in many religions, where the God or the gods are said to endure eternally. Some, such as Aristotle, would say the same about the cosmos in regard to both past and future eternal duration, and like the eternal Platonic forms, immutability was considered essential. Aristotle argued that the cosmos has no beginning, in Aristotles metaphysics, eternity is the unmoved mover, understood as the gradient of total synergy. Boethius defined eternity as simultaneously full and perfect possession of interminable life, eternity is often symbolized by the image of a snake swallowing its own tail, known as the Ouroboros. The circle is commonly used as a symbol for eternity, as is the mathematical symbol of infinity. Http, //www. iep. utm. edu/g/god-time. htm Entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy on the relationship between God and Time
Eternity
–
An
allegorical painting of a woman, representing eternity. She holds an
hourglass, a skull rests on the table beside her, and an
Ouroboros floats above her head. All of these are common symbols of eternity.
Eternity
–
This folk-art allegorical map titled "The 3 Roads to Eternity" is based on Matthew 7:13-14 Bible Gateway by the woodcutter Georgin François in 1825.
Eternity
–
Key concepts
Eternity
–
Time Portal
9.
Perfection
–
Perfection is, broadly, a state of completeness and flawlessness. The term perfection is used to designate a range of diverse, if often kindred and these concepts have historically been addressed in a number of discrete disciplines, notably mathematics, physics, chemistry, ethics, aesthetics, ontology, and theology. The form of the word long fluctuated in various languages, the English language had the alternates, perfection and the Biblical perfectness. The word perfection derives from the Latin perfectio, and perfect — from perfectus and these expressions in turn come from perficio — to finish, to bring to an end. Perfectio thus literally means a finishing, and perfect — finished, the genealogy of the concept of perfection reaches back beyond Latin, to Greek. The Greek equivalent of the Latin perfectus was teleos, the latter Greek expression generally had concrete referents, such as a perfect physician or flutist, a perfect comedy or a perfect social system. Hence the Greek teleiotes was not yet so fraught with abstract, to avoid the latter associations, the Greek term has generally been translated as completeness rather than perfection. The oldest definition of perfection, fairly precise and distinguishing the shades of the concept, in Book Delta of the Metaphysics, he distinguishes three meanings of the term, or rather three shades of one meaning, but in any case three different concepts. Which is complete — which contains all the parts,2. Which is so good that nothing of the kind could be better,3, the first of these concepts is fairly well subsumed within the second. Between those two and the third, however, there arises a duality in concept, the variants on the concept of perfection would have been quite of a piece for two thousand years, had they not been confused with other, kindred concepts. The chief of these was the concept of that which is the best, in Latin, in antiquity, excellentia and perfectio made a pair, thus, for example, dignitaries were called perfectissime, just as they are now called excellency. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who thought much about perfection and held the world to be the best of possible worlds and this was formulated by Lucilio Vanini, who had a precursor in the 16th-century writer Joseph Juste Scaliger, and they in turn referred to the ancient philosopher Empedocles. Their argument, as given by the first two, was if the world were perfect, it could not improve and so would lack true perfection. To Empedocles, according to Vanini, perfection depends on incompleteness, since the latter possesses a potential for development, the paradox of perfection—that imperfection is perfect—applies not only to human affairs, but to technology. Thus, irregularity in semiconductor crystals is requisite for the production of semiconductors, the solution to the apparent paradox lies in a distinction between two concepts of perfection, that of regularity, and that of utility. Imperfection is perfect in technology, in the sense that irregularity is useful, perfect numbers have been distinguished ever since the ancient Greeks called them teleioi. There was, however, no consensus among the Greeks as to which numbers were perfect or why, a view that was shared by Plato held that 10 was a perfect number
Perfection
–
Aristotle.
Perfection
Perfection
–
Vanini
Perfection
–
Euclid
10.
Watercolour
–
Watercolor or watercolour, also aquarelle, a diminutive of the Latin for water, is a painting method in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-based solution. Watercolor refers to both the medium and the resulting artwork, the traditional and most common support—material to which the paint is applied—for watercolor paintings is paper. Other supports include papyrus, bark papers, plastics, vellum, leather, fabric, wood, Watercolor paper is often made entirely or partially with cotton, which gives a good texture and minimizes distortion when wet. Watercolors are usually translucent, and appear luminous because the pigments are laid down in a form with few fillers obscuring the pigment colors. Watercolors can also be made opaque by adding Chinese white, in East Asia, watercolor painting with inks is referred to as brush painting or scroll painting. In Chinese, Korean and Japanese painting it has been the dominant medium, india, Ethiopia and other countries have long watercolor painting traditions as well. Fingerpainting with watercolor paints originated in mainland China, however, its continuous history as an art medium begins with the Renaissance. The German Northern Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, who painted several fine botanical, wildlife, an important school of watercolor painting in Germany was led by Hans Bol as part of the Dürer Renaissance. Despite this early start, watercolors were used by Baroque easel painters only for sketches, copies or cartoons. Notable early practitioners of watercolor painting were Van Dyck, Claude Lorrain, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, however, botanical illustration and wildlife illustration perhaps form the oldest and most important traditions in watercolor painting. Botanical illustrations became popular during the Renaissance, both as hand-tinted woodblock illustrations in books or broadsheets and as tinted ink drawings on vellum or paper. Wildlife illustration reached its peak in the 19th century with such as John James Audubon. Several factors contributed to the spread of watercolor painting during the 18th century, Watercolor artists were commonly brought with the geological or archaeological expeditions, funded by the Society of Dilettanti, to document discoveries in the Mediterranean, Asia, and the New World. This example popularized watercolors as a form of personal tourist journal, the confluence of these cultural, engineering, scientific, tourist, and amateur interests culminated in the celebration and promotion of watercolor as a distinctly English national art. William Blake published several books of hand-tinted engraved poetry, provided illustrations to Dantes Inferno, from the late 18th century through the 19th century, the market for printed books and domestic art contributed substantially to the growth of the medium. Satirical broadsides by Thomas Rowlandson, many published by Rudolph Ackermann, were extremely popular. Among the important and highly talented contemporaries of Turner and Girtin, were John Varley, John Sell Cotman, Anthony Copley Fielding, Samuel Palmer, William Havell, the Swiss painter Louis Ducros was also widely known for his large format, romantic paintings in watercolor. These societies provided annual exhibitions and buyer referrals for many artists, in particular, the graceful, lapidary, and atmospheric watercolors by Richard Parkes Bonington created an international fad for watercolor painting, especially in England and France in the 1820s
Watercolour
–
An artist working on a watercolor using a round brush
Watercolour
–
Albrecht Dürer,
Young Hare, 1502, watercolor and
body color,
Albertina, Vienna
Watercolour
–
Thomas Girtin,
Jedburgh Abbey from the River, 1798–99, watercolor on paper
Watercolour
–
An unfinished watercolor by
William Berryman, created between 1808 and 1816, using watercolor, ink, and pencil. The use of partial pigmentation draws attention to the central subject.
11.
