The Religions Book

187

See also: The promise of a new age 178–81 ■ Man as a manifestation
of God 188 ■ Sufism and the mystic tradition 282–83

JUDAISM

the forces of evil in the lower world
are clinging, and restoring them to
their source in the upper world: a
process of tikkun olam—repairing
the world. The responsibility for
this rests on the Jewish people, who
rescue a holy spark each time they
obey a holy commandment, and
pass one back to universal evil when
they sin. Until all the divine sparks
are reunited in the world of the good,
there can be no redemption, and
humanity will live in cosmic exile.

Although Luria did not leave a record

of his interpretation of kabbalah, his

esoteric teachings were preserved

by his followers. After his death,

his ideas spread quickly throughout

Europe. Because of the rational,

comprehensive nature of Lurianic

kabbalah, kabbalistic study became

a mainstay of Jewish thought, and in

the 18th century it formed the basis

for the Hasidic movement (p.188),

which places particular emphasis on

a mystical relationship with God. ■

The Torah is concealed.

It is only revealed to

those who have reached

the level of the righteous.

The Talmud, Hagigah

Isaac Luria

Isaac ben Solomon Luria

Ashkenazi was born in 1534

in Jerusalem. His German

father died when Isaac was

a child, so he moved with his

mother to stay with her brother

in Egypt. There he studied

rabbinical literature and

Jewish law with some of

the foremost scholars of the

day, including Rabbi Bezalel

Ashkenazi, and traded as a

merchant. He married aged

15, but continued his studies.

Six years later he moved to an

island on the Nile to study the

Zohar and the early kabbalists,

barely speaking to anyone,

and then only in Hebrew.

During this time, he said he

had conversations with the

long-dead prophet Elijah, who

told him to move to Safed,

a center of kabbalistic study

in Ottoman-ruled Palestine.

Working with Moses

Cordovero, Luria became

known for his teaching of the

kabbalah, and his disciples

dubbed him HaARI, “the

Lion,” from the initials, in

Hebrew, of “holy Rabbi

Yitzhak.” He died in

Safed in 1572.

God contracted himself to make a void in which to

create the world yet maintain his transcendence.

There then followed

10 emanations, the

sefirot, which together formed

a divine light revealing

God’s purpose.

But the vessels

containing the sefirot

were not strong enough

and were destroyed in

a catastrophe, shevirah.

This is the source of both good and evil,

and is embodied in the Fall of Adam.

The damage cannot be repaired until the sparks of

the divine light are reunited, and until then...

...God and humankind are

in cosmic exile.