Ein Sof (Kabbalah)
Encyclopedia : E : EI : EIN : Ein Sof (Kabbalah)
Ein Sof (Hebrew אין סוף, literally "without end", denoting "boundlessness"), also known as "Divine Being", is the name for God within the Kabbalah of Judaism. This name signifies the unknown nature of God as the mysterious and ultimate source of all existence. All other existence flows, or emanates from the Ein Sof.
According to the Zohar, the ten Sefirot (the Divine "emanations") as found in the Adam Kadmon (the original "primal man" created by God) emanate from Ein Sof.
The Ten Emmanations
The ten aspects of the Divine can be described as (also see Sephirah (Kabbalah)):
- Kether Elyon (Kabbalah) (Crown; כתר)
- Chokhmah (Wisdom; חכמה)
- Binah (Kabbalah) (Intelligence; בינה)
- Chesed or Gedulah (Love or Mercy); חסד)
- Din or Gevurah (Power or Judgement); גבורה)
- Tifereth or Rakhamim (Compassion); תפארת)
- Netzach (Lasting Endurance); נצח)
- Hod (Majesty); הוד)
- Yesod (Basis or Foundation); יסוד)
- Malkuth or Shekinah (Kingdom); מלכות)
Theories of the relation between Ein Sof and all other realities and levels of reality may have been developed by the Jewish mystical thinkers of the middle ages, such as Isaac the Blind and Azriel who could have been influenced by concepts of Neoplatonism which they modified to conform to their own leanings.
Mathematician Georg Cantor labeled different sizes of infinity using the Aleph. The smallest size of infinity is aleph-null ([\aleph_0]), the second size is aleph-one ([\aleph_1]), etc. One theory about why Cantor chose to use the aleph is because it is the first letter of Ein-Sof. (See Aleph number)
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.