The Ohr Ein Sof - The Infinite Light
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| Cold night in the desert by KPEKEP on deviant art |
The Ein Sof (literally: "Without End"/Limitless/Infinite) is the Kabbalistic term for ‘the Divine essence’. As well as the 10 "lights" of God encapsulated in the Sephirot, Kabbalah describes a more primordial light that shines from the Ein Sof (Infinite) itself. This light, the origin of all Creation, and all lower lights, is called the "Ohr Ein Sof" ("The light of the Infinite", or alternatively, itself "The Infinite Light”).
Ohr ("Light" Ohros/Ohrot "Lights") stems from the "Ma'ohr" ("Luminary"), the source of the light – an analogy of physical light used to describe metaphysical Divine emanations.
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Kabbalah
For those (like myself) new to the esoteric doctrine, the Kabbalah is the ‘hidden church of Israel’, an inward spiritual and mystical church claiming access to ‘light of a secret traditional knowledge preserved among the chosen people’. Derived from Hebrew scripture of old, becoming the written secrets sourced from oral tradition. Mystics are those who sense the reality of the scriptures and the dimensions they represent, while unable to make manifest through word or sign the nature of this ‘hidden reality’.
The metaphorical description of spiritual Divine creative-flow, using the term for physical "light" perceived with the eye, arises from analogous similarities. These include the intangible physicality of light, the delight it inspires and the illumination it gives, its apparently immediate transmission and constant connection with its source.
Light can be veiled ("Tzimtzum" 'constrictions' in Kabbalah) and reflected ("an ascending light from the Creations" in Kabbalah). White light divides into 7 colours, yet this plurality unites from one source. Divine light divides into the 7 emotional Sephirot, but there is no plurality in the Divine essence. The term Ohr in Kabbalah is contrasted with Ma'ohr, the "luminary", and Kli, the spiritual "vessel" for the light.
Kabbalah describes 10 Sephirot (The 10 Divine emanations or attributes), that reveal the unknowable Godhead to the creations and channel the creative life-force to all levels of existence. However, these 10 attributes of God do not represent the Divine essence. The Kabbalists differentiated between the manifestations of God (forms of "light"), and their origin in the Divine essence (the “Luminary”).
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