Kabbalah Library
Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life
Glossary
In all of reality, there is nothing but the Creator and the creature, a Light and a vessel, Upper and lower. Kabbalah texts incorporate many names and appellations intended to highlight different aspects of the relationship between them. Here are the principal attributes we can ascribe each of them:
| Creator | Creature |
| Upper Force, Upper Light, Upper, Light, Creator, God, Godliness, The Creator, The Attribute of Bestowal, The Will to Bestow, The Will to Please, The Upper Nature, The Nature of Altruism, The Spiritual Nature, The Attribute of Bina, The Giver, The Leader, The Emanator, Providence, Guidance. | Kli (Vessel), Creature, Lower, A Soul, The Attribute of Reception, The Will to Receive, The Lower Nature, The Nature of Egoism, The Corporeal Nature, The Physical Nature, The Attribute of Malchut, The Receiver. |
Kabbalists discern various incidents, actions, and manners, both from the perspective of the Upper One, and from the perspective of the lower one, ascribing to each of them a unique name. They do this to assist those who discover the Upper World in finding their way in it. This book is written for those that have yet to attain the Upper World; and for this reason the differences between the various appellations are not emphasized.
Each Kabbalistic term carries many interpretations depending on its context and connection to other elements of reality. Hence, the definitions in the glossary are intended to describe the terms only in the context in which they are presented in this book.
| Term | Definition |
| Abstract Form | The Form of bestowal without the matter it clothes. |
| Adam (referring to man or to mankind in general) | The will to receive that obtains the attribute of bestowal and equalizes with the Creator, the Upper Light. The name Adam comes from the Hebrew words Adame la Elyon (“I will be like the Most High,” Isaiah 14:14). |
| Adam ha Rishon | The general soul (or system) that contains all particular souls that descend and clothe people’s bodies in this world. |
| Adhesion | The outcome of equalizing the form of the creature with that of the Creator. |
| Altruism | The corrected will to receive with the intention to delight the other and to not receive pleasure for itself; the desire to bestow upon others. |
| Attainment | The ultimate degree of understanding; perceiving every single element in a state. |
| Attribute of the Creator | The Attribute of Bestowal |
| Attribute of the creature | The Attribute of reception. |
| Aviut (Thickness) | The measure of will to receive in the creature. |
| Barrier | The boundary between this world and the spiritual world. |
| Benevolent (Good that does good) | The Creator’s attitude toward the creature. |
| Bestowal upon the Creator | Reception of pleasure from the Creator with the intention of bringing Him contentment. |
| Breaking (Sin of Adam ha Rishon) | The forming of the intention to enjoy the Light within the creature itself. |
| Clothing (Clothed) | A process by which one attribute assumes the form of another attribute to perform a certain action through it. |
| Corporeality | The desire to delight oneself. |
| Correction | Changing the will to receive into a will to bestow. |
| Creation of the material world | The arrival of the will to receive at the last and lowest degree in its departure from the Creator, from the Form of bestowal. |
| Creator | The degree that one should reach at the end of all the corrections. The Hebrew word Boreh (Creator) comes from the words Bo Re’eh (come see). This is the degree that one should come and see, meaning attain on one’s own. |
| Creature | The will to receive that discovers its connection to the Creator. |
| Degrees of Attainment | Phases in the correction of the intention in which the Attribute of Bestowal is felt. |
| Yearning | Addition to the will to receive. It awakens in the creature as a result of its effort to obtain what it wants. |
| Division of the soul of Adam ha Rishon | The division of the general soul into particular souls, meaning individual desires. When all the desires in Adam ha Rishon had a common intention to bestow upon the Creator they were united as one. When the intention in the desires was reversed into an aim for self-gratification, each desire sensed itself separated from the others, and thus the general soul divided. |