Relief etching
–
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types of material, as a method of printmaking, it is, along with engraving, the most important technique for old master prints, and remains in wide use today. In a number of variants such as microfabrication etching and photochemical milling it is a crucial technique in much modern technology. In traditional pure etching, a plate is covered with a waxy ground which is resistant to acid. The artist then scratches off the ground with an etching needle where he or she wants a line to appear in the finished piece. The échoppe, a tool with an oval section, is also used for swelling lines. The plate is dipped in a bath of acid, technically called the mordant or etchant. The acid bites into the metal where it is exposed, leaving behind lines sunk into the plate, the remaining ground is then cleaned off the plate. The plate is inked all over, and then the ink wiped off the surface, the plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press together with a sheet of paper. The paper picks up the ink from the lines, making a print. The process can be repeated many times, typically several hundred impressions could be printed before the shows much sign of wear. The work on the plate can also be added to by repeating the whole process, Etching has often been combined with other intaglio techniques such as engraving or aquatint. The process as applied to printmaking is believed to have been invented by Daniel Hopfer of Augsburg, Hopfer was a craftsman who decorated armour in this way, and applied the method to printmaking, using iron plates. Apart from his prints, there are two examples of his work on armour, a shield from 1536 now in the Real Armeria of Madrid. The switch to copper plates was made in Italy. On the other hand, the handling of the ground and acid need skill and experience, prior to 1100 AD, the New World Hohokam independently utilized the technique of acid etching in marine shell designs. Jacques Callot from Nancy in Lorraine made important technical advances in etching technique and he developed the échoppe, a type of etching-needle with a slanting oval section at the end, which enabled etchers to create a swelling line, as engravers were able to do. Callot also appears to have responsible for an improved, harder, recipe for the etching ground
Relief etching
–
The Soldier and his Wife. Etching by
Daniel Hopfer, who is believed to have been the first to apply the technique to printmaking
Relief etching
–
Portrait of
Luca Giordano, 18th century
Relief etching
–
Rembrandt,
The Virgin and Child with a Cat, 1654. Original copper etching plate above, example of the print below, with composition reversed.
Relief etching
–
Christ Preaching, known as The
Hundred Guilder Print; etching c1648 by
Rembrandt.
12.
The Ancient of Days
–
The Ancient of Days is a design by William Blake, originally published as the frontispiece to a 1794 work, Europe a Prophecy. It shows Urizen crouching in a design with a cloud-like background. His outstretched hand holds a compass over the void below. Related imagery appears in Blakes Newton, completed the next year, as noted in Gilchrists Life of William Blake, the design of The Ancient of Days was a singular favourite with Blake and as one it was always a happiness to him to copy. As such there are versions of the work extant, including one completed for Frederick Tatham only weeks before Blakes death. The British Museum notes that one copy, accessioned in 1885, was excluded from Martin Butlins 1982 catalogue raisonné of Blakes paintings and drawings, early critics of Blake noted the work as amongst his best, and a favourite of the artist himself. A description by Richard Thompson in John Thomas Smiths Nollekens and His Times, was of, an uncommonly fine specimen of art, and approaches almost to the sublimity of Raffaelle or Michel Angelo. And as representing the event given in the Book of Proverbs viii,27, when he set a compass upon the face of the earth. The subject is said to have one of the visions experienced by Blake. The copy commissioned by Tatham in the last days of Blakes life, after his revisions, Blake is said to have, threw it from him, and with an air of exulting triumph exclaimed, There, that will do. The image was used as the cover for Stephen Hawkings book God Created the Integers, There are currently thirteen known extant copies of Europe a Prophecy. Because of Blakes production process of hand colouring each print, each image has own unique qualities
The Ancient of Days
–
"The Ancient of Days setting a Compass to the Earth", frontispiece to copy K of Europe a Prophecy
The Ancient of Days
–
The Ancient of Days in Europe a Prophecy copy B from the
Glasgow University Library
The Ancient of Days
–
The Ancient of Days in Europe a Prophecy copy D from the
British Museum
The Ancient of Days
–
The Ancient of Days in Europe a Prophecy copy E from the
Library of Congress
13.
Names of God in Judaism
–
The name of God used most often in the Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton YHWH. It is frequently anglicized as Jehovah and Yahweh and written in most English editions of the Bible as the Lord owing to the Jewish tradition of reading it as Adonai out of respect. Rabbinic Judaism describes seven names which are so holy that, once written, should not be erased, The Tetragrammaton, El, Eloah, Elohim, Shaddai, Ehyeh, and Tzevaot. The documentary hypothesis proposes that the Torah was compiled from original sources. The seven names of God that, once written, cannot be erased because of their holiness are the Tetragrammaton, El, Elohim, Eloah, Elohai, El Shaddai, in addition, the name Jah—because it forms part of the Tetragrammaton—is similarly protected. Rabbi Jose considered Tzevaot a common name and Rabbi Ishmael that Elohim was, all other names, such as Merciful, Gracious and Faithful, merely represent attributes that are also common to human beings. The name of God used most often in the Hebrew Bible is YHWH, Hebrew is a right-to-left abjad, so the words letters Yōd, Hē, Vav, Hē are usually taken for consonants and expanded to Yahweh or Jehovah in English. The Tetragrammaton first appears in Genesis and occurs 6828 times in total in the Stuttgart edition of the Masoretic Text and it is thought to be an archaic third-person singular imperfect tense of the verb to be. This agrees with the passage in Exodus where God names Himself as I Will Be What I Will Be using the first-person singular imperfect tense. Rabbinical Judaism teaches that the name is forbidden to all except the High Priest and he then pronounces the name just as it is written. As each blessing was made, the people in the courtyard were to prostrate themselves completely as they heard it spoken aloud. As the Temple has been destroyed since CE70, most modern Jews never pronounce YHWH but instead read Adonai during prayer and while reading the Torah and as HaShem at other times. Similarly, the Vulgate used Dominus and most English translations of the Bible write the Lord for YHWH and the Lord God for Adonai YHWH instead of transcribing the name. Or Theos for occurrences of the name. )El appears in Ugaritic, Phoenician and other 2nd, in the Hebrew Bible El appears very occasionally alone, but usually with some epithet or attribute attached, in which cases it can be understood as the generic god. A common name of God in the Hebrew Bible is Elohim, despite the -im ending common to many plural nouns in Hebrew, the word Elohim when referring to God is grammatically singular, and takes a singular verb in the Hebrew Bible. When the Hebrew Bible uses elohim not in reference to God, there are a few other such uses in Hebrew, for example Behemoth. In Modern Hebrew, the singular word baalim looks plural, a number of scholars have traced the etymology to the Semitic root *yl, to be first, powerful, despite some difficulties with this view. Elohim is thus the plural construct powers, Hebrew grammar allows for this form to mean He is the Power over powers, just as the word Baalim means owner
Names of God in Judaism
–
The Tetragrammaton in
Phoenician (fl. 1100 BC – AD 500),
Aramaic (fl. 1100 BC – AD 200), and
modern Hebrew scripts.
14.
