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107-523: The Zohar explains the term "Ein Sof" as follows: Before He gave any shape to the world, before He produced any form, He was alone, without form and without resemblance to anything else. Who then can comprehend how He was before the Creation? Hence it is forbidden to lend Him any form or similitude, or even to call Him by His sacred name, or to indicate Him by a single letter or a single point... But after He created

214-408: A "doctrine contains all of deism and pandeism except their arbitrary negations". Hartshorne formulated God as a being who could become "more perfect": He has absolute perfection in categories for which absolute perfection is possible, and relative perfection (i. e., is superior to all others) in categories for which perfection cannot be precisely determined. The Reverend Zen Master Soyen Shaku

321-455: A common trait among some tribes in the Americas. In the stories of Keetoowah storytellers Sequoyah Guess and Dennis Sixkiller, God is known as ᎤᏁᎳᏅᎯ, commonly pronounced "unehlanv," and visited earth in prehistoric times, but then left earth and her people to rely on themselves. This shows a parallel to Vaishnava cosmology. Konkokyo is a form of sectarian Japanese Shinto , and a faith within

428-547: A different ancient mystical book in a cave near Toledo , which may have been de Leon's inspiration. Within fifty years of its appearance in Spain it was quoted by Kabbalists, including the Italian mystical writer Menahem Recanati and Todros ben Joseph Abulafia . However, Joseph ben Waqar harshly attacked the Zohar , which he considered inauthentic, and some Jewish communities, such as

535-496: A discourse on chiromancy by ben Yochai. h. Old Man (סבא) An elaborate narrative about a speech by an old Kabbalist. Panentheism Panentheism ( / p æ ˈ n ɛ n θ i ɪ z əm / ; "all in God", from the Greek πᾶν , pân , 'all', ἐν , en , 'in' and Θεός , Theós , 'God') is the belief that the divine intersects every part of

642-1111: A kind of gnostic inclination within Kabbalah, and as a predecessor of the Sitra Ahra (the other, evil side) in the Zohar . The main text of the Castile circle, the Treatise on the Left Emanation , was written by Jacob ha-Cohen around 1265. Tikunei haZohar was first printed in Mantua in 1557. The main body of the Zohar was printed in Cremona in 1558 (a one-volume edition), in Mantua in 1558-1560 (a three-volume edition), and in Salonika in 1597 (a two-volume edition). Each of these editions included somewhat different texts. When they were printed there were many partial manuscripts in circulation that were not available to

749-453: A kind of mass or corporeal matter), they are quite mistaken". For Spinoza, our universe (cosmos) is a mode under two attributes of Thought and Extension . God has infinitely many other attributes which are not present in our world. According to German philosopher Karl Jaspers , when Spinoza wrote "Deus sive Natura" (God or Nature) Spinoza did not mean to say that God and Nature are interchangeable terms, but rather that God's transcendence

856-889: A lifelong membership in the Methodist church but was also a Unitarian . In later years he joined the Austin, Texas , Unitarian Universalist congregation and was an active participant in that church. Referring to the ideas such as Thomas Oord's ‘theocosmocentrism’ (2010), the soft panentheism of open theism, Keith Ward's comparative theology and John Polkinghorne's critical realism (2009), Raymond Potgieter observes distinctions such as dipolar and bipolar: The former suggests two poles separated such as God influencing creation and it in turn its creator (Bangert 2006:168), whereas bipolarity completes God’s being implying interdependence between temporal and eternal poles. (Marbaniang 2011:133), in dealing with Whitehead’s approach, does not make this distinction. I use

963-604: A medieval date. In the Ashkenazi community of Eastern Europe, religious authorities including Elijah of Vilna (d. 1797) and Shneur Zalman of Liadi (d. 1812) believed in the authenticity of the Zohar , while Ezekiel Landau (d. 1793), in his sefer Derushei HaTzlach (דרושי הצל"ח), argued that the Zohar is to be considered unreliable as it was made public many hundreds of years after Ben Yochai's death and lacks an unbroken tradition of authenticity, among other reasons. Isaac Satanow accepted Emden's arguments and referred to

1070-699: A small amount of genuinely antique novel material. Later additions to the Zohar , including Tiqqune hazZohar and Ra'ya Meheimna , were composed by a 14th century imitator. According to Gershom Scholem and other modern scholars, Zoharic Aramaic is an artificial dialect largely based on a linguistic fusion of the Babylonian Talmud and Targum Onkelos , but confused by de León's simple and imperfect grammar, his limited vocabulary, and his reliance on loanwords, including from contemporaneous medieval languages. The author further confused his text with occasional strings of Aramaic-seeming gibberish , in order to give

1177-519: A speech is quoted in which he explains the previous section. e. Assembly of the Tabernacle (אדרא דמשכנא) This part has the same structure as c. but discusses instead the mysticism of prayer . f. Palaces (היכלות) Seven palaces of light are described, which are perceived by the devout in death. This description appears again in another passage, heavily embellished. g. Secretum Secretorum (רזא דרזין) An anonymous discourse on physiognomy and

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1284-439: A stage of concealment called tzimtzum , which "allows space" for creations to perceive themselves as separate existences from their creator. The sefirot exhibit reflection in sets of triads between more exalted states of being (or "non-being," when "otherness" does not yet exist) and the lower, more mundane levels of existence: Concerned that misinterpretation could lead to the idolatrous belief of duality or multiplicity in God,