| Egoism | The will to receive, the matter of the whole creation, in which there is no good or bad, and which is consciously used with the intention to please oneself (in order to receive). This intention directly or indirectly harms others. |
| End of correction | The completion of equalizing the creature’s form with the Creator’s. |
| Equivalence of Form | Acquiring the Attribute of Bestowal instead of the attribute of reception. |
| Essence | The root and the basis of all forms. |
| Eternity | The integration of the will to receive in the Attribute of Bestowal that brings the will to receive a sensation of unlimited reception of Light. |
| Evolution of the will to receive | This term relates not to the will to receive itself, but to the intention with which it is used. All the desires, from least to greatest, are present within us. These desires awaken in us to the extent that we attain the aim to bestow upon the Creator. In other words, the evolution is in the intention; it is the intention that enables us to use additional desires. |
| Filling (Fulfillment) | The sensation of satisfaction in either the will to receive or the will to bestow. |
| Form clothed in matter | The Form of bestowal that the will to receive assumes. |
| Forms (Pattern) | Manner of reception or bestowal. |
| From Above Downward | The creation of the will to receive and the diminishing of the Force of Bestowal in the creature. |
| From Below Upward | The prevailing (overcoming) of the Force of Bestowal in the creature. |
| General Law | The Law of Bestowal. This Law encompasses the whole reality and obligates all its parts to equalize their form with it. |
| God | The overall Force of Bestowal that leads all the souls and brings them to equalize with It. It projects the Attribute of Godliness to the receivers. |
| Godliness, Upper Light, Upper Force | The Attribute of Bestowal that leads reality, containing all the particular laws in the Upper World as well as in our world. |
| Ibur, Katnut, Gadlut(Ibur, Yenika, Mochin) (lit. Conception, Suckling, Adulthood) | The three states that the creature experiences from the spiritual birth to the complete correction. |
| Image of the Creator | The sum of corrected intentions in the will to receive. These intentions are felt in the desires as the image of the Creator. |
| In order to bestow | An act with the intention to bring additional pleasure upon another person or upon the Creator. |
| In order to receive | An act with the intention to bring additional pleasure to oneself. |
| Incarnations | The states the souls experience as they clothe bodies in this world. |
| Incorporation (Incorporated) | Bonding (connecting) of inner attributes. |
| Inner Light | The revelation of the Upper Light in the creature according to its measure of equivalence of Form with the Light. |
| Inner Vessels, Outer Vessels | The picture of reality is perceived and sensed in the creature’s vessels. Inner vessels are vessels sufficiently corrected to evoke the sensation of the inner reality. Outer vessels are partially corrected vessels, evoking the depiction of the outer, remote reality, depending on their measure of correction. The more a Kli is corrected, the nearer reality feels when perceiving through it; and the less a Kli is corrected, the farther reality feels when perceiving through it. |
| Intention (Aim) | Using the will to receive to benefit oneself or to benefit another |
| Kabbalist | A creature that attains a measure of equivalence of Form with the Creator. |
| Kli (Vessel) | The place to receive the filling. |
| Labor (Effort, Exertion) | The efforts of the will to receive to bring the pleasure closer. |
| Light | The Force of Bestowal that operates and fills all the souls. |
| Light that Reforms, Surrounding Light, Light of Correction | The Force that corrects the egoistic nature and elevates it to the Attribute of Bestowal. |
| Love for the Creator | The creature’s desire to delight the Creator by every means at its disposal. |
| Love of man | The desire to satisfy all the needs of the other without any consideration of oneself. |
| Lower Nature | The will to receive. |
| Malchut de Ein SofMalchut of the world Ein Sof) | The general desire of all reality, created by the Upper Light. |
| Masach (lit. Screen) | The intention to bestow upon another that overrides the will to receive in the creature. |
| Material world | The reality sensed through the five physical senses. |
| Matter | The will to receive. |
| Nearing the Creator | Obtaining greater measures of the Attribute of Bestowal. |
| Our world | The reality that is felt in the will to receive. |
