Ohr (, plural: ''ʾoroṯ'') is a central

Kabbalistic Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal (). Jewi ...

term in

Jewish mysticism Academic study of Jewish mysticism, especially since Gershom Scholem's ''Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'' (1941), draws distinctions between different forms of mysticism which were practiced in different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbal ...

. The analogy to physical light describes divine emanations. Shefa "flow" ( ''šep̄aʿ'') and its derivative, hashpaʾa "influence" ( ''hašpāʿā''), are sometimes alternatively used in

Kabbalah Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of Mysticism, mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ...

and medieval

Jewish philosophy Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until the modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconc ...

to mean divine influence, while the Kabbalists favour ''ʾor'' because its

numerical value A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

equals , a homonym for ''rāz'' "mystery". ''ʾOr'' is one of the two main Kabbalistic metaphors for understanding

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

, along with the other metaphor of the human soul-body relationship for the

sefirot Sefirot (; , plural of ), meaning '' emanations'', are the 10 attributes/emanations in Kabbalah, through which Ein Sof ("infinite space") reveals itself and continuously creates both the physical realm and the seder hishtalshelut (the chained ...

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File:Tree of Life, Medieval.jpg, Latin translation of ''Shaare Orah'' שערי אורה "The Gates of Light", one of the most influential presentations of the Kabbalistic system, by

Joseph Gikatilla Joseph ben Abraham Chiquitilla (1248 – after 1305) (, , "the very little one") was a Spanish kabbalist, student of Abraham Abulafia. Biography Born at Medinaceli, Old Castile (one of the former qualifying regions into which Spain was sub ...

in the 13th centuryCaption to this illustration on p.2 of ''Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction'',

Joseph Dan Joseph Dan (, 1935 – 23 July 2022) was an Israeli scholar of Jewish mysticism. He taught for over 40 years in the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was the first incumbent of the Gershom Scholem Chair in ...

, Oxford University Press File:Ancient shul in meron.jpg, Galilean Meron. "Nature" ''HaTeva'' is the

of ''

Elohim ''Elohim'' ( ) is a Hebrew word meaning "gods" or "godhood". Although the word is plural in form, in the Hebrew Bible it most often takes singular verbal or pronominal agreement and refers to a single deity, particularly but not always the Go ...

'', the

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

immanent The doctrine or theory of immanence holds that the divine encompasses or is manifested in the material world. It is held by some philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence. Immanence is usually applied in monotheistic, pantheist ...

light. The

Tetragrammaton The TetragrammatonPronounced ; ; also known as the Tetragram. is the four-letter Hebrew-language theonym (transliteration, transliterated as YHWH or YHVH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four Hebrew letters, written and