Kabbalah is a movement concerned with thought. Kabbalistic teachings attempt to reform the mind of the kabbalist through exercises requiring sustained reflection on mental imagery. The mental imagery is prompted by metaphor, one way of encouraging the kabbalist to break the typical associations with the world, and to perceive the world anew.
As far back at the 13th century, kabbalists entangled light and water imagery. This could be attributable to word play, as the Aramaic word for light, נְהוֹרָא, contains within it the word for river, נהר. It is not clear if at all times water has been a metaphor for light, or if both light and water are interchangeable metaphors pointing at something indescribable beyond them. It appears to be common practice to read water as a metaphor for light. What might emerge when reading light as water?
The excerpts below stretch back to the 13th century. Each utilises mental imagery for instructional purposes.
Moses de Leon, Commentary on the sefirot, 13th century
התבוננות בלא תוכן
אין המחשבה ידועה ונגלית כי אם מהתבוננות מעט בלא תוכן, זולתי התבוננות בדקוּת רוח. ואותו ההתבוננות אינו על בוריו זולתי מבין ועוזב מה שהבין, כאדם המבין על רעיוני לבבו ונעזב מיד, ונחשך אותו אור הרעיון, וחוזר ומאיר ועוזב. ועל כן זה האור אין מי שיוכל לעמוד עליו לפי התוכן זולתי כאור העומד מתוך גלגול המים בקערה. כי אותו האור מאיר לכאן, ומיד עוזב מקום וחוזר ומאיר במקום אחר. וכשיחשוב האדם כי כבר עמד על אותו האור, מיד בורח אותו האור מאותו מקום וחוזר ומתגלגל במקום אחר. והאדם הולך ומרדף אחריו כדי להשיג ואינו משיג. אבל אף על פי שהאדם אינו משיג, אינו יכול להִבּדל משם כי רודף אחריו תמיד.
Thought reveals itself only through contemplating a little without content, contemplating sheer spirit. The contemplation is imperfect: you understand – then you lose what you have understood. Like pondering a thought: the light of that thought suddenly darkens, vanishes; then it returns and shines – and vanishes again. No one can understand the content of that light. It is like the light that appears when water ripples in a bowl; shining here, suddenly disappearing – then reappearing somewhere else. You think that you have grasped the light, when suddenly it escapes, radiating elsewhere. You pursue it, hoping to catch it – but you cannot. Yet you cannot bring yourself to leave. You keep pursuing it. It is the same with the beginning of emanation. As you begin to contemplate it, it vanishes, then reappears; you understand – and it disappears. Even though you do not grasp it, do not despair. The source is still emanating, spreading.
Moses de Leon, author of the Zohar, used metaphors of light and water to assist instruction. In the mind-bending passage above (התבוננות בלא תוכן, “Observing/contemplating without content”), de Leon writes of thought (המחשבה), knowledge (ידועה) and observation or contemplation (ההתבוננות), “the Jewish mystical discipline of active thought-meditation” [1]. The passage offers a reflection on the refraction of light on water to encourage a kabbalist to become comfortable with the discomfort of minimal and ephemeral understanding. No one can understand the content of the light (lit. “no one is able to stand on it” אין מי שיוכל לעמוד עליו), with light here standing for thought. No one understands how it comes and goes, flickering on and off like “the light standing in the middle of swirling waters in a bowl” (כאור העומד מתוך גלגול המים בקערה). The light, thought, always resists understanding, and is always “swirling” itself in another place (ומתגלגל במקום אחר), but the kabbalist, or maybe the light, will never give up on the pursuit. Once de Leon has disrupted the relationship between thought and understanding using the metaphor of light swirling in a bowl of water, he then moves that disruption to contemplation of the divine emanating light. In this way he ensures the kabbalist receives instruction in the frustration tolerance necessary for sustained study of the Kabbalah before they encounter kabbalistic teaching.