Idra Rabba
–
The Idra, which means threshing floor in Aramaic, is a Kabbalistic work included in printings of the Zohar, and was probably written and appended to the main body of the Zohar at a later date. Contemporary scholars believe the Idra dates to the generation of Zoharic literature, which produced also the Tikunei haZohar, the Raaya Meheimna. The main body of the Zohar, or guf ha-zohar, dates to the generation of Zoharic material. The story of the Idroth is as follows, Idra Rabba, R. Shimon bar Yohai convenes with nine other scholars, and they gather in the sacred אִדְרָא, or threshing field, where they thresh out secrets. Each scholar expounds various configurations of the partsufim, and three of them die in ecstasy while doing so, Idra Zuta, Years later, at RASHBIs deathbed, the seven still-living scholars come to his deathbed, along with the whole heavenly host. He alone explains the configurations of the partsufim, so this work is more unified, RASHBI wavers between this world and the next. He directed his students to celebrate his passing day as a Yom Hillula. The Idra Zuta is considered the deepest teachings of the Zohar, in the standard printed edition of the Zohar, the Idra Rabba is printed in Naso, and the Idra Zuta is printed in Haazinu. 16th century Lurianic Kabbalah systemised the Zoharic Partzufim in its recasting of the whole Kabbalistic scheme, in so doing, he identified himself with Shimon Bar Yohai. Zohar Partzufim Yom Hillula William Oscar Emil Oesterley, George Herbert Box, a Short Survey of the Literature of Rabbinical and Mediæval Judaism. Rodrigue, Aron, Zipperstein, Steven J, eds, physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos, Isaac Luria and His Kabbalistic Fellowship
Idra Rabba
–
Traditional location of the Idra Rabba Assembly, near
Meron
Idra Rabba
–
Ohel grave of
Shimon bar Yochai
15.
Zohar
–
The Zohar is the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on mysticism, mythical cosmogony. Its scriptural exegesis can be considered a form of the Rabbinic literature known as Midrash. The Zohar is mostly written in what has been described as a cryptic, Aramaic, the day-to-day language of Israel in the Second Temple period, was the original language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, and is the main language of the Talmud. The Zohar first appeared in Spain in the 13th century, and was published by a Jewish writer named Moses de León and this accords with the traditional claim by adherents that Kabbalah is the concealed part of the Oral Torah. In the Bible the word Zohar appears in the vision of Ezekiel 8,2 and is translated as meaning radiance or light. It appears again in Daniel 12,3, The wise ones will shine like the radiance of the firmament and she confessed that her husband himself was the author of the work. The story indicates that shortly after its appearance the work was believed by some to have been written by Moses de Leon. Over time, the view in the Jewish community came to be one of acceptance of Moses de Leons claims. Rav Kaplan concludes saying this was the series of events. The Zohar spread among the Jews with remarkable swiftness, scarcely fifty years had passed since its appearance in Spain before it was quoted by many Kabbalists, including the Italian mystical writer Menahem Recanati and by Todros Abulafia. Certain Jewish communities, however, such as the Dor Daim, Andalusian, the Zohar instead declared Man to be the lord of the creation, whose immortality is solely dependent upon his morality. Conversely, Elijah Delmedigo, in his Bechinat ha-Dat endeavored to show that the Zohar could not be attributed to Shimon bar Yochai and they found it unsurprising that bar Yochai should have foretold future happenings or made references to historical events of the post-Talmudic period. However R Soloman Luria admits in responsa 98 that the zohar cant override a minhag, in the Ashkenazi community of Eastern Europe, religious authorities including the Vilna Gaon and Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi believed in the authenticity of the Zohar. Especially controversial were the views of the Dor Daim on the Zohar, as presented in Milhamoth Hashem, instead, they intermarried, sat together in batei midrash, and continued to sit with Rabbi Qafeḥ in beth din. Most of Orthodox Judaism holds that the teachings of Kabbalah were transmitted from teacher to teacher, in a long and continuous chain, the greatest acceptance of this sequence of events is held within Haredi Judaism, especially Chasidic groups. R Yechiel Michel Epstein, and R Yisrael Meir Kagan both believed in the authenticity of the Zohar, Rabbis Eliyahu Dessler and Gedaliah Nadel maintained that it is acceptable to believe that the Zohar was not written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and that it had a late authorship. Some claim the tradition that Rabbi Shimon wrote that the concealment of the Zohar would last for exactly 1200 years from the time of destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem
Zohar
–
Representation of the
Five Worlds with the 10
Sephirot in each, as successively smaller concentric circles, derived from the light of the Kav after the
Tzimtzum
16.
Kabbalah
–
Kabbalah is an esoteric method, discipline, and school of thought that originated in Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist in Judaism is called a Mekubbal, Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an unchanging, eternal, and mysterious Ein Sof and the mortal and finite universe. While it is used by some denominations, it is not a religious denomination in itself. It forms the foundations of religious interpretation. Kabbalah seeks to define the nature of the universe and the human being, the nature and purpose of existence and it also presents methods to aid understanding of the concepts and thereby attain spiritual realisation. Kabbalah originally developed within the realm of Jewish tradition, and kabbalists often use classical Jewish sources to explain, traditional practitioners believe its earliest origins pre-date world religions, forming the primordial blueprint for Creations philosophies, religions, sciences, arts, and political systems. Safed Rabbi Isaac Luria is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah and it was popularised in the form of Hasidic Judaism from the 18th century onwards. According to the Zohar, a text for kabbalistic thought. These four levels are called pardes from their initial letters, peshat, the direct interpretations of meaning. Derash, midrashic meanings, often with imaginative comparisons with similar words or verses, sod, the inner, esoteric meanings, expressed in kabbalah. Kabbalah is considered by its followers as a part of the study of Torah – the study of Torah being an inherent duty of observant Jews. A third tradition, related but more shunned, involves the magical aims of Practical Kabbalah and they can be readily distinguished by their basic intent with respect to God, The Theosophical tradition of Theoretical Kabbalah seeks to understand and describe the divine realm. Consequently, it formed a minor tradition shunned from Kabbalah. According to traditional belief, early kabbalistic knowledge was transmitted orally by the Patriarchs, prophets, According to this view, early kabbalah was, in around the 10th century BC, an open knowledge practiced by over a million people in ancient Israel. Foreign conquests drove the Jewish spiritual leadership of the time to hide the knowledge and make it secret and it is hard to clarify with any degree of certainty the exact concepts within kabbalah. There are several different schools of thought with different outlooks, however. From the Renaissance onwards Jewish Kabbalah texts entered non-Jewish culture, where they were studied and translated by Christian Hebraists, syncretic traditions of Christian Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah developed independently of Jewish Kabbalah, reading the Jewish texts as universal ancient wisdom. Both adapted the Jewish concepts freely from their Judaic understanding, to merge with other theologies, religious traditions, with the decline of Christian Cabala in the Age of Reason, Hermetic Qabalah continued as a central underground tradition in Western esotericism
Kabbalah
–
Latin translation of
Gikatilla's Shaarei Ora
Kabbalah
–
Jewish mysticism
Kabbalah
–
Grave of
Rabbi Akiva in
Tiberias. He features in Hekhalot mystical literature, and as one of the four who entered the
Pardes
17.