1391-620: Is "highly oracular and obscure," citing no authorities and explaining nothing. c. Greater Assembly (אדרא רבא) This part contains an explanation of the oracular hints in the previous section. Ben Yochai's friends gather together to discuss secrets of Kabbalah. After the opening of the discussion by ben Yochai, the sages rise, one after the other, and lecture on the secret of Divinity, while ben Yochai adds to and responds to their words. The sages become steadily more ecstatic until three of them die. Scholem calls this part "architecturally perfect." d. Lesser Assembly (אדרא זוטא) Ben Yochai dies and

1498-466: Is She who becomes the time and space, the cosmos, it is She who becomes the five elements , and thus all animate life and inanimate forms. She is the primordial energy that holds all creation and destruction, all cycles of birth and death, all laws of cause and effect within Herself, and yet is greater than the sum total of all these. She is transcendent, but becomes immanent as the cosmos (Mula Prakriti). She,

1605-519: Is a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature . It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on mysticism , mythical cosmogony , and mystical psychology . The Zohar contains discussions of the nature of God , the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, redemption, the relationship of ego to darkness and "true self" to "the light of God". The Zohar

1712-684: Is a concept sometimes described as pantheism or panentheistic. It is primarily associated with the Asharite Sufi scholar Ibn Arabi . Some Sufi Orders, notably the Bektashis and the Universal Sufi movement, adhere to similar panentheistic beliefs. Same is said about the Nizari Ismaili who follow panentheism according to Ismaili doctrine . The Mesoamerican empires of the Mayas , Aztecs as well as

1819-562: Is also generally considered unorthodox by most Evangelicals. A number of ordained Catholic mystics (including Richard Rohr , David Steindl-Rast , and Thomas Keating ) have suggested that panentheism is the original view of Christianity. They hold that such a view is directly supported by mystical experience and the teachings of Jesus and Saint Paul . Richard Rohr surmises this in his 2019 book, The Universal Christ : But Paul merely took incarnationalism to its universal and logical conclusions. We see that in his bold exclamation “There

1926-430: Is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived." "Individual things are nothing but modifications of the attributes of God, or modes by which the attributes of God are expressed in a fixed and definite manner." Though Spinoza has been called the "prophet" and "prince" of pantheism , in a letter to Henry Oldenburg Spinoza states that: "as to the view of certain people that I identify god with nature (taken as

2033-441: Is non-different from the energy itself, not residing in any particular cosmological location. In Konkokyo, this god is named "Tenchi Kane no Kami-Sama" which can be translated directly as, "Spirit of the gilded/golden heavens and earth". Though practitioners of Konkokyo are small in number (~300,000 globally), the sect has birthed or influenced a multiplicity of Japanese New Religions , such as Oomoto . Many of these faiths carry on

2140-460: Is not atheistic as the term is ordinarily understood. It has certainly a God, the highest reality and truth , through which and in which this universe exists. However, the followers of Buddhism usually avoid the term God, for it savors so much of Christianity, whose spirit is not always exactly in accord with the Buddhist interpretation of religious experience. Again, Buddhism is not pantheistic in

2247-537: Is not. Ovadia Yosef (d. 2013) held that Orthodox Jews should accept the Zohar 's antiquity in practice based on medieval precedent, but agreed that rejecting it is rational and religiously valid. Joseph Hertz (d. 1946) called the claim of ben Yochai's authorship "untenable", citing Gershom Scholem 's evidence. Samuel Belkin (d. 1976) argued that the Mystical Midrash section, specifically, predated de León. Joseph B. Soloveitchik (d. 1993) apparently dismissed

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2354-672: Is obvious they understood its nature. The manuscripts of the Zohar are from the 14th-16th centuries. By the 15th century, the Zohar 's authority in the Iberian Jewish community was such that Joseph ibn Shem-Tov drew arguments from it in his attacks against Maimonides , and even representatives of non-mystical Jewish thought began to assert its sacredness and invoke its authority in the decision of some ritual questions. In Jacobs' and Broyde's view, they were attracted by its glorification of man, its doctrine of immortality , and its ethical principles, which they saw as more in keeping with

2461-467: Is only Christ. He is everything and he is in everything” (Colossians 3:11). If I were to write that today, people would call me a pantheist (the universe is God), whereas I am really a panentheist (God lies within all things, but also transcends them), exactly like both Jesus and Paul. Similarly, David Steindl-Rast posits that Christianity's original panentheism is being revealed through contemporary mystical insight: What characterizes our moment in history

2568-527: Is pervaded through My unmanifested form. All beings abide in Me but I do not abide in them. Many schools of Hindu thought espouse monistic theism , which is thought to be similar to a panentheistic viewpoint. Nimbarka 's school of differential monism ( Dvaitadvaita ), Ramanuja 's school of qualified monism ( Vishistadvaita ) and Saiva Siddhanta and Kashmir Shaivism are all considered to be panentheistic. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu 's Gaudiya Vaishnavism , which elucidates

2675-532: Is present in all creation by virtue of his omnipresence and omnipotence, sustaining every creature in being without being identified with any creature. The latter understanding is what Jesus seems to have been describing when he prays "that all might be one, Father, as we are one" and "that they may also be in us" (John 17:22). Again and again, in the Last Supper discourse, he speaks of this oneness and his intentions to send his Spirit to dwell within us. If we understand

