Introduction To The Study Of The Ten Sefirot Pdf Reader

God in Judaism Wikipedia. This article is about contemporary theological discussion. For other uses, see God of Israel. In Judaism, God is understood to be the absolute one, indivisible, and incomparable being who is the ultimate cause of all existence. Judaism holds that YHWH, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the national god of the Israelites, delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and gave them the Law of Moses at biblical Mount Sinai as described in the Torah. Traditional interpretations of Judaism generally emphasize that God is personal, while some modern interpretations of Judaism emphasize that God is a force or ideal. The name of God used most often in the Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton YHWH Hebrew. In Jewish tradition other names of God are Elohim and El Shaddai. The name of God used most often in the Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton YHWH Hebrew. Jews traditionally do not pronounce it, and instead refer to God as Ha. Shem, literally the Name. In prayer the Tetragrammaton is substituted with the pronunciation Adonai, meaning My Master. MonotheismeditAfter evolving from its monolatristic roots,2 Judaism became strictly monotheistic. No consensus has been reached by academics on the origins of monotheism in ancient Israel, but Yahweh clearly came out of the world of the gods of the Ancient Near East. The worship of multiple gods polytheism and the concept of God having multiple persons as in the doctrine of Trinity are equally unimaginable in Judaism. The idea of God as a duality or trinity is heretical in Judaism it is considered akin to polytheism. God, the Cause of all, is one. This does not mean one as in one of series, nor one like a species which encompasses many individuals, nor one as in an object that is made up of many elements, nor as a single simple object that is infinitely divisible. Rather, God is a unity unlike any other possible unity. Thomson Datastream'>Thomson Datastream. Maimonides, 1. 3 Principles of Faith, Second Principle4Since all of existence emanates from God, whose ultimate existence is not dependent on anything else, some Jewish sages perceived God as interpenetrating the universe, which itself has been thought to be a manifestation of Gods existence. In this way Judaism can be regarded as being similar to panentheism,citation needed while always affirming genuine monotheism. Kabbalistic tradition holds that the divine consists of ten sefirot attributes or emanations. This has been described as a strand of Judaism which may seem at odds with Jewish commitments to strict monotheism, but Kabbalists have consistently emphasized that their traditions are strictly monotheistic. Any belief that an intermediary between humanity and God could be used, whether necessary or even optional, has traditionally been considered heretical. Maimonides writes that. God is the only one we may serve and praise. We may not act in this way toward anything beneath God, whether it be an angel, a star, or one of the elements There are no intermediaries between us and God. All our prayers should be directed towards God nothing else should even be considered. Some rabbinic authorities disagreed with this view. Notably, Nachmanides was of the opinion that it is permitted to ask the angels to beseech God on our behalf. This argument manifests notably in the Selichot prayer called Machnisay Rachamim, a request to the angels to intercede with God. Modern printed editions of the Selichot include this prayer. GodheadeditGodhead refers to the aspect or substratum of God that lies behind Gods actions or properties i. God. Rationalistic conceptioneditIn the philosophy of Maimonides and other Jewish rationalistic philosophers, there is little which can be predicated about the Godhead other than its existence, and even this can only be asserted equivocally. How then can a relation be represented between God and what is other than God when there is no notion comprising in any respect both of the two, inasmuch as existence is, in our opinion, affirmed of God, may God be exalted, and of what is other than God merely by way of absolute equivocation. There is, in truth, no relation in any respect between God and any of Gods creatures. Maimonides, Moreh Nevuchim Pines 1. Future planetary alignment the four worlds. Mystical conceptioneditIn Kabbalistic thought the term Godhead usually refers to the concept of Ein Sof, which is the aspect of God that lies beyond the emanations sephirot. The knowability of the Godhead in Kabbalistic thought is no better that what is conceived by rationalist thinkers. As Jacobs 1. 97. Of God as God is in GodselfEin Sofnothing can be said at all, and no thought can reach there. Ein Sof is a place to which forgetting and oblivion pertain. Why Because concerning all the sefirot, one can search out their reality from the depth of supernal wisdom. From there it is possible to understand one thing from another. However, concerning Ein Sof, there is no aspect anywhere to search or probe nothing can be known of it, for it is hidden and concealed in the mystery of absolute nothingness. David ben Judah Hehasid, Matt 1. Properties attributed to GodeditIn traditional Judaism, God is conceived of as the eternal, omnipotent and omniscientcreator of the universe, and the source of morality. God has the power to intervene in the world. Maimonides describes God in this fashion The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a Primary Being who brought into being all existence. All the beings of the heavens, the earth, and what is between them came into existence only from the truth of His being. Caseware Idea Software. Jews often describe God as omniscient,7 although some prominent medieval Jewish philosophers held that God does not have complete foreknowledge of human acts. Gersonides, for example, argued that God knows the choices open to each individual but that God does not know the choices that an individual will make. Abraham ibn Daud believed that God was not omniscient or omnipotent with respect to human action. Jews often describe God as omnipotent and see that idea as rooted in the Bible. Many modern Jewish theologians have argued that God is not omnipotent, however, and have found many biblical and classical sources to support this view. Although God is referred to in the Tanakh with masculine imagery and grammatical forms, traditional Jewish philosophy does not attribute gender to God. Introduction To The Study Of The Ten Sefirot Pdf Reader' title='Introduction To The Study Of The Ten Sefirot Pdf Reader' />The holy Zohar opens with the image of the Jewish nation likened to a beloved rose with 13 petals and 5 sepals. Although Jewish aggadic literature and Jewish mysticism do on occasion refer to God using gendered language, for poetic or other reasons, this language was never understood by Jews to imply that God is gender specific. Some modern Jewish thinkers take care to articulate God outside of the gender binary, 1. God. Kabbalistic tradition holds that emanations from the divine consist of ten aspects, called sefirot. Concepts of GodeditPersonaledit. The mass revelation at Mount Horeb in an illustration from a Bible card published by the Providence Lithograph Company, 1. Most of classical Judaism views God as a personal god, meaning that humans can have a relationship with God and vice versa. Rabbi Samuel S. Cohon wrote that God as conceived by Judaism is not only the First Cause, the Creative Power, and the World Reason, but also the living and loving Father of Men. He is not only cosmic but also personal. Fvs2/x480-iaJ.jpg' alt='Introduction To The Study Of The Ten Sefirot Pdf Reader' title='Introduction To The Study Of The Ten Sefirot Pdf Reader' />Isaac Israeli ben Solomon Saadia Gaon David ben Merwan alMukkamas Hasdai ibn Shaprut Chananel ben Chushiel Nissim Ben Jacob Samuel ibn Naghrillah Solomon Ibn.