En Sof
–
Ein Sof, or Ayn Sof, in Kabbalah, is understood as God prior to his self-manifestation in the production of any spiritual realm, probably derived from Ibn Gabirols term, the Endless One. Ein Sof may be translated as no end, unending, there is no end, or infinity. It was first used by Azriel ben Menahem, who, sharing the Neoplatonic belief that God can have no desire, thought, word, or action, of the Ein Sof, nothing can be grasped. It is the origin of the Ohr Ein Sof, the Infinite Light of paradoxical divine self-knowledge, in Lurianic Kabbalah, the first act of creation, the Tzimtzum self withdrawal of God to create an empty space, takes place from there. In Hasidism, the Tzimtzum is only the illusionary concealment of the Ohr Ein Sof, giving rise to monistic panentheism. Consequently, Hasidism focuses on the Atzmus divine essence, rooted higher within the Godhead than the Ein Sof, which is limited to infinitude, and reflected in the essence of the Torah and the soul. The Zohar explains the term Ein Sof as follows, Before He gave any shape to the world, before He produced any form, He was alone, without form, who then can comprehend how He was before the Creation. Hence it is forbidden to lend Him any form or similitude, or even to call Him by His sacred name, or to indicate Him by a single letter or a single point. But after He created the form of the Heavenly Man, He used him as a chariot wherein to descend, and He wishes to be called after His form, in other words, Ein Sof signifies the nameless being. In another passage the Zohar reduces the term to Ein, because God so transcends human understanding as to be practically non-existent, moreover, a name implies a limitation in its bearer, and this is impossible in connection with the Ein Sof. According to Gershom Scholem, the Ein Sof is the emanator of the ten sefirot, sefirot are energy emanations found on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Ein Sof, the Atik Yomin, emanates the sefirot into the womb of the Ayin in a manner that results in the created universe. The three letters composing the word Ayin, indicate the first three purely intellectual sefirot, which precede any emotion or action, the order of devolution can be described as,000. However, there is an apparent contradiction, since in Kabbalah, moshe Cordovero, who gave the first full systemization of Kabbalah in the 16th century, resolved the contradiction, explaining that the sefirot consist of lights invested in vessels. In detail, whereas the vessels are differentiated vehicles for creation and this is similar to how water poured into differently-shaped vessels will take on the vessels forms, or how light streaming through different colors of glass appears in different colors. This explanation was accepted and expanded upon in later works of Kabbalah, Hasidic Judaism in the 18th century internalised the esoteric, transcendent emanations of Kabbalah into immanent, psychological perception and correspondence. The term in Hasidic philosophy for the source is Atzmus. While the Ein Sof of Kabbalah can only be infinite, Atzmus, as the Etzem, it both transcends all levels, and permeates all levels
En Sof
–
The sefirot consist of lights invested in vessels, similar to water poured into a glass. While taking on the shape of the glass, the water is essentially unchanged.
18.
Keter
–
Keter also known as Kether, is the topmost of the Sephirot of the Tree of Life in Kabbalah. Since its meaning is crown, it is interpreted as both the topmost of the Sephirot and the crown of the Sephirot. It is between Chokmah and Binah and it sits above Tiphereth and it is usually given three paths, to Chokmah, Tiphereth and Binah. Keter is so sublime, it is called in the Zohar the most hidden of all hidden things and it is also described as absolute compassion, and Rabbi Moshe Cordovero describes it as the source of the 13 Supernal Attributes of Mercy. According to the Bahir, What are the ten utterances, the first is supreme crown, blessed be His name and His people. The first Sephirah is called the Crown, since a crown is worn above the head, the Crown therefore refers to things that are above the minds abilities of comprehension. All of the other Sephirot are likened to the body starts with the head. But the crown of a king lies above the head and connects the concept of monarchy and this first Sefirah represents the primal stirrings of intent in the Ein Soph, or the arousal of desire to come forth into the varied life of being. But in this sense, although it contains all the potential for content, it contains no content itself, being desire to bring the world into being, Keter is absolute compassion. The name of God associated with Keter is Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh and it is from the name Ehyeh that all kinds of sustenance emanate, coming from the source, which is the infinite. Keter, although being the highest Sephirah of its world, receives from the Sephirah of Malkuth of the domain above it, the uppermost Keter sits below no other Sephirah, although it is below Or Ein Soph which is the source of all Sephirot. Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, in The Palm Tree of Devorah, discusses ethical behaviour that man should follow, related to the qualities of the Sephirot, in order that man might emulate his Creator. Humility is the first, because although Keter is the highest, it is ashamed to look at its cause and he does not maintain His anger forever, for He delights in kindness. He will again show us compassion, He will vanquish our iniquities, show faithfulness to Yaakov, kindness to Avraham, which You have sworn to our fathers from days of old. Accordingly, the 13 attributes are derived from this and are described in great detail, additionally, the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy were described by Rabbi Chizkiyah in an allegorical depiction of a lily among thorns. The metaphor in whole is known and taught as The lily amongst the thorns, a summary, The secret of spiritual protection is revealed through a richly metaphorical discourse given by Rabbi Chizkiyah. The Rabbi explains that the forces that protect and watch over us are called the 13 Attributes of Mercy. They are transmitted into our world through the first 13 words of the Torah
Keter
19.
Lurianic Kabbalah
–
Lurianic Kabbalah is a school of kabbalah named after the Jewish rabbi who developed it, Isaac Luria. Lurianic Kabbalah gave a new account of Kabbalistic thought that its followers synthesised with, and read into. Lurianic Kabbalah describes new doctrines of the origins of Creation, and the concepts of Olam HaTohu and Olam HaTikun and these concepts derive from Isaac Lurias interpretation of and mythical speculations on references in the Zohar. The main popularizer of Lurias ideas was Rabbi Hayyim ben Joseph Vital of Calabria, together, the compiled teachings written by Lurias school after his death are metaphorically called Kitvei HaARI, though they differed on some core interpretations in the early generations. Previous interpretations of the Zohar had culminated in the rationally influenced scheme of Moshe Cordovero in Safed, both Cordoveros and Lurias systems gave Kabbalah a theological systemisation to rival the earlier eminence of Medieval Jewish philosophy. After the Ari, the Zohar was interpreted in Lurianic terms, the later Hasidic and Mitnagdic movements diverged over implications of Lurianic Kabbalah, and its social role in popular mysticism. The Sabbatean mystical heresy would also derive its source from Lurianic messianism, mystical development culminated with the Zohars dissemination from 1305, the main text of Kabbalah. Medieval Kabbalah incorporated motifs described as Neoplatonic, Gnostic and Mythical, the Medieval-Cordoverian scheme describes in detail a linear, hierarchical process where finite Creation evolves sequentially from Gods Infinite Being. The sephirot in Kabbalah, act as discrete, autonomous forces in the unfolding of each level of Creation from potential to actual. The welfare of the Upper Divine Realm, where the sephirot are manifest supremely, is bound up with the welfare of the Lower Human Realm. The acts of Man, at the end of the chain, mitzvot and virtuous deeds bring unity Above, allowing unity between God and the Shekhinah Below, opening the Flow of Divine vitality throughout Creation. Sin and selfish deeds introduce disruption and separation throughout Creation, evil, caused through human deeds, is a misdirected overflow Below of unchecked Gevurah on High. After the 1492 Expulsion from Spain they felt a personal urgency and this involved a stress on close kinship and ascetic practices, and the development of rituals with a communal-messianic focus. The new developments of Cordovero and Luria in systemising previous Kabbalah and they held that wide publication of these teachings, and meditative practices based on them, would hasten redemption for the whole Jewish people. Luria conceptualises the Spiritual Worlds through their inner dimension of Divine exile, Luria gave esoteric theosophical articulations to the most fundamental and theologically daring questions of existence. The system of Medieval Kabbalah becomes incorporated as part of its wider dynamic and this revealed new doctrines of Primordial Tzimtzum and the Shevira and reconfiguration of the sephirot. Cordovero and Medieval attempts at Kabbalistic systemisation, influenced by Medieval Jewish philosophy, Luria systemises Kabbalah as a dynamic process of Hitlabshut. This sees inner dimensions within any level of Creation, whose origin transcends the level in which they are enclothed, the spiritual paradigm of Creation is transformed into a dynamical interactional process in Divinity
Lurianic Kabbalah
–
Jewish mysticism
Lurianic Kabbalah
–
Joseph Karo synagogue in Safed. The 1538 Safed attempt by
Jacob Berab to restore traditional
Semikhah (Rabbinic organisation), reelected the community's Messianic focus. Karo, author of the normative
Shulkhan Arukh (Code of Law) was one appointed
Lurianic Kabbalah
–
The old cemetery in Safed where its pre-eminent 16th century mystical and legal figures are buried, including
Yosef Karo,
Shlomo Alkabetz,
Moshe Alshich,
Moshe Cordovero and the Ari. After the
Expulsion from Spain the Safed circle held a national
Messianic responsibility, mirrored in Lurianic scheme
Lurianic Kabbalah
–
The
sephirot in the scheme of Yosher ("Upright"), from which the
partzufim develop
20.