2782-423: Is regarded as an Indian prototype of Panentheism. Shakti is considered to be the cosmos itself – she is the embodiment of energy and dynamism, and the motivating force behind all action and existence in the material universe. Shiva is her transcendent masculine aspect, providing the divine ground of all being. "There is no Shiva without Shakti, or Shakti without Shiva. The two ... in themselves are One." Thus, it

2889-473: Is the best single-word description of the philosophical theology of Baruch Spinoza . It is therefore no surprise, that aspects of panentheism are also evident in the theology of Reconstructionist Judaism as presented in the writings of Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983), who was strongly influenced by Spinoza. Many newer, contemporary Sikhs have suggested that human souls and the monotheistic God are two different realities ( dualism ), distinguishing it from

2996-435: Is the collapse of Christian theism. Gratefulness mysticism makes us realize that Christianity never was theistic, but panentheistic. Faith in God as triune implied this from the very beginning; now we are becoming aware of it. It becomes obvious, at the same time, that we share this Trinitarian experience of divine life with all human beings as a spiritual undercurrent in all religions, an undercurrent older and more powerful than

3103-485: Is without parts or attributes...one without a second." Since Brahman has no properties, contains no internal diversity and is identical with the whole reality it cannot be understood as an anthropomorphic personal God. The relationship between Brahman and the creation is often thought to be panentheistic. Panentheism is also expressed in the Bhagavad Gita . In verse IX.4, Krishna states: By Me all this universe

3210-661: The Sefer Yetzirah and the Bahir and the medieval writings of the Hasidei Ashkenaz . Another influence that Scholem, and scholars like Yehudah Liebes and Ronit Meroz have identified was a circle of Spanish Kabbalists in Castile who dealt with the appearance of an evil side emanating from within the world of the sefirot . Scholem saw this dualism of good and evil within the Godhead as

3317-505: The Babylonian Talmud . "The Hebrew of the Midrash haNe'elam is similar in its overall form to the language of the early midrashim, but its specific vocabulary, idioms, and stylistic characteristics bear the imprint of medieval Hebrew , and its midrashic manner is clearly that of a later imitation." Authorship of the Zohar was questioned from the outset, due to the claim that it was discovered by one person and referred to historical events of

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3424-520: The Dor Daim from Yemen, Andalusian (Western Sefardic or Spanish and Portuguese Jews ), and some Italian communities, never accepted it as authentic. Other early Kabbalists, such as David b. Judah the Pious (fl. c. 1300), Abraham b. Isaac of Granada , (fl. c. 1300), and David b. Amram of Aden (fl. c. 1350), so readily imitate its pseudepigraphy by ascribing contemporaries' statements to Zoharic sages that it

3531-565: The Kabbalistic Tree of Life . Ein Sof, the Atik Yomin (" Ancient of Days "), emanates the sefirot into the cosmic womb of the Ayin in a manner that results in the created universe. The three letters composing the word "Ayin" (אי״ן), indicate the first three purely intellectual sefirot, which precede any emotion or action. The order of devolution can be described as: The ten sefirot were preceded by

3638-657: The New Thought . The formalization of this term in the West in the 19th century was not new; philosophical treatises had been written on it in the context of Hinduism for millennia. Philosophers who embraced panentheism have included Thomas Hill Green (1839–1882), James Ward (1843–1925), Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison (1856–1931) and Samuel Alexander (1859–1938). Beginning in the 1940s, Hartshorne examined numerous conceptions of God. He reviewed and discarded pantheism, deism , and pandeism in favor of panentheism, finding that such

3745-627: The Sephirot of the Kabbalists and deliberate manifestations of a transcendent God through a complex system of intermediaries. The earliest reference to panentheistic thought in Hindu philosophy is in a creation myth contained in the later section of Rig Veda called the Purusha Sukta , which was compiled before 1100 BCE. The Purusha Sukta gives a description of the spiritual unity of the cosmos. It presents

3852-559: The Zohar as a forgery, also offering new evidence. By 1813 Samuel David Luzzatto had concluded that "these books [the Zohar and the Tiqqunei Zohar] are utter forgeries," in part because they repeatedly discuss the Hebrew cantillation marks, which were not invented until the 9th century. In 1817 Luzzatto published these arguments, and in 1825 he penned a fuller treatise, giving many reasons why

3959-400: The Zohar could not be ancient. However, he did not publish this until 1852, when he felt it justified by the rise of Hasidism . Moses Landau (d. 1852), Ezekiel's grandson, published the same conclusion in 1822. Isaac Haver (d. 1852) admits the vast majority of content comes from the 13th century but argues that there was a genuine core. Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport (d. 1867) spoke against

4066-510: The Zohar could not be attributed to Simeon ben Yochai, by a number of arguments. He claims that if it were his work, the Zohar would have been mentioned by the Talmud , as has been the case with other works of the Talmudic period; he claims that had ben Yochai known by divine revelation the hidden meaning of the precepts, his decisions on Jewish law from the Talmudic period would have been adopted by

4173-524: The Zohar include Yehuda Liebes (who wrote his doctorate thesis for Scholem on the subject, Dictionary of the Vocabulary of the Zohar in 1976), and Daniel C. Matt , a student of Scholem's who has published a critical edition of the Zohar . Academic studies of the Zohar show that many of its ideas are based in the Talmud, various works of midrash , and earlier Jewish mystical works. Scholem writes: At

