Front Matter (PDF) - Stanford University Press

tempered by love brings about evil; power obsessed with itself turns
not
The force of evil is often referred to by the Zohar as sitra aḥra, the
demonic.
side,'' indicatingthat it represents a parallel emanation to that of the
``other
But the origin of that demonic reality that both parallels and mocks the
se®rot.
is not in some ``other'' distant force. The demonic is born of an imbalance
divine
within the divine, ¯owingultimately from the same source as all else,
single source of being.
the
proper balance of Ḥesed and Gevurah results in the sixth se®rah, the
The
of the se®rotic universe. This con®guration represents the personal God
center
biblical and rabbinic tradition. This is God seated on the throne, the one to
of
prayer is most centrally addressed. Poised between the ``right'' and ``left''
whom
within divinity, the ``blessed Holy One'' is the key ®gure in a central
forces
of se®rot, positioned directly below Keter, the divine that precedes all
column
The sixth se®rah is represented by the third patriarch, Jacob, also
duality.
IsraelÐthe perfect integration of the forces of Abraham and Isaac, the
called
who unites and balances love and fear.
God
designations for this sixth se®rah include Tif'eret (Beauty,
Nonpersonal
Raḥamin (Compassion), mishpat (balanced judgment), and emet
Splendor),
The three consonants of emet represent the ®rst, middle, and last
(truth).
of the alphabet. Truth is stretched forth across the whole of Being,
letters
extremes of right and left, Ḥesed and Gevurah, into a single integ
joiningthe
rated personality. Thus is the sixth se®rah also described as the central
in God's construction of the universe. Adoptinga line from Moses'
``beam''
(Exodus 26:28), depicted by the rabbis as re¯ectingthe cosmic
Tabernacle
Jacob or the sixth se®rah is called ``the central beam, reachingfrom
structure,
end unto the other.''
one
Jacob or Tif'eret we reach the synthesis that resolves the original tension
In
Ḥesed and Gevurah, the inner ``right'' and ``left,'' love and judgment.
between
``blessed Holy One'' as a personal God is also the uppermost manifestation
The
``Israel,'' thus servingas a model of idealized human personality. Each
called
of the house of Israel partakes of this Godhead, who may also be
member
as a totemic representation of His people below. ``Jacob'' is in this
understood
the perfect humanÐa new Adam, accordingto the sagesÐthe radiantfaced
sense
elder extendingblessingthrough the world. This is also the God of
dei. In balancingtheir own lives, the people of Israel imitate the God
imitatio
stands at the center between right and left, balancing all the cosmic forces.
who
God knows them and sees Himself in them, meaningthat the struggle to
That
love and judgment is not only the great human task, but also a
integrate
of the cosmic struggle. The inner structure of psychic life is the
re¯ection
structure of the universe; it is because of this that we can come to
hidden
Introduction
xlvi
God by the path of inward contemplation and true self-knowledge.
know
key dialectical triad of Ḥesed-Gevurah-Tif'eret is followed on the kabba-
The
listic chart by a second triad, that of the se®rot Netsaḥ, Hod, andYesod, ar-