Isaac of Akko, Otsar Hayyim, 13th-14th centuries
התבודדות ושׁפע
השׂכל האלהי הוא העובר עלינו תמיד להשׁפיע בנו שׁפעיו הקודשׁים
ונעסוק בתנאי התבודדות לשבת בעלייה ובה ספרים והדסים דיו וקולמוס ונייר לוח לעסוק בצירוף האותיות להמשׁיך בנו השׂכל האלהי
ויראה עין שׂכלכם השׁפעים הנפלאים האלה הנעלמים מההרגשׁ כמים אדירים נוזלים
כי אינם רק ניצוצי אור לבן זך וצה כלבנת הספיר הנשׁפעים בעטרה
The divine mind pours upon us constantly, emanating its sacred abundance to us, for more than the calf wants to suck, the cow wants to suckle. Let us do good deeds and engage in aloneness – sitting in a loft with books, myrtle, ink, pen, paper, and tablet, to combine the letters and draw the divine mind into us.
When you fill the conditions of aloneness in your room, you will attain the flowing abundance of the six sefirot emanating to the diadem, whose splendor dwells within your soul, and the abundance of the three upper sefirot, drawing them to the diadem and into your soul. These abundant flows, hidden from the senses, will appear to the eye of your mind as cascading water; they are nothing but sparks of light – white, pure, and dazzling – emanating to the diadem, from there to Moses, and from there to the mind within your soul. Enjoy this abundant rain. Offer thanks to God with neither speech nor thought. As it says in Sefer Yetsirah, “If your mind races, return to the place”, return to where you were before the thought. Return to the site of oneness.
In התבודדות ושׁפע, Aloneness and Abundance, Isaac of Akko stacks metaphors upon each other, something kabbalistic writers were wont to do [2]. He begins with the divine intellect (השׂכל האלהי), which “passes” (העובר) upon us. Daniel Matt translated this phrase “pours”, picking up on the liquidity of the image and blending that with water language present later in the passage [3]. In the next phrase Issac of Akko brings in the image of mother cow and calf, imaging the שׁפע, the divine flow, as mother’s milk. It is not so much water that is passing upon us; so far in this passage it is cow’s milk. Engaging in hitbodedut to practise צירוף האותיות, the mixing of the letters, will draw the divine mind in us (or out of us; להמשׁיך בנו השׂכל האלהי). The divine mind is the sephirotic shefa; the שׁפע of the lower six and upper three sefirot “flow” (המשׁפיעים) on the atara [4], which dwells in the middle of a person's nefesh. Though hidden from the senses, your (pl.) “mind’s eye” (עין שׂכלכם) will see these wonderful flows as mighty, fresh flowing water (מים אדירים נוזלים). Yet in the very next phrase, these fresh flowing waters “are nothing but sparks of light” (כי אינם רק ניצוצי אור). It is tempting to posit an alternative translation, “they are not only sparks of light”, which would then suggest that water is not a secondary metaphor for light, but that water and light are both or neither ‘the thing itself’. Whichever the case, it is clear Isaac of Akko uses multiple and mixed metaphors in this passage. No doubt contemplating the image of the divine mind held in the udders of a heifer and perpetually spurting watery milk upon us would shake the kabbalist out of the humdrum imagery of Jewish piety. Yet these stacked metaphors also echo the intention of צירוף האותיות. Just as combining the letters during Hitbodedut draws (out) the divine mind in the kabbalist, so too does contemplating the combination of metaphors, bringing them into shefa.
Moses Cordovero, Pardes Rimonim, 16th century
מים, אור וצבע
ונוכל להמשיל משׁל נאה כדי שׂיתקבל דבר זה בדעת המשׂכיל.
המשׁל אל המים אשׁר הם מתחלקים אל הכלים, והכלים משׁונים בגוונם, זה לבן וזה אדום וזה ירוק, וכן כולם.
והנה לפי האמת אין שׁינוי הגוון ההוא קנוי במים, והמקרה ההוא – בערך הרואים, לא בערך המים בעצמם.
ואין שׁנוי בעצמות המתפשׁט בהם העצם, אלא במקרה לעין רואים.