Partzuf
–
Partzufim/Partsufim, meaning Divine Personae / Visages / Faces / Forms / Configurations, are particular reconfigured arrangements of the 10 sephirot into harmonised interactions in Creation. Their names derive from mystical discourses in the Zohar, the text of Kabbalah. Their full doctrinal significance emerges only in 16th century Lurianic Kabbalah in relationship to the processes of Shevirah-Shattering. Each Patzuf is a Yosher-Upright scheme of all the sephirot around one of their number, R. Isaac Luria, the Ari, recast Kabbalah into its second articulation, after R. Moshe Cordovero, the Ramak, had systemised differing Medieval interpretations of the Zohar. Philosophically influenced Medieval Kabbalah had described the 10 sephirot as Divine channels in a linear, in Lurianism, the original independent scheme of sephirot, described by Cordovero, precipitates the collapse of Tohu-Chaos. Their reformation as Partzufim in the stable World of Atzilut begins cosmic repair, Man, whose soul embodies the harmonised order of Partzufim, achieves rectification of the three lower Worlds by redeeming the exiled Sparks of Holiness through Torah study and performance of mitzvot. The anthropomorphic metaphor of the Partzufim stressed the need by Kabbalists to divest the Lurianic concepts from false corporeal, in Lurianic Kabbalah, the four realms of our created existence are arranged in a stable form, through the reconfiguration of the original sephirot into Partzufim. The first realm to exhibit this new arrangement is the form of Atzilut. This follows on from the Shevirah of the vessels in the World of Tohu. In Tikun, the Sephirot evolve into the harmonised Partzufim new arrangements, the realm of Tohu is characterised by abundant light and weak vessels, as the 10 sephirot act independently as absolute forces, causing it to collapse. Tikkun is characterised by lower lights in strong vessels, as through the Partzufim the sephirot inter-relate to absorb the illumination from Tohu and they can now interact with the other Partzufim, becoming enclothed within them in dynamic interaction. The task of man becomes the rectification of the sparks of Tohu. The messianic goal is the union of the original great illumination of Tohu within mature vessels of Tikun, as Medieval Kabbalists never tire of stressing the unity and non-plurality in the concept of the Sephirot, so Luria stressed the metaphorical nature of the Partzufim. They are Divine faces, manifestations of the Godhead, alternative aspects through which God manifests Himself, and do not imply any plurality in God. As Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai recounts in the Zohar, Whatever I said of the Atika Kadisha, Holy Ancient-One, there is no division in Him, blessed be He and blessed be His Name forever. The sum of all this is, the Ancient of the Ancient, all is, was, and shall be, He will not change, He is unchanging, and he has not changed. Should you ask, what then is the difference between one and the other. It is all One, but from above His paths divide and from below judgement is found, the 10 sephirot develop into 5/6 primary Partzufim, which further develop into pairs of Male and Female secondary Partzufim. The terminology and system of Partzufim describes detailed and specific aspects of Divinity, their nature, there are therefore only 10 distinct secondary Partzufim, and consequently the secondary Partzufim of Keter do not have particular names, unlike the secondary Partzufim of the other Sephirot
Partzuf
–
Traditional location of the
Idra Assembly. In the
Zohar narrative
Shimon bar Yohai convenes his students to expound the Partzufim. Later
Isaac Luria, who systemised the Partzufim, convened his students there, each one sitting in the location of their former
incarnation
Partzuf
–
The Partzufim,
3 Reishin and
13 attributes -
Tikunai Dikna from Cabala Denudata, 1684, by
Knorr von Rosenroth. Jewish works avoid drawing
personifications
21.
Four Worlds
–
The Four Worlds, sometimes counted with a prior stage to make Five Worlds, are the comprehensive categories of spiritual realms in Kabbalah in the descending chain of Existence. The concept of Worlds denotes the emanation of creative lifeforce from the Ein Sof Divine Infinite, through progressive, as such, God is described as the Most Hidden of All Hidden, and Olam is etymologically related to, and sometimes spelled as, עלם. While these dimmings form innumerable differentiated spiritual levels, each a particular World/Realm, nonetheless, through the mediation of the sephirot, five Comprehensive Worlds emerge. Higher realms metaphorically denote greater revelation of the Divine Ohr light, in more open proximity to their source, the Worlds are garments of the Ein Sof, and Hasidic thought interprets their reality as only apparent to Creation, while from above the Divine Infinite fills all equally. As particular sephirot dominate in each realm, so the primordial fifth World, Adam Kadmon, is excluded for its transcendence. Their names are read out from Isaiah 43,7, Every one that is called by My name and for My glory, I have created, I have formed, even I have made. Below Asiyah, the lowest spiritual World, is Asiyah-Gashmi, our Physical Universe, collectively, the Four Worlds are also referred to as ABiYA, after their initial letters. As well as the role each World has in the process of Creation. The Worlds are formed by the Ohr Mimalei Kol Olmin, the Divine creative light that Fills all Worlds immanently, the 10 sephirot attributes and 12 basic partzufim personas shine in each world, as well as more specific Divine manifestations. In Lurianic Kabbalah, the partzufim dynamically interact with each other, nonetheless, in each World, particular sephirot and partzufim predominate. The Five Worlds in descending order, Adam Kadmon meaning Primordial Man, the anthropomorphic metaphor Adam denotes the Yosher configuration of the sephirot in the form of Man, though not yet manifest. Kadmon signifies primary of all primaries, the first pristine emanation, Adam Kadmon is the realm of Keter Elyon, the lucid and luminous light, the pure lucid sephirot which are concealed and hidden in potential. Containing the future emergence of Creation, it is Divine light with no vessels, in Lurianism, the lights from AK precipitate Tohu and Tikun. As Keter is elevated above the sephirot, so Adam Kadmon is supreme above the Worlds, atziluth, meaning World of Emanation, also Close. On this level the light of the Ein Sof radiates and is united with its source. This supernal revelation therefore precludes the souls and Divine emanations in Atzilus from sensing their own existence, in Atzilus the 10 sephirot emerge in revelation, with Chochma dominating, all is nullification of essence to Divinity, not considered created and separate. The last sephirah Malchut is the Divine speech of Genesis 1, on this level is the first concept of creatio ex nihilo, however without yet shape or form, as the creations of Beriah sense their own existence, though in nullification of being to Divinity. Beriah is the realm of the Divine Throne, denoting the sephirot configuration of Atzilus descending into Beriah like a King on a Throne, the sephirah Binah predominates, Divine intellect
Four Worlds
–
General Worlds in
Kabbalah
Four Worlds
–
Jacob's vision in
Genesis 28:12 of a ladder between Heaven and Earth. In Kabbalistic interpretation, the Sulam -ladder's four main divisions are the Four Worlds and the
angelic hierarchy embody external dimensions of the
lights-vessels, while souls embody inner dimensions
Four Worlds
–
Ezekiel's Tomb in Iraq. Ezekiel's vision of the Divine
Merkabah -Chariot, and Isaiah's vision of the
Kisei HaKavod -Throne of Glory, are related in Kabbalah to beholding the Four Worlds from
Yetzirah, and from
Beriah
22.