4280-457: The Zohar includes a translation of a poem by Solomon ibn Gabirol (d. 1058) and that it includes a mystical explanation of a mezuzah style only introduced in the 13th century. Adolf Neubauer and Samuel Rolles Driver were convinced by these arguments, but Edward Bouverie Pusey held to a Tannaitic date. By 1913, the critical view had apparently lost some support: Israel Abrahams recalls that "Zunz, like Graetz, had little patience with

4387-465: The Zohar only when it does not conflict with any other source and records that "You asked me about scribes modifying torah scrolls to accord with the Zohar ... and I was shocked, for how can they consider the Zohar better than the Talmud Bavli, which has come down to us? ... So I went myself to the house of the scribe and I found three scrolls which he had edited, and I fixed them, and I restored

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4494-513: The Zohar to de Leon's Hebrew works, were accepted by every other major scholar in the field, including Heinrich Graetz ( History of the Jews , vol. 7), Moritz Steinschneider , Bernhard Beer , Leopold Zunz , and Christian David Ginsburg . Ginsburg summarized Jellinek's, Graetz's, and other scholars' proofs for the English-reading world in 1865, also introducing several novel proofs, including that

4601-679: The Zohar was accepted by such 16th century Jewish luminaries as Joseph Karo (d. 1575), and Solomon Luria (d. 1574), who wrote nonetheless that Jewish law does not follow the Zohar when it is contradicted by the Babylonian Talmud. Luria writes that the Zohar cannot even override a minhag . Moses Isserles (d. 1572) writes that he "heard" that the author of the Zohar is ben Yochai. Elijah Levita (d. 1559) did not believe in its antiquity, nor did Joseph Scaliger (d. 1609) or Louis Cappel (d. 1658) or Johannes Drusius (d. 1616). David ibn abi Zimra (d. 1573) held that one can follow

4708-655: The Zohar 's antiquity. Eliakim ha-Milzahgi (d. 1854) accepted Emden's arguments. The influence of the Zohar in Yemen contributed to the formation of the Dor Deah movement, led by Yiḥyah Qafiḥ in the later part of the 19th century. Among its objects was the opposition of the influence of the Zohar , as presented in Qafiḥ's Milhamoth Hashem (Wars of the Lord) and Da'at Elohim . Shlomo Zalman Geiger (d. 1878), in his book Divrei Kehilot on

4815-440: The Zohar 's antiquity. Moses Gaster (d. 1939) wrote that the claim of ben Yochai's authorship was "untenable" but that Moses de León had compiled earlier material. Meir Mazuz (alive) accepts Emden's arguments. Yeshayahu Leibowitz wrote (1990) that "Moses de León composed the Zohar in the 1270s as certainly as Theodor Herzl composed Der Judenstaat in the 1890s ... the Zohar was influential because in every generation

4922-599: The Zohar , other well-known explications of the relation between Ein Sof and all other realities and levels of reality have been formulated by the Jewish mystical thinkers of the Middle Ages , such as Isaac the Blind and Azriel . Judah Ḥayyaṭ, in his commentary Minḥat Yehudah on the Ma'areket Elahut, gives the following explanation of the term "Ein Sof": Any name of God which is found in

5029-502: The cosmos , whereby all thoughts and all things originate, or as Heraclitus said: "He who hears not me but the Logos will say: All is one." Neoplatonists such as Iamblichus attempted to reconcile this perspective by adding another hypostasis above the original monad of force or Dynamis (Δύναμις). This new all-pervasive monad encompassed all creation and its original uncreated emanations. Baruch Spinoza later claimed that "Whatsoever is,

5136-469: The monistic and various shades of nondualistic philosophies of other Indian religions. However, Sikh scholars have explored nondualist exegesis of Sikh scriptures, such as Bhai Vir Singh . According to Mandair, Vir Singh interprets the Sikh scriptures as teaching nonduality. The renowned Sikh Scholar, Bhai Mani Singh , is quoted to saying that Sikhism has all the essence of Vedanta Philosophy. Historically,

5243-577: The theological tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church . It also appears in process theology . Process theological thinkers are generally regarded in the Christian West as unorthodox. Furthermore, process philosophical thought is widely believed to have paved the way for open theism , a movement that tends to associate itself primarily with the Evangelical branch of Protestantism , but

5350-486: The 16th century, resolved the contradiction, explaining that the sefirot consist of lights invested in vessels. In detail, whereas the vessels are differentiated vehicles for creation, the light is the undifferentiated light of the Ein Sof. This is similar to how water poured into differently-shaped vessels will take on the vessels' forms, or how light streaming through different colors of glass appears in different colors. Despite

5457-503: The Bible can not be applied to the Deity prior to His self-manifestation in the Creation, because the letters of those names were produced only after the emanation. . . . Moreover, a name implies a limitation in its bearer; and this is impossible in connection with the "Ein Sof". According to Gershom Scholem , the Ein Sof is the emanator of the ten sefirot . Sefirot are energy emanations found on

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5564-511: The Book of the Zohar was found, which Simeon ben Yochai and his son Elazar had made in the cave . . . and some say that [de Leon] forged it among his forgeries, but [Isaac] said that the Palestinian Aramaic sections were genuinly written by Simeon b. Yochai . . . And [Isaac] wrote: Isaac goes on to say that he obtained mixed evidence of Zohar's authenticity from other Spanish Kabbalists, but

5671-572: The German philosopher Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781–1832) seeking to reconcile monotheism and pantheism , coined the term panentheism (from the Ancient Greek expression πᾶν ἐν θεῷ, pān en theṓ , literally "all in god"). This conception of God influenced New England transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson . The term was popularized by Charles Hartshorne in his development of process theology and has also been closely identified with