To help you conceive this, imagine water flowing through vessels of different colours: white, green, red, and so forth. As the water spreads through those vessels, it appears to change into the colours of the vessels, although the water is devoid of all colour. The change in colour does not affect the water itself, just our perception of the water. So it is with the sefirot. They are vessels, known, for example, as Hesed, Gevurah, and Tif’eret, each coloured according to its function, white, red, and green, respectively, while the light of the emanator – their essence – is the water, having no colour at all. This essence does not change; it only appears to change as it flows through the vessels.
Moses Cordovero’s excerpt מים, אור וצבע/Water, Light, and Colours begins, “We are able to mashal a nice mashal so the mind of the maskil will gather/comprehend this thing” (נוכל להמשיל משׁל נאה כדי שׂיתקבל דבר זה בדעת המשׂכיל) [5]. The passage focusses on the intellect and people who elevate the work of the intellect. Yet ‘surface-level’ intellect is not the aim. The term משׂכילים is used by the authors of Daniel for the group of people to whom secret knowledge will be revealed (cf. Dan 12:3). Not only does this reference place the kabbalists as the inheritors of the Danielic tradition (and other apocalyptic writings), it suggests they are aware that the sekel they pursue is typically concealed. Cordovero is clear about the purpose of the passage; it is a משׁל, a proverb. In kabbalistic writings, the משׁל is used to provide a “physical metaphor” that functions either to conceal or to reveal the נמשׁל, the teaching, depending on the kabbalistic teacher [6]. This משׁל uses the image, water being divided (or sloshing; מתחלקים) into the vessels and appearing to change colour, first to teach how light travels through the sephirot, and second to teach that appearances can be deceptive. For in truth is there is no change in the colour of the water (והנה לפי האמת אין שׁינוי הגוון ההוא קנוי במים), meaning that “assessment” (ערך) is in the seer and not in the water. This passage presents an imagistic thought experiment for the purpose of instructing the seeker of mystical knowledge. The image not only functions to impart a difficult teaching in a more easily digestible way, it also functions as a meta instruction, teaching the kabbalist that what is seen is not necessarily what is. The world is not as you see it, it is water; and water is not water, it is light.
Abraham Kook, “Pangs of Cleansing”, 20th century
From Heretical Faith
כל סבוכי הדעות שׂבבני אדם וכל סתירות הפנימיות וכל יחיד סובל בדעותיו באים רק מפני הערפלים המצויים במחשׁבה על דבר המושׁג האלהי,
שׁהוא ים־שׁאין־לו־סוף, וכל המחשׁבות כולן, בין המעשׂיות ובין העיוניות, ממנו הן נובעות ואליו הן שׁבות.
All conceptual entanglements among human beings and all the inner, mental conflicts suffered by each individual result solely from our cloudy conception of the divine. All thoughts, whether practical or theoretical, flow out of the endless divine ocean and return there.
In a two line excerpt from Rav Kook’s passage Heretical Faith concerned with thought and perception, the supernal light becomes water [7]. He writes of tangled thoughts (סבוכי הדעות), interior contradictions (סתירות הפנימיות), and thoughts that cause an individual suffering (יחיד סובל בדעותיו). These types of thinking come only from unclear thought (מפני הערפלים המצויים במחשׁבה), specifically from unclear thought on the matter of the divine concept (על דבר המושׁג האלהי). Rav Kook immediately blows away the mists of unclear thought: the divine concept is a sea with no end (שׁהוא ים־שׁאין־לו־סוף). Rather than אור אין סוף, Rav Kook gives us ים אין סוף [8].
