Anyone here knows about Kabbalah?

I'm a writer looking for inspiration, and came across the Tree of Life. It interested me and I did little research and it has to do with Kabbalah and each of the circle means something. I find it to be really snazzy and thought that perhaps I could use its theme for my work.

Still, it is bloody complex idea with long history and can anyone summarize its history, purpose, and mechanics if possible, for me?

The archetype in the Germanic religion is/was Yggdrasil. The name may mean Ygg's horse, as in Odin's gallows, because that was where he hanged himself to acquire the runic alphabet.

Yggdrasil is generally accepted to be an ash, but in fact it is debated whether it is an ash or yew because it has been referred to as both, the name could be interpreted to mean 'yew-trunk', and some think the yew is more plausible anyway. Yggdrasil seems to serve little other purpose besides to be a cosmological landmark.

Three roots grow from Yggdrasil— one into Niflheim/Hel, one into Ásgarðr/land of the Æsir, and one into Jötunheim/land of frost giants. The spring in Jötunheim is where Odin loses his eye for the sake of knowledge.

Many animals live in Yggdrasil, including harts that eat at its rooftops, and dragons (Niðhogg and his family) that eat at its roots. There's also an eagle with a great deal of wisdom, and a squirrel that conveys messages from the eagle to Niðhogg.

At the end of the world, Yggdrasil is said to burn down.

EDIT: It's probably not very helpful, but you asked about the Tree of Life, so here it is.

EDIT: Wikipedia has a plump, hefty article on Kabbalah. Is it not too hard to start there?

edited 8th Jul '11 6:58:10 AM by annebeeche

Uhh...when I was talking about Tree of Life, I was thinking about Sephirot. I said I looked up the wikipedia but didn't quite understood it, not to mention that it is quite daunting.

Heh, when I saw it was you, I was thinking "By the Keter, she knows about Kabbalah too?!" and by the end I was just "Oh wait.". Since I'm interested in TOL and planned to do research on it anyways, your information is highly appreciated, thanks.

Personally, I don't think you need someone to give you a lecture on Kabbalah, you just need to know where to start.

Normally I would start at the Wikipedia article and pick it apart until I understand it, but that approach may not work with you.

EDIT: Hey, Sephiroth wasn't a random made-up name? Cool!

edited 8th Jul '11 7:09:27 AM by annebeeche

Heh, there's actually this bit from the main page:

For the Final Fantasy VII character, see Sephiroth (Final Fantasy).

Yeah, Sephiroth is THAT reknown.

The Tree of Life, 'Etz Chaim, is a metaphor for both the Torah and the process of coming closer to God. The Tree of Life that you are concerned with is a drawing (I believe formalized by Isaac Luria) that charts the sepheroth, the enumerations of the aspects of God (called the Infinite, Ein Sof) from the most comprehensible (bottom) to the most ineffable (top).

In order from lowest to highest, the sepheroth are Malkuth (kingship, the royal aspect of God), Yesod (Foundation, the aspect that underlies everything), Hod (Splendor), Netzach (Eternity), Tiferet (Beauty), Gevurah (Severity, the aspect of God's wrath and judgement), Chesed (His kindness), Binah (understanding), Chokhmah (Divine Wisdom), and finally Keter (Crown, God's mystical, transcendent, nigh impossible to grasp aspect). The first seven are conscious emotions. Chokhmah and Binah are conscious intellectual aspects, while Keter is above consciousness.

Now, you may have noticed that, despite being 10 sepheroth, there are 11 spheres in the traditional drawing. Most schemes omit one of the sepherah in the central column, but there's a lot of disagreement about which one to eliminate, because this is Judaism. The 11th Sepherah is Da'at, or Knowledge, that which binds the experience of the other Sephiroth together.

edited 8th Jul '11 7:21:19 AM by MatthewTheRaven

Okay, someone flash the Tzetze symbol.

Wow, fastest Viking derail ever?

