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Mystical Reflections - Adam Kadmon and The Ten Sephirot

Along the concept of the Four Worlds is the concept of Adam Kadmon, or the primeval man. This was God's vision for creating human beings - that they would look like this. This isn't a person that you can go out and meet somewhere, rather its an idea born out of God's infinite wisdom. The way to describe such a person, or an idea of this person comes with another device - the Ten Sefirot.

The Sefirot is a complicated concept. At a first glance they can appear polytheistic or pagan, but this comes from misunderstanding their nature. I like to think of them as lenses with which you can see divine qualities. When I was a boy I used to get toys with secret messages on the packaging. When I opened the package there was a decoder, basically a red piece of film with a cardboard border. Without the decoder the message just looked like a random collection of colors, but when I put this decoder over the top it filtered out everything except for one color, and then I could read the message.

The sefirot function the same way, filtering out other information so you can contemplate one of God's divine characteristics. There are ten of them, and they are as follows: Keter (Will), Hochmah (Wisdom), Binah (Understanding), Chesed (Love), Gevurah (Righteousness), Tiferet (Compassion), Netzah (Endurance), Hod (Splendor), Yesod (Foundation), and Malchut (Kingdom or Dignity). Poetically they have been described as body parts - Chesed being the Right Arm, Gevurah being the left, Netzah and Hod being the legs, etc. A more detailed description can be found at Wikipedia: Sefirot or from YashaNet: The Tree of Life and Four Worlds.

When the Bible says that God made man in his own image, it is these Divine Qualities that makes up that image. Human beings also have will, wisdom, understanding, love, righteousness, dignity, etc. Although in our fallen world they are mere shadows of what God intended. As part of your spiritual work, try reflecting on these Divine Qualities and see how your life can better reflect them. A wonderful guide to do this is A Spiritual Guide to Counting the Omer by Rabbi Jacobson. It's designed to take place in between the Jewish holidays of Passover and Shauvot, but can equally be used by Christians in between Easter and Pentecost.
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