Atzilut
–
Atziluth or Atzilut, is the highest of four worlds in which exists the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. It is known as the World of Emanations, or the World of Causes, in the Kabbalah, each of the Sephiroth in this world is associated with a Name of God, and it is associated with the Suit of Wands in the Tarot. Atziluth is the realm of pure divinity, secondly, is taught that the Tree of Life can be subdivided into four horizontal sections, each representing one of the four worlds. It should be remembered that in Kabbalah each of the ten Sephirot of the Tree of Life also contains a tree inside itself. In this philosophy of the whole in the part, Kabbalastic theories are in harmony with David Bohms model of implicate order. The word is derived from atzal in reference to Numbers 11,17, and in this sense it was taken over into the Kabbalah from Solomon ibn Gabirols Meḳor Ḥayyim, which was much used by Kabbalists. The theory of emanation, which is conceived as an act of the will of God. Since it was the last-named simile that chiefly occupied and influenced the Kabbalistic writers, later on the expression Atziluth assumed a more specific meaning, influenced no doubt by the little work, Maseket Atzilut. Herein for the first time, the four worlds are distinguished, Atziluth, Beriah, Yetzirah, in the Zohar, Atziluth is taken to be simply the direct emanation of God, in contradistinction to the other emanations derived from the Sephirot. Moses Cordovero and Isaac Luria were the first to introduce the world as an essential principle into Kabbalistic speculation. In contradistinction to the Atzilah-world, which constitutes the domain of the Sephirot, later Kabbalists explain Atziluth as meaning excellence, so that according to them the Atzilah-world would mean the most excellent or highest world. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain. New York, Funk & Wagnalls Company
Atzilut
–
General Worlds in
Kabbalah
Atzilut
–
Ace of Wands from the
Rider-Waite Tarot deck, associated with Atziluth in
western occultism
23.
Tohu and Tikun
–
In subsequent creation they also represent two archetypal spiritual states of being and consciousness. Their concepts derive from the new scheme of Lurianic Kabbalah by Isaac Luria, through this Tikun/Tikkun also has an active meaning, the esoteric Birur/Beirur/Birurim of concealed Nitzotz/Nitzutzei Kodesh/Nitzutzot exiled in physical creation. This new paradigm in Kabbalah replaced the previous description of descent with a dynamic process of spiritual enclothement. The revivalist Hasidic movement, from the 18th century onwards, internalised esoteric Lurianism through its own concern with experiencing Divine Omnipresence amidst daily material life. The terminology of the modern Jewish ideal of Tikkun Olam, popularised by Reform Judaism, is taken from the Lurianic concept, however, he understood his new doctrinal revelation as no more than the true meaning and deeper systemisation of the Zohar. Lurianic Kabbalah became the dominant system in Jewish mysticism, displacing Cordoveros, Lurianic Kabbalah in contrast, describes a dynamic enclothing processes of exile and redemption in the Divine flow, where higher levels descend into lower states, as souls to spiritual bodies. This process introduces or interprets new Kabbalistic doctrines and concepts, in the Lurianic scheme, Creation is initiated by a primordial radical Divine self-withdrawal, forming a figurative empty space/vacuum in which only an imprint remains of the withdrawn Ein Sof. Subsequent to this, a thin, diminished new emanation ray/line, able to create finitude and this represents the latently finite potentials in the Ein Sof. The new emanation is the fountainhead for all subsequent creation, as the vitality pours into the sephirot vessels, they are unstable and shatter. Their Divine light reascends, while the broken vessel fragments descend, the fragments become the absorbed, animating source of the subsequent Four spiritual Worlds in stable Creation. This process, however, overspills into the realms of evil, Tikun is supremely embodied in the highest of the Four Worlds, the Divine Unity perfected world of Atzilut, through the sephirot reconfiguring as Partzufim. Rectification of the independent lower three worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Assiah is the task of man, biblical Adam incorporated the collective souls of humanity before eating from the Tree of Knowledge. His sin introduced new Shevirah dispersal of Divine vitality into exile in Creation, the election of Israel through receiving the Torah at Sinai, recollected the 600,000 root souls from Adam. The 613 Mitzvot Jewish observances redeem the sparks of holiness from Tohu. The messianic era for all peoples is inaugurated when the souls of Israel complete the esoteric cosmic Tikun. National and individual spiritual failures in Jewish history delay redemption, by introducing further exile of Divine vitality to the realms of impurity, each root soul subdivides into soul sparks that reincarnate to complete cosmic and personal Tikun, as in Lurianism higher levels return dynamically in lower vessels. The messianic redemption combines both advantages of the supreme Divine lights of Tohu, in mature rectified vessels of Tikun, cordovero, in his comprehensive systemisation of Medieval Kabbalah, had reconciled previous Kabbalists opinions of the sephirot by describing each as Divine ohr invested in 10 spiritual keilim. They emerge as Divine attributes only from the perspective of creation, the spiritual vitality, denoted as light, similarly manifests in two levels of Ohr Sovev and Ohr Mimalei
Tohu and Tikun
–
The
sephirot in the scheme of Yosher -Upright, from which the
partzufim develop
Tohu and Tikun
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Jewish diaspora expulsions. The 1492
Expulsion from Spain, motivated the messianic-national orientation of the Rabbinic scholars and mystics in 16th century
Safed.
Lurianism systemised this in its new Kabbalistic redemption scheme
Tohu and Tikun
–
Lurianism sees two kinds of Nitzutzot -Sparks:
Adam included all souls.