5778-724: The Great Mystery or as the Sacred Other ). This concept is referred to by many as the Great Spirit . Philosopher J. Baird Callicott has described Lakota theology as panentheistic, in that the divine both transcends and is immanent in everything. One exception can be modern Cherokee who are predominantly monotheistic but apparently not panentheistic; yet in older Cherokee traditions many observe both aspects of pantheism and panentheism, and are often not beholden to exclusivity, encompassing other spiritual traditions without contradiction,

5885-406: The Kabbalists frequently stress that the sefirot are bound up in the Ein Sof, and that without the Ein Sof the sefirot have no existence. However, there is an apparent contradiction, since in Kabbalah, the sefirot are sometimes called divine in themselves, despite the assertion that they are only vehicles to manifest God. Moses ben Jacob Cordovero , who gave the first full systemization of Kabbalah in

5992-619: The One ", to En , τὸ Ἕν) of which subsequent realities were emanations. From "the One" emanates the Divine Mind ( Nous , Νοῦς) and the Cosmic Soul ( Psyche , Ψυχή). In Neoplatonism the world itself is God (according to Plato 's Timaeus 37). This concept of divinity is associated with that of the Logos (Λόγος), which had originated centuries earlier with Heraclitus (c. 535–475 BC). The Logos pervades

6099-472: The Primordial Energy, directly becomes Matter. While mainstream Rabbinic Judaism is classically monotheistic, and follows in the footsteps of Maimonides (c. 1135–1204), the panentheistic conception of God can be found among certain mystical Jewish traditions. A leading scholar of Kabbalah , Moshe Idel ascribes this doctrine to the kabbalistic system of Moses ben Jacob Cordovero (1522–1570) and in

6206-457: The Shinbutsu-shūgō tradition. Traditional Shintoism holds that an impersonal spirit manifests/penetrates the material world, giving all objects consciousness and spontaneously creating a system of natural mechanisms, forces, and phenomena (Musubi). Konkokyo deviates from traditional Shintoism by holding that this spirit (Comparable to Brahman), has a personal identity and mind. This personal form

6313-744: The Sikh symbol of Ik Oankaar has had a monist meaning, and has been reduced to simply meaning, "There is but One God", which is incorrect. Older exegesis of Sikh scripture, such as the Faridkot Teeka, and Garab Ganjani Teeka has always described Sikh Metaphysics as a non-dual, panentheistic universe. For this reason, Sikh Metaphysics has often been compared to the Non-Dual, Vedanta metaphysics. The Sikh Poet, Bhai Nand Lal , often used Sufi terms to describe Sikh philosophy, talking about wahdat ul-wujud in his Persian poetry. Wahdat ul-wujud (the Unity of All Things)

6420-543: The South American Incas ( Tahuatinsuyu ) have typically been characterized as polytheistic , with strong male and female deities. According to Charles C. Mann 's history book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus , only the lower classes of Aztec society were polytheistic. Philosopher James Maffie has argued that Aztec metaphysics was pantheistic rather than panentheistic, since Teotl

6527-458: The Talmud, that it would not contain the names of rabbis who lived at a later period than that of ben Yochai; he claims that if the Kabbalah were a revealed doctrine, there would have been no divergence of opinion among the Kabbalists concerning the mystic interpretation of the precepts. Believers in the authenticity of the Zohar countered that the lack of references to the work in Jewish literature

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6634-450: The Torah to its proper glory." Debate continued over the generations; del Medigo's arguments were echoed by Leon of Modena (d. 1648) in his Ari Nohem , by Jean Morin (d. 1659), and by Jacob Emden (d. 1776). Emden—who may have been familiar with Modena through Morin's arguments —devoted a book to the criticism of the Zohar , called Mitpachas Sefarim (מטפחת ספרים), in an effort against

6741-477: The Zohar . . . at this date we are much more inclined to treat the Kabbalah with respect." Gershom Scholem , who was to found modern academic study of Kabbalah , began his career at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1925 with a lecture in which he promised to refute Graetz and Jellinek. However, after years of research, he came to conclusions similar to theirs by 1938, when he argued again that de León

6848-416: The authenticity of the Zohar , as did Menachem Mendel Kasher (d. 1983), Aryeh Kaplan (d. 1983), David Luria (d. 1855), and Chaim Kanievsky (d. 2022). Aryeh Carmell (d. 2006) did not, and Eliyahu Dessler (d. 1953) accepted the possibility that it was composed in the 13th century. Gedaliah Nadel (d. 2004) was unsure if the Zohar were genuine but was sure that it is acceptable to believe that it

6955-518: The book of the Zohar had been printed (in Mantua and in Cremona, in the Jewish years 5318–5320 or 1558–1560? CE), many more manuscripts were found that included paragraphs pertaining to the Zohar which had not been included in printed editions. The manuscripts pertained also to all parts of the Zohar ; some were similar to Zohar on the Torah, some were similar to the inner parts of the Zohar ( Midrash haNe'elam, Sitrei Otiyot and more), and some pertained to Tikunei haZohar . Some thirty years after

7062-412: The change in appearance, the water and the light emanate from a single source and are essentially unchanged; the vessels merely serve to filter and veil the light to reveal different aspects of the creator, and to permit creations to benefit from his light. This explanation was accepted and expanded upon in later works of Kabbalah and Hasidic philosophy . Hasidic Judaism in the 18th century internalised