I dunno, ^^^ that post seems pretty comprehensive, at least to start with. I'd also mention the importance of the connecting lines (indicated with Hebrew letters), that each sephirot is often considered to have a tree within itself recursively, and that each of the three columns is sometimes shown to have a different unifying aspect.

The thing about Kabbalah is that "bloody complex" is rather an understatement. Kabbalists have been looking for meaning in every minor aspect of everything for centuries.

We have a Kabbalah page, by the way, though it's not very helpful.

HE MENTIONED TREE OF LIFE.

Leave me alone. D:<

Some Jewish/New Age hybrid cult.

edited 8th Jul '11 10:56:05 AM by Smasher

Madonna is supposed to be a follower and I think red string is involved somehow. Er, that's about all I know.

The Jewish/New Age hybrid cult is not the thing they're talking about.

Yeah, that Madonna thing isn't really related to authentic Qabbalah. It's a scam, and a shanda fur die goyim.

Hmm, would making characters based on each Sephirot (how do you call the individual circle?), like making the MC following the motif of Keter, be bad? I mean sure it all depends on execution, but I'm just using that because it looks frankly really neat. Also, Christian themes and allusions (no, it does not have that one, don't worry) are present in my current draft and can they and Kabbalah and Sephirot based imageries can coexist?

Thread Hop: No, but I have watched every episode of Neo Genesis Evangelion, does that help?

edited 8th Jul '11 6:50:34 PM by joeyjojo

Sepherot(h)'s singular form is Sephera(h).

I guess you could do the main character thing, but some of the aspects would be very hard to embody and it's more of a process of enlightenment, so unless this is a journey-based story, it probably wouldn't fit the purpose of the tree.

Also, what kind of Christian elements do you plan on integrating?

edited 8th Jul '11 7:17:00 PM by MatthewTheRaven

Ah, nothing too complicated. I'm just very interested in forgiveness, redemption, and loving your neighbors and all. Not to Anvilicious degree, of course.

edited 8th Jul '11 7:21:40 PM by dRoy

"It's nonsense, but it's Jewish nonsense, and the study of anything Jewish, even nonsense, is worthwhile." - Some Orthodox Jew

"Kabbalah is to Torah what philosophy is to science." - This web page

Well, those are important Jewish concepts too...

"Those pictures of Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman I downloaded? Worthwhile spiritual endeavors!"

(shrugs) I know more about Christianity anyways. Actually, I'm pretty sure all major religions around the world advocates those values. Maybe. Correct me if I'm wrong.

In a less related note, do Christianity and Jewish belief (was it Judaism?) say anything about stoicism and if they do, what do they say?

I can't think of a religion that doesn't at least preach those ideals, though some will limit it to a particular in-group. Thuggee Death Cults, maybe? Then it's more like, "treat others as you wish to be treated, if you were a suicidal masochist."

Stoicism has a complicated place in Jewish culture. We're both a very stoic people and very openly emotional people; it varies greatly between subculture, time, and place. Eastern European and Sephardic Jews that lived with a lot of persecution and forced migration had a big emphasis on stoicism in the face of adversity, mixed with Jewish pragmatism - the idea that you should live out of a trunk and not own property because at any moment you could be raped by Cossacks and/or Turks. It's very fatalistic.

Israelis have another kind of stoicism in the face of adversity, but it's not fatalistic at all. It's a very hard-nose, militaristic style, more like a tough-guy don't-tread-on-me attitude than true stoicism.

North American Jews, however, don't really have those attitudes, as they're fairly safe and assimilated.

Seconding the idea that they are more like levels of spiritual enlightenment rather than character types, although if you want to get complicated about it how a specific character progressed up the tree would impact what type of person they are (do they emphasize Justice over Mercy, or vice versa?). Have fun with it.

That's what I'm going for. I played (sort of) Persona 4, where each character interaction is represented by each Tarot arcana and found it to be really interesting. Also, I'm tired of Sephirot, or any other religious themes for that matter, showing up for absolutely no reason other than for looking cool.

Well, do your homework and go for it. Let us know how it works out.