The Kabbalah: its doctrines, development, and literatureGinsburg, Christian D. (Christian David)
Religion
The Kabbalah: its doctrines, development, and literature
Ginsburg, Christian D. (Christian David)
Cabala
The souls of all these epitomes of the universe are pre-existent in the
World of Emanations, [16] and are without exception destined to inhabit
human bodies, and pursue their course upon earth for a certain number
of years. Hence we are told that, “When the Holy One, blessed be his
name, wished to create the world, the universe was before him in idea.
He then formed all the souls which are destined for the whole human
race. All were minutely before him in the same form which they were to
assume in the human body. He looked at each one of them; and there were
some among them which would corrupt their way upon the earth.” (Sohar,
i, 96 b). Like the Sephiroth from which it emanates, every soul has ten
potencies, which are subdivided into a trinity of triads, and are
respectively represented by (I) The Spirit, (נשמה), which is the
highest degree of being, and which both corresponds to and is operated
upon by The Crown (כתר), representing the highest triad in the
Sephiroth, called the Intellectual World; (II) The Soul (רוח), which
is the seat of good and evil, as well as the moral qualities, and which
both corresponds to and is operated upon by Beauty (תפארת),
representing the second triad in the Sephiroth, called the Moral World;
and (III) The Cruder Spirit (נפש), which is immediately connected
with the body, is the direct cause of its lower functions, instincts,
and animal life, and which both corresponds to and is operated upon by
Foundation (יסוד), representing the third triad in the Sephiroth,
called the Material World.
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