7169-417: The creative aspects of the godhead, known as the “thoughtful light” ( or she-yesh bo mahshavah ). The greater divine aspects that had no desire for creation, the “thoughtless light” ( or she-ein bo mahshavah ), remained within the vacuum ( tehiru ) and became a material substrate for the thoughtful light’s creation. However, the ray of creative light could only penetrate to the upper half of the tehiru , while

7276-401: The creative light, thus reconciling the polarities of God. In Modern Hebrew as spoken in contemporary Israel, "ein sof" (often contracted to "einsof" – אינסוף) is commonly used as simply the word for " infinity ", without reference to God and to the above intricate Kabbalistic connotations. Zohar The Zohar ( Hebrew : זֹהַר ‎ , Zōhar , lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance" )

7383-431: The divine and the universe are identical , panentheism maintains an ontological distinction between the divine and the non-divine and the significance of both. In panentheism, the universal spirit is present everywhere, which at the same time " transcends " all things created. While pantheism asserts that "all is God", panentheism claims that God is greater than the universe. Some versions of panentheism suggest that

7490-479: The doctrine of Achintya Bheda Abheda (inconceivable oneness and difference), is also thought to be panentheistic. In Kashmir Shaivism , all things are believed to be a manifestation of Universal Consciousness (Cit or Brahman). So from the point of view of this school, the phenomenal world ( Śakti ) is real, and it exists and has its being in Consciousness (Ć it ). Thus, Kashmir Shaivism is also propounding of theistic monism or panentheism. Shaktism , or Tantra ,

7597-467: The eighteenth century to the Baal Shem Tov (c. 1700–1760), founder of the Hasidic movement , as well as his contemporaries, Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezeritch (died 1772), and Menahem Mendel, the Maggid of Bar. This may be said of many, if not most, subsequent Hasidic masters. There is some debate as to whether Isaac Luria (1534–1572) and Lurianic Kabbalah , with its doctrine of tzimtzum , can be regarded as panentheistic. According to Hasidism ,

7704-506: The entire Zohar and Tikunim. Citations referring to the Zohar conventionally follow the volume and page numbers of the Mantua edition, while citations referring to Tikkunei haZohar follow the edition of Ortakoy (Constantinople) 1719 whose text and pagination became the basis for most subsequent editions. Volumes II and III begin their numbering anew, so citation can be made by parashah and page number (e.g. Zohar: Nasso 127a), or by volume and page number (e.g. Zohar III:127a). After

7811-503: The esoteric, transcendent emanations of Kabbalah into immanent, psychological perception and correspondence. The term in Hasidic philosophy for the divine source is Atzmus ("essence"). While the Ein Sof of Kabbalah can only be infinite, Atzmus, rooted higher in the Godhead, is beyond finite/infinite duality. As the Etzem, it both transcends all levels, and permeates all levels. This is reflected in

7918-418: The first 18 (a.–s.) are the work of the original author (probably de Leon) and the final 3 (t.–v.) are the work of a later imitator. a. Untitled Torah commentary A "bulky part" which is "wholly composed of discursive commentaries on various passages from the Torah". b. Book of Concealment (ספרא דצניעותא) A short part of only six pages, containing a commentary to the first six chapters of Genesis . It

8025-602: The first edition of the Zohar was printed, the manuscripts were gathered and arranged according to the parashiyot of the Torah and the megillot (apparently the arrangement was done by the Kabbalist, Avraham haLevi of Tsfat ), and were printed first in Salonika in Jewish year 5357 (1587? CE), and then in Kraków (5363), and afterwards in various editions. According to Scholem, the Zohar can be divided into 21 types of content, of which

8132-436: The first printers. These were later printed as Zohar Chadash (lit. "New Radiance"), but Zohar Chadash actually contains parts that pertain to the Zohar , as well as Tikunim (plural of Tikun , "Repair", see also Tikkun olam ) that are akin to Tikunei haZohar , as described below. The term Zohar , in usage, may refer to just the first Zohar collection, with or without the applicable sections of Zohar Chadash , or to

8239-463: The form of the Heavenly Man , He used him as a chariot wherein to descend, and He wishes to be called after His form, which is the sacred name "YHWH". In other words, "Ein Sof" signifies "the nameless being". In another passage the Zohar reduces the term to " Ein " (non-existent), because God so transcends human understanding as to be practically non-existent. In addition to the Sefer Yetzirah and

8346-400: The fragment ends abruptly, mid-sentence, without any conclusion. Though Isaac is willing to quote it in his Otzar haChayyim and his Meirat Einayim , he does so rarely. Isaac's testimony was censored from the second edition (1580) and remained absent from all editions thereafter until its restoration nearly 300 years later in the 1857 edition. In 1243 a different Jew had reportedly found

8453-463: The gods of Jews, Christians and pagans. Nevertheless, this dualistic teaching included an elaborate cosmological myth that narrates the defeat of primal man by the powers of darkness that devoured and imprisoned the particles of light. Valentinian Gnosticism taught that matter came about through emanations of the supreme being, even if to some this event is held to be more accidental than intentional. To other gnostics, these emanations were akin to

8560-422: The idea of creation out of nothing ( creatio ex nihilo ). Nazarene Methodist theologian Thomas Jay Oord (* 1965) advocates panentheism, but he uses the word "theocosmocentrism" to highlight the notion that God and some world or another are the primary conceptual starting blocks for eminently fruitful theology. This form of panentheism helps in overcoming the problem of evil and in proposing that God's love for