| Parsa | The boundary between the Upper Guidance and Leadership, and the creatures that it operates. The Parsa is situated between the world Atzilut and the worlds Beria, Yetzira, Assiya. |
| Partzuf | A structure made of the ten Sefirot of the creature that operate in equivalence of Form with the Upper Light. |
| Patterns (Forms) | Manners of reception or bestowal. |
| Perfection | The state when the creature is in equivalence of Form with the Creator. |
| Person (in this world) | The will to receive is in a state of concealment from the Creator. Hence, this will to receive has no intention to either receive from Him or to give to Him. |
| Pleasure | The result of fulfilling the will to receive. |
| point in the heart | The awakening to know the Upper Force. |
| Process of creation | The process sensed in the will to receive that evolves in equivalence of Form with the Creator. |
| Purpose of Creation | To do the absolute good to His creations, meaning for the creature to reach the state of the Creator. |
| Recognition of evil | Perceiving the intention to receive for oneself as being detrimental to the spiritual progress of the creature. |
| Reshimot (Reminiscences, Recollections) | The desires before they are realized through the intention. These are “information cells” containing data about states and forms that one will realize in the future. |
| Restriction (Tzimtzum) | The restriction of the will to receive from reception self-pleasure. |
| Revelation of the Creator | The disclosure of the Attribute of Bestowal in the will to receive according to the measure of the Masach (Screen) that is placed over the will to receive. |
| Root of the soul | The place of the soul in the system of Adam ha Rishon. |
| Sin of Adam ha Rishon (Breaking) | The forming of the aim to enjoy the Light within the creature itself. |
| Sixth sense | The soul, the intention to bestow, the Masach (Screen). All these terms refer to a spiritual Kli that receives and senses the Upper Force according to its measure of equivalence of Form with it. |
| Soul | The will to bestow. |
| Spiritual Birth | Acquiring the first intention to bestow ( Masach) over the attributes of the creature. |
| Spiritual evolution | The evolution of the intention to bestow contentment upon the Creator, meaning the evolution of the Attribute of Bestowal. |
| Spiritual Kli | The place that receives the filling in order to bestow upon another; a means to bestow upon another. |
| Spirituality | The Attribute of Bestowal and everything that is felt in it. |
| Ten Sefirot | The ten parts of the creature. The first nine parts are the qualities of the Light in it, and the tenth part is the will to receive in it. |
| The Upper System | A state in which the will to receive and the Light in it are in reciprocal bestowal, as determined in the Thought of Creation. |
| The world Ein Sof | The state in which the soul has an unlimited ability to bestow upon the Creator. |
| This world | The smallest will to receive. It is without the intention to please the Upper Light or to be pleased by it. |
| Thought of Creation | The reason for Creation, pertaining to the purpose of Creation, meaning the final form of the creature. |
| To do good to His creations | The act of the Creator toward the creature. |
| Upper Force, Upper Light, Godliness | The Attribute of Bestowal that leads reality, containing all the particular laws in the Upper World as well as in our world. |
| Upper Nature | The desire to bestow |
| Upper World, Spiritual World | The state that appears to one who reaches some measure of equivalence of Form with the Upper Force. |
| Want | The impression of the will to receive from the filling prior to receiving it. |
| Will to bestow | A) The nature of the Upper Light. B) The will to receive that has been corrected in a person by the intention to use it to bestow upon another person or upon the Creator. |
| Will to delight | The intention to bring pleasure to a stranger, outside of the desire, the will to bestow. |
| Will to enjoy | The desire to receive delight and pleasure. |
| Will to receive | Man’s nature—the natural desire to fulfill oneself, created through the Upper Light. |
| Wisdom of Kabbalah | The revelation of the relationship between the Light and the Kli at every level of the evolution of the Kli, from the beginning of the creation of reality to the end of its correction. |
| Worlds | The states one experiences in the process of equalizing one’s attributes with the attribute of the Upper Force, the Attribute of Bestowal. |
