Lurianic Kabbalah
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Jim -
What are your views on the Lurianic Kabbalah? I just came across it recently.
- Gideon
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Lurianic Kabballah is much as you'd think. There's Kether at the top, Malkuth at the bottom, the rest in between. Do you have any questions in particular regarding that particular field of Kabballah? Else, there are books written on the topic...
Here's his poem.
The Tree of Life
by The ARI, a great 16th century KabbalistBehold that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created,
The upper simple light had filled the whole existence.
And there was no vacancy, such as an empty atmosphere, a hollow, or a pit,
But all was filled with simple, boundless light.
And there was no such part as head, or tail,
But everything was simple, smooth light, balanced evenly and equally,
And it was called the Endless Light.And when upon His simple will, came the desire to create the world
and emanate the emanations,
To bring to light the perfection of His deeds, His names, His appellations,
Which was the cause of the creation of the worlds,
He then restricted Himself, in the middle,
Precisely in the center,
He restricted the light.
And the light drew far off to the sides around that middle point.
And there remained an empty space, a vacuum
Circling the middle point.
And the restriction had been uniform
Around the empty point,
So that the space
Was evenly circled around it.There, after the restriction,
Having formed a vacuum and a space
Precisely in the middle of the endless light,
A place was formed,
Where the emanated and the created might reside.
Then from the Endless Light a single line hung down,
Lowered down into that space.
And through that line, He emanated, created, formed, and
Made all the worlds.
Before these four worlds came to be
There was one infinite, one name, in wondrous, hidden unity,
And even in the angles closest to Him
There is no force and no attainment in The Endless,
As there is no mind that can perceive Him,
For He has no place, no boundary, no name.