8667-688: The idolatrous influence outpowers the true faith". Early attempts included M. H. Landauer 's Vorläufiger Bericht über meine Entdeckung in Ansehung des Sohar (1845), which fingered Abraham Abulafia as the author, and Samuel David Luzzatto 's ויכוח על חכמת הקבלה (1852), but the first systematic and critical academic proof for the authorship of Moses de León was given by Adolf Jellinek in his 1851 monograph "Moses ben Shem-tob de León und sein Verhältnis zum Sohar". Jellinek's proofs, which combined previous analyses with Isaac of Acre 's testimony and comparison of

8774-566: The impression of obscure knowledge. The original text of the Zohar , as cited by various early Kabbalists beginning around the 14th century (e.g. Isaac b. Samuel of Acre , David b. Judah the Pious, Israel Alnaqua , Alfonso de Zamora ) was partly in Hebrew and partly in Aramaic. By the time of the first edition (1558) the text was entirely in Aramaic, with the exception of the Midrash haNe'elam , where Hebrew words and phrases are often employed as in

8881-457: The infinite Ein Sof is incorporeal and exists in a state that is both transcendent and immanent . This appears to be the view of non-Hasidic Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin , as well. Hasidic Judaism merges the elite ideal of nullification to a transcendent God, via the intellectual articulation of inner dimensions through Kabbalah and with emphasis on the panentheistic divine immanence in everything. Many scholars would argue that "panentheism"

8988-543: The liturgical practice of Frankfurt am Main , records that "We do not say brikh shmei in Frankfurt, because its source is in the Zohar , and the sages of Frankfurt refused to accept Qabbalah." In 1892, Adolf Neubauer called on the Orthodox rabbinate to reject the Zohar as a forgery and to remove Zoharic prayers from the liturgy. However, Yechiel Michel Epstein (d. 1908) and Yisrael Meir Kagan (d. 1933) both believed in

9095-512: The lower half, known as the “Great Abyss”, remained dominated by the unformed thoughtless light, which retaliate by creating the world of the qlippoth to destroy the thoughtful light’s creation. Sabbateans believed that the Messiah , Sabbatai Zevi , was a trapped or demonic soul whose escape from the Abyss would result in the purification of the qlippoth and the Abyss itself being penetrated and formed by

9202-451: The main theological theorist of the Misnagdim , opposed Hasidic panentheism and re-emphasised Talmudic study. The Sabbatean movement believed in a heterodox doctrine of Lurianic Kabbalah as taught by Nathan of Gaza , in which the Ein Sof itself was the origin of evil and the world of the qlippoth . According to this belief, the tzimtzum and subsequent re-radiation only took place for

9309-407: The nature of Purusha or the cosmic being as both immanent in the manifested world and yet transcendent to it. From this being the sukta holds, the original creative will proceeds, by which this vast universe is projected in space and time. The most influential and dominant school of Indian philosophy , Advaita Vedanta , rejects theism and dualism by insisting that " Brahman [ultimate reality]

9416-405: The only reflection of Atzmus is the sincerity of the soul in performing the Jewish observances and prayer. Consequently, Hasidism gave new emphasis to the common folk, and to prayer and action over traditionally pre-eminent Torah study , as Atzmus is most reflected in the lowest levels, the purpose of creation in making a "dwelling place" for God in the lowest realms. In response, Chaim Volozhin ,

9523-460: The paradoxical acosmic monism of Hasidic panentheism , and relates to the essence of the Torah and the soul. In Hasidic thought, Kabbalah corresponds to the World of Atzilus , the sephirah of Chokmah and the transcendent soul level of Chayah; Hasidic philosophy corresponds to the World of Adam Kadmon , the sephirah of Keter and the soul essence of Yechidah. The Baal Shem Tov taught that

9630-540: The post- Talmudic period while purporting to be from an earlier date. Abraham Zacuto 's 1504 work Sefer Yuhasin (first printed 1566) quotes from the Kabbalist Isaac ben Samuel of Acre 's 13th century memoir Divre hayYamim (lost), which claims that the widow and daughter of de León revealed that he had written it himself and only ascribed the authorship to Simeon ben Yochai for personal profit: And [Isaac] went to Spain, to investigate how it happened in his time that

9737-468: The remaining adherents of the Sabbatean movement (in which Sabbatai Zevi , a Jewish apostate , cited Messianic prophecies from the Zohar as proof of his legitimacy). Emden argued that the book on which Zevi based his doctrines was a forgery, arguing that the Zohar : Saul Berlin (d. 1794) argued that the presence of an introduction in the Zohar , unknown to the Talmudic literary genre, itself indicates

9844-688: The same time, Scholem says, the author "invent[ed] a number of fictitious works that the Zohar supposedly quotes, e.g. , the Sifra de-Adam, the Sifra de-Hanokh, the Sifra di-Shelomo Malka, the Sifra de-Rav Hamnuna Sava, the Sifra de-Rav Yeiva Sava, the Sifra de-Aggadeta, the Raza de-Razin and many others." The Zohar also draws from the Bible commentaries written by medieval rabbis, including Rashi , Abraham ibn Ezra , David Kimhi and even authorities as late as Nachmanides and Maimonides , and earlier mystical texts such as

