Tree of Life
Aleph - Tree of Life
I started to make Aleph paintings where its two Yods extend more from the ends of the diagonal Vav (or Wow) instead of from its middle (as I had done in earlier Alephs). This is one example. Here, instead of two Yods there are two birds (or flowers). The birds are each comprised of ten parts for the Ten Sefirot, associated with the Tree of Life.
2010
Acrylic on paper
60 x 50 cm
Rav Kook's Guide for the Perplexed
October 29, 2010 - The following teaching is a translation I made of a chapter from an unpublished book written by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook over a hundred years ago. It deals with issues that caused young people of his generation to lose their faith in the Torah. Since much of my website deals with cosmology and kabbalistic theories of Creation, I thought it would be nice to include Rav Kook's take on Evolution and the Story of Creation in Genesis. (the italics are mine):
Slanted Sefirot #6
This slanted Tree of Life diagram retains the yellow diagonal that comes from the Wow or Vav of the Hebrew letter Aleph that underlies all of these slanted pictures. Here is the waves/particles motif again, and the connecting lines extending outward in all directions, as well.
The choice of colors for the ten Sefirot is based on how the ten Sefirot become five Partzufim. Each of the three higher Sefirot, Keter (white), Chochmah (blue), and Binah (red) become Partzufim by themselves.
Slanted Sefirot #3
In this picture I used the same slanted Tree of Life motif that I used in ‘One Together’ and ‘Waves and Particles’. In those pictures I included Daat (Knowledge) as the eleventh circle or Sefirah. Daat is the interface between the upper three Sefirot of the head and the lower seven Sefirot of the body. It can be seen as consciousness itself. Daat unites all ten Sefirot.
Waves and Particles
The Sefirot are often described as emanations of God’s Infinite Light. The Hebrew word for ‘light’ starts with the letter Aleph. Kabbalists believe that God is One and can be found both in the Heavens and upon the Earth (God is both transcendent and immanent).
Thirteen Sefirot
There are several different forms of the Tree of Life diagram that is used in the Kabbalah to represent the Sefirot. I use several of these forms in the various picture that I make. In the Lurianic tradition, Daat is not included as one of the Ten Sefirot because Daat is the ‘outside’ of Keter and the ‘inside’ of Tiferet. In these diagrams Malchut is fallen, as I explained in my picture ‘Ten Sefirot of Nothingness’.
Tree of Life
Life is a dynamic process of balancing between extremes - between hot and cold, between activity and rest, between expanding outward and contracting inward. When it's cold, we seek Fire to warm ourselves up. When it's hot, we look for Water to cool ourselves down.
The lower half of this picture shows the root system of a Tree, resting in the cool, wet Earth.
One Together
The Ten Sefirot (Spheres of Being) that are discussed in the Kabbalah are often represented by the symbol that can be seen in this picture. This symbol is called the Tree of Life. It is comprised of circles or wheels that are joined together by a network of lines. The Tree of Life represents the human form as a reflection of the entire universe. The upper three circles (Sefirot) represent our head (or the Heavens). The lower four Sefirot represent our lower body (or the Earth). The middle three Sefirot represent our upper body (or the Atmosphere). The
Meditating on the Holy Name
This picture shows a woman sitting in meditation. She is practicing an ancient Jewish meditative technique where one visualizes the four letters of the Holy Name of God (YHWH) in the mind’s eye. This Name is the most important and powerful Name in the Kabbalah as its four letters represent all Ten Sefirot.
Blessing the Family
This picture is based on the Partzufim (Faces of God) that are an important feature of the Lurianic Kabbalah taught in 16th Century Zefat by Rabbi Isaac Luria, also known as the Ari. It is similar my picture ‘The Family Tree of Life’.
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