His sin materialised creation and shed soul sparks
Tohu and Tikun
–
"Every descent is for a higher ascent": sin causes new Shevirah.
Providential redemption transforms darkness to light, uniting Tohu and Tikun
24.
Anthropomorphism in Kabbalah
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Kabbalah, the central system in Jewish mysticism, uses subtle anthropomorphic analogies and metaphors to describe God in Judaism. These include male-female influences in the Divine, Kabbalists repeatedly warn and stress the need to divorce their notions from any corporeality, dualism, plurality, or spatial and temporal connotations. As the Torah speaks in the language of Man, the terms are necessarily imposed upon mans experience in this world. Once the analogy is described, its limitations are then related to, stripping the kernel of its husk, understanding Kabbalah through its unity with complete mainstream Talmudic, Halachic and philosophical proficiency was a traditional prerequisite to avoid the false dangers. They attributed 17th-18th century Sabbatean mystical heresies to false corporeality of Kabbalah through unworthy motives, Kabbalah emerged parallel to, and soon after, the rationalist tradition of Medieval Jewish philosophy. He formulated the philosophical transcendence of the Godhead through negative theology, Kabbalists agreed with this but gave a radical, different immanent approach to God by relating to Divine emanations. Nonetheless, Kabbalists carefully chose their terminology to denote subtle connotations and profound relationships in the Divine spiritual influences. org
Anthropomorphism in Kabbalah
–
Kabbalists related the
Sephirot,
Shechinah and
Partzufim to Male-Female Divine principles, represented in the union of
Jewish marriage Below. In
Medieval Kabbalah the task of man is
Yichud -"Union" of Male and Female Divinity on High. In
Lurianism man redeems exiled
Sparks of Holiness of the Shechinah from material
Kelipot
25.
Seder Hishtalshelut
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In Kabbalistic and Hasidic philosophy, seder hishtalshelus or hishtalshelut refers to the chain-like descent of spiritual worlds between God and Creation. Each spiritual world denotes a complete realm of existence, resulting from its general proximity or distance to Divine revelation, each realm is also a form of consciousness reflected in this world through the psychology of the soul. Hasidic thought applies the Kabbalistic scheme to its own concern of perceiving divine omnipresence in this material world, in this, Hasidism varies in its use of Kabbalah, Mainstream-Hasidism avoiding Kabbalistic focus, while Habad thought explains seder hishtalshelus in relation to mans psychology. In contrast to the aim of Kabbalah, this contemplates seder hishtalshelus as a vehicle for relating to the divine unity with creation. The term Seder Hishtalshelus is sometimes used restrictively to refer to the actually emergent Created Order, more broadly, all preceding levels are included, as their function underlies resulting Existence. This page lists and links to all the main spiritual levels described in Lurianic Kabbalah, the scheme of Isaac Luria and its listing incorporated, expanded and explained earlier Medieval/Classical Kabbalah. After Luria, esoteric Kabbalists broadened explanation within the Lurianic listing, the supra-rational doctrines of Luria described Chokhmah-Wisdom levels of Divinity that preceded the rationally perceived Binah-Understanding levels of Medieval Kabbalah and Moshe Cordovero. In turn, the Habad Hasidic exploration described Keter-Will levels of Divine intention that preceded Creation, preparatory stages in the Ohr Ein Sof before the beginning of the creative process. The Ohr Ein Sof is a form of divine self-revelation. Kabbalah considered the question whether the Ein Sof represents Gods divine essence or God as First Cause. These received differing interpretations after Luria, from the literal to the metaphorical, in this dynamic myth, the first act in Creation was Divine Self-Withdrawal, the opposite of Creative revelation. Its paradoxical nature is expressed as both Adam and Kadmon, as the level of Keter divine will, it is pure light, with no vessels, bounded by its future potential to create vessels. Each embodies different stages in the emergence of the 10 sephirot and their progression corresponds to the archetypal realms of Tohu and Tikun described in the new doctrines of Luria. Atzilut completes the Upper rectification, which began in Berudim, through the sephirot transforming into Partzufim, Partzufim harmonise the sephirot in the scheme of Yosher full interacting configurations in the form of Man. Rectification of Atzilut begins with rectification of its Keter Will, each of the 6 Primary and 12 Secondary Partzufim correspond to the 10 Sephirot arranging around one of their number. Interaction of the Partzufim rectifies Atzilut eternally, completing Upper rectification, redemption of the fallen sparks by Man rectifies the time-related three lower Worlds Below. Atzilut is separated from the three independent lower Worlds by its exclusive consciousness of Divine Unity, without self-awareness, the level of Chokhmah, malkuth of Atzilut, called Gods speech, is the general source of independent Creation. To understand Seder Hishtalshelus properly, one must first understand how all of the analogies exist in a person, once one has understood this, one can begin to see how all of these levels exist in the world
Seder Hishtalshelut
–
General Worlds in
Kabbalah
26.
Chesed
–
Chesed is a Hebrew word commonly translated as loving-kindness, kindness or love. Chesed is central to Jewish ethics and Jewish theology and is a term in the Bible for describing God’s love for mankind. Chesed is valued by religious Jews of all denominations and it is considered a virtue on its own, and also for its contribution to tikkun olam. It is also considered the foundation of religious commandments practiced by traditional Jews. Chesed is the basis for a variety of Jewish communal institutions. Chesed is also one of the ten Sephirot on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and it is given the association of kindness and love, and is the first of the emotive attributes of the sephirot. Loving-kindness is also used as an English translation of chesed. Although some consider it to be a somewhat archaic translation, it one of the most common translations. Love is often used as a shorter English translation, daniel Elazar has suggested the translation of covenant-love. Grace and compassion are also used as translations of chesed. Eleos is the used by the Septuagint to translate Chesed into Greek. The Latin translation of the Bible by Jerome used the Latin equivalent, Chesed has also been understood as linked with the Greek word Agape and its Latin equivalent, caritas. In traditional musar literature, chesed is one of the primary virtues, the tannaic rabbi Simon the Just taught, The world rests upon three things, Torah, service to God, and bestowing kindness. Chesed is here the core ethical virtue, a statement by Rabbi Simlai in the Talmud claims that The Torah begins with chesed and ends with chesed. This may be understood to mean that the entire Torah is characterized by chesed, i. e. it sets forth a vision of the life whose goals are behavior characterized by mercy. Alternatively, it may allude to the idea that the giving of the Torah itself is the act of chesed. Across all streams of Judaism, many institutions dedicated to chesed are common. Sometimes these institutions are created by synagogues, local Jewish councils, often, an individual starts the initiative without prior community or leadership support
Chesed
27.