9951-490: The sense that it identifies the universe with God. On the other hand, the Buddhist God is absolute and transcendent; this world, being merely its manifestation, is necessarily fragmental and imperfect. To define more exactly the Buddhist notion of the highest being, it may be convenient to borrow the term very happily coined by a modern German scholar, "panentheism," according to which God is πᾶν καὶ ἕν (all and one) and more than

10058-535: The spirit of Talmudic Judaism than are those taught by the philosophers , and which was held in contrast to the view of Maimonides and his followers, who regarded man as a fragment of the universe whose immortality is dependent upon the degree of development of his active intellect. The Zohar instead declared Man to be the lord of creation , whose immortality is solely dependent upon his morality. Conversely, Elia del Medigo ( c.  1458  – c.  1493 ), in his Beḥinat ha-Dat , endeavored to show that

10165-446: The term bipolar as a generic term to include suggestions of the structural definition of God’s transcendence and immanence; to for instance accommodate a present and future reality into which deity must reasonably fit and function, and yet maintain separation from this world and evil whilst remaining within it. Some argue that panentheism should also include the notion that God has always been related to some world or another, which denies

10272-477: The totality of existence. The essay then goes on to explain first utilizing the term "God" for the American audience to get an initial understanding of what he means by "panentheism," and then discusses the terms that Buddhism uses in place of "God" such as Dharmakaya , Buddha or Adi-Buddha , and Tathagata . Panentheism is also a feature of some Christian philosophical theologies and resonates strongly within

10379-416: The universe and also extends beyond space and time . The term was coined by the German philosopher Karl Krause in 1828 (after reviewing Hindu scripture ) to distinguish the ideas of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854) about the relation of God and the universe from the supposed pantheism of Baruch Spinoza . Unlike pantheism, which holds that

10486-454: The universe is nothing more than the manifestation of God. In addition, some forms indicate that the universe is contained within God, like in the Kabbalah concept of tzimtzum . Much of Hindu thought is highly characterized by panentheism and pantheism. The religious beliefs of Neoplatonism can be regarded as panentheistic. Plotinus taught that there was an ineffable transcendent God ("

10593-495: The various doctrines. At the core of interreligious dialogue flows this shared spirituality of gratefulness, a spirituality strong enough to restore to our broken world unity. This sentiment is mirrored in Thomas Keating's 1993 article, Clarifications Regarding Centering Prayer : Pantheism is usually defined as the identification of God with creation in such a way that the two are indistinguishable. Panentheism means that God

10700-447: The world is essential to who God is. The Latter Day Saint movement teaches that the Light of Christ "proceeds from God through Christ and gives life and light to all things". Manichaeists , being of another gnostic sect, preached a very different doctrine in positioning the true Manichaean God against matter as well as other deities, that it described as enmeshed with the world, namely

10807-597: The writings of the great mystics rightly, they experience God living within them all the time. Thus the affirmation of God's transcendence must always be balanced by the affirmation of his imminence both on the natural plane and on the plane of grace. Panentheistic conceptions of God occur amongst some modern theologians. Process theology and Creation Spirituality , two recent developments in Christian theology , contain panentheistic ideas. Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000), who conjoined process theology with panentheism, maintained

10914-577: Was attested by his infinitely many attributes, and that two attributes known by humans, namely Thought and Extension, signified God's immanence . Furthermore, Martial Guéroult suggested the term panentheism , rather than pantheism to describe Spinoza's view of the relation between God and the world. The world is not God, but it is, in a strong sense, "in" God. Yet, American philosopher and self-described panentheist Charles Hartshorne referred to Spinoza's philosophy as " classical pantheism " and distinguished Spinoza's philosophy from panentheism. In 1828,

11021-463: Was because ben Yochai did not commit his teachings to writing but transmitted them orally to his disciples over generations until finally the doctrines were embodied in the Zohar . They found it unsurprising that ben Yochai should have foretold future happenings or made references to historical events of the post-Talmudic period. By the late 16th century, the Zohar was present in one-tenth of all private Jewish libraries in Mantua. The authenticity of

11128-456: Was considered by Aztec philosophers to be the ultimate all-encompassing yet all-transcending force defined by its inherit duality. Native American beliefs in North America have been characterized as panentheistic in that there is an emphasis on a single, unified divine spirit that is manifest in each individual entity. (North American Native writers have also translated the word for God as

11235-442: Was first publicized by Moses de León (c. 1240 – 1305 CE), who claimed it was a Tannaitic work recording the teachings of Simeon ben Yochai ( c.  100 CE ). This claim is universally rejected by modern scholars, most of whom believe de León, also an infamous forger of Geonic material, wrote the book himself between 1280 and 1286. Some scholars argue that the Zohar is the work of multiple medieval authors and/or contains

11342-463: Was the first Zen Buddhist Abbot to tour the United States in 1905–6. He wrote a series of essays collected into the book Zen For Americans . In the essay titled "The God Conception of Buddhism" he attempts to explain how a Buddhist looks at the ultimate without an anthropomorphic God figure while still being able to relate to the term God in a Buddhist sense: At the outset, let me state that Buddhism

11449-454: Was the most likely author. Scholem noted the Zohar's frequent errors in Aramaic grammar, its suspicious traces of Arabic and Spanish words and sentence patterns, and its lack of knowledge of the Land of Israel , among other proofs. Scholem's views are widely held as accurate among historians of Kabbalah, but they are not uncritically accepted. Scholars who continue to research the background of

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