Attributed to Azriel of Gerona, Sha’ar ha-Kavvanah, 13th century
דמֵה שאתה אור
כל הקובע דבר בדעתו קביעות שלם ישוב אליו עיקר. על כן, אם תתפלל ותברך או תרצה לכוין דבר לאמִתו, דמֵה בדעתך שאתה אור וכל סביבותיך מכל פינה ומכל עבר אור... ונטה לך לימינך ותמצאוֹ אור שהוא אור בהיר, ועל שמאלו ותמצא הדר, שהוא אור מזהיר, וביניהם ולמעלה מהם אור הכבוד, וסביבותיו אור החיים, ולמעלה ממנו כתר האור המכתיר חפצי הדעות המאיר דרכי הדמיונות המזהיר זוהר המראות, ואין חקר ותכלית למאור.
Whatever one implants firmly in the mind becomes the essential thing. So if you pray and offer a blessing to God, or if you wish your intention to be true, imagine that you are light. All around you – in every corner and on every side – is light. Turn to your right, and you will find shining light; to your left, splendor, a radiant light. Between them, up above, the light of the Presence. Surrounding that, the light of life. Above it all, a crown of light – crowing the aspiration of thought, illuminating the paths of imagination, spreading the radiance of vision. The light is unfathomable and endless.
Returning to the 13th century, Azriel of Gerona is thought to have written the fragment Imagine You Are Light/דמה שׁאתה אור, from Sha’ar ha-Kavvanah [9]. This astonishing passage offers instructions in how to manifest any desire through visualisation. All that is required is the ability to hold firmly in your mind two thoughts simultaneously.
The teaching begins with the startling claim that anything a person holds firmly in their mind will be returned to them as the real thing ( כל הקובע דבר בדעתו קביעות שלם ישוב אליו עיקר). To manifest a prayer, a blessing, or “to direct a thing to its truth” (לכוין דבר לאמתו), this is how you must begin: דמֵה בדעתך שאתה אור. You are to imagine (דמֵה, related to דמות, image or likeness in Tanakhic Hebrew) in your mind that you are light. Not only are you light, you are surrounded by light on all sides. There are different types of light, radiating out from you like (I imagine) different parts of the candle flame, only here you do not need to picture the wick. The light of the glory (אור הכבוד) is surrounded by the light of life (אור החיים), and the crown of light (כתר האור) is above it. The passage describes expanding levels or types of light, which the kabbalist is to imagine and, so doing, reach the ultimate light. This last best light crowns the pleasures of thought (חפצי הדעות), lights the paths of the imagination (or fantasy; דרכי הדמיונות), and radiates the radiance of vision (זוהר המראות). Divinity is thought, and divinity may be reached through thought. The passage ends with the truly inscrutable line, ואין חקר ותכלית למאור, meaning something like, “There is no map or purpose for the light”. If the person is thinking of themself as light, and ascends the different lights to reach even the crown of light, the crown of light, which does not have any innate purpose, can be channeled toward the purposes of the contemplative kabbalist.
Notes
[1] Schneur Zalman Stern, 2021, Active vs. Passive Meditation: Active meditation emanates G-dliness; passivity only reinforces the ego,
https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/380387/jewish/Active-vs-Passive-Meditation.htm. See § Mind, Meditation, and Mystical Experience of Daniel Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, Castle Books, 1995, for “Ripples”.
[2] Ellen Haskell, Metaphor, Transformation, and Transcendence: Toward an Understanding of Kabbalistic Imagery in Sefer hazohar, Prooftexts 28, 2008, 335-362. See § Letter of the Alphabet of Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, for “Aloneness and Abundance”.
[3] Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, “Aloneness and Abundance”, § Letter of the Alphabet.
[4] Atara, “crown”, referring to Malkhut (see Aloneness and Abundance notes, Matt, The Essential Kabbalah).
[5] See § Ein Sof and the Sephirot of Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, for “Water, Light, and Colours”.
[6] Chaim Miller, Attitudes toward the Study of Zohar and Lurianic Kabbalah, from the Dawn of Chasidism to Present Day Chabad, Ḥakirah 26, 2019, 57-90.
[7] See § Ein Sof and the Sephirot of Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, for “Heretical Faith”.
[8] He returns to the supernal light after this two line excerpt however.
[9] See § Mind, Meditation, and Mystical Experience of Matt, The Essential Kabbalah, for “Imagine You Are Light”.