Chokhmah (Kabbalah)
–
Chokhmah is the uppermost of the sephirot of the right line in the kabbalistic Tree of Life. It is to the right of Keter, with Binah across from it. Under it are the sephirot of Chesed and Netzach and it commonly has four paths going to Keter, Binah, Tifereth, and Chesed. In Jewish mysticism, it denotes the first intermediate step between Keter and the rest of the sephirot, forwarding and channeling Ein Sof through the rest of the sephirot, Chokhmah is associated with the color grey. According to the Bahir, The second is wisdom, as is written, Y-H-W-H acquired me at the beginning of His way, and there is no beginning but wisdom. Chokhmah, the second of the ten sefirot, is the first power of conscious intellect within Creation, according to the book of Job, Wisdom comes from nothingness. This point is infinitely small, and yet encompasses the whole of being, but it remains incomprehensible until it is given shape. The name of God associated with Chokhmah is Yah, Chokhmah appears in the configuration of the sefirot at the top of the right axis, and corresponds in the tzelem Elokim to the right eye, or right hemisphere of the brain. In its fully articulated form, Chokhmah possesses two partzufim, the higher of these is referred to as Abba Ilaah, whereas the lower is referred to as Yisrael Saba and these two partzufim are referred to jointly as Abba. Chokhmah is associated in the soul with the power of intuitive insight, the wisdom of Chokhmah also implies the ability to look deeply at some aspect of reality and abstract its conceptual essence till one succeeds in uncovering its underlying axiomatic truth. These seeds of truth can then be conveyed to the power of Binah for the sake of intellectual analysis. Chokhmah is the force in the creative process, Creativity, as it is said. The first word of the Torah in Genesis, Breishit means In the beginning, is translated as With Chokhmah, Chokhmah is also called Fear, because it has no measure of boundary, and therefore the mind does not have the power to grasp it. The book of Job states Behold the fear of God is wisdom, in the array of sefirot in three columns, Chokmah is situated at the top of the right column, and corresponds to the right hemisphere of the brain. There are several aspects of Chokhmah, The word Chokhmah itself may be broken into two words -- koach and ma, thus, Chokhmah means the potential of what is, or, the potential to be. This aspect of Chokhmah describes the state of Chokhmah in relation to the sefira of Keter, as Chokhmah emanates from Keter, the first dawning of the Infinite Light, it appears in an obscure and undefined state that is a virtual non-being. Thus the verse states, and Chokhmah emerges from nothingness, the light of the Ein Sof becomes unified in the world of Atzilut through clothing itself first in the sefira of Chokhmah. In its fully articulated form, Chokhmah possesses two partzufim, the higher of these is referred to as Abba, whereas the lower is referred to as Yisrael Sabba Israel ancient, in the soul, Chokhmah is associated with the power of intuitive insight
Chokhmah (Kabbalah)
28.
Gevurah
–
Gevurah or geburah is the fifth sephirah in the kabbalistic tree of life, and it is the second of the emotive attributes of the sephirot. It sits below Binah, across from Chesed, and above Hod, Gevurah is the essence of judgment and limitation, and corresponds to awe and the element of fire, In the Bahir it is written And who are the Officers. We learned that there are three, strength Is the Officer of all the Holy Forms to the left of the Blessed Holy One. Gevurah is associated with the color red, Gevurah is the fifth of the ten Sefirot, and second of the emotive attributes in Creation, and which corresponds to the second day of creation. In the Bahir it says What is the fifth, fifth is the great fire of God, of which it says let me see no more of this great fire, lest I die. This is the hand of God. Gevurah is understood as Gods mode of punishing the wicked and judging humanity in general and it is the foundation of stringency, absolute adherence to the letter of the law, and strict meting out of justice. This stands in contrast to Chesed and we thus speak of Gods primary modes of action as being the kindness and unaccountability of Chesed, versus the stringency and strict accountability of Gevurah. It is called might because of the power of Gods absolute judgment, Gevurah is associated in the soul with the power to restrain ones innate urge to bestow goodness upon others, when the recipient of that good is judged to be unworthy and liable to misuse it. As the force which measures and assesses the worthiness of Creation and it is the restraining might of Gevurah which allows one to overcome his enemies, be they from without or from within. The angelic order of this sphere is the Seraphim, ruled by the Archangel Samael, the opposing Qliphah is represented by the demonic order Golachab, ruled by the Archdemon Asmodeus. Chesed and Gevurah act together to create a balance in the souls approach to the outside world. While the right arm of Chesed operates to draw others near, ultimately, the might of Gevurah becomes the power and forcefulness to implement ones innate desire of Chesed. Only by the power of Gevurah is Chesed able to penetrate the coarse, the Baal Shem Tov discusses the ability of Gevurah to effect Divine withdrawal, which in turn creates the potential for Chesed to occur in creation. Gevurah appears in the configuration of the Sefirot along the axis, directly beneath Binah. The numerical value of Gevurah,216, is 6 times 6 times 6, the tablets of the covenant that Moses received at Sinai were 6 by 6 by 6 handbreadths. The Torah was given to Moses and Israel from the Mouth of the Gevurah and it is most significant that the name of no other Sefirah is used by our sages to connote God Himself, other than Gevurah. Here, Gevurah implies Gods essential power to contract and concentrate His infinite light, Gevurah =216 =3 times 72
Gevurah
29.
Merkabah mysticism
–
For the modern Israeli main battle tank see Merkava. Merkabah/Merkavah mysticism is a school of early Jewish mysticism, c, a major text in this tradition is the Maaseh Merkabah. The noun merkabah thing to ride in, cart is derived from the consonantal root r-k-b with the meaning to ride. However, when left untranslated, in English the Hebrew term merkabah relates to the throne-chariot of God in prophetic visions. It is most closely associated with the vision in Ezekiel chapter 1 of the vehicle driven by four hayyot, each of which has four wings and the four faces of a man, lion, ox. According to the verses in Ezekiel and its attendant commentaries, his vision consists of a made of many heavenly beings driven by the Likeness of a Man. The base structure of the chariot is composed of four beings and these beings are called the living creatures. The bodies of the creatures are like that of a human being, the faces are that of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle. Since there are four angels and each has four faces, there are a total of sixteen faces, each Hayyot angel also has four wings. Two of these wings spread across the length of the chariot and this creates a sort of box of wings that forms the perimeter of the chariot. With the remaining two wings, each angel covers its own body, below, but not attached to, the feet of the Hayyot angels are other angels that are shaped like wheels. These wheel angels, which are described as a wheel inside of a wheel, are called Ophanim אופנים and these wheels are not directly under the chariot but are nearby and along its perimeter. The angel with the face of the man is always on the east side, the Likeness of a Man sits on a throne made of sapphire. The Bible later makes mention of a type of angel found in the Merkabah called Seraphim angels. These angels appear like flashes of fire continuously ascending and descending and these Seraphim angels power the movement of the chariot. In the hierarchy of angels, Seraphim are the highest, that is, closest to God, followed by the Hayyot. The chariot is in a constant state of motion, and the energy behind this movement runs according to this hierarchy, the movement of the Ophanim is controlled by the Living creatures, or Hayyot, while the movement of the Hayyot is controlled by the Seraphim. The movement of all the angels of the chariot is controlled by the Likeness of a Man on the Throne
Merkabah mysticism
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Copy of
Matthäus Merian 's engraving of
Ezekiel 's vision (1670).
Merkabah mysticism
–
Ezekiel's Wheel in St. John the Baptist Church in
Kratovo,
Macedonia. Fresco from the 19th century.
Merkabah mysticism
–
Jewish mysticism
Merkabah mysticism
–
Tomb of Rabbi
Yohanan ben Zakai in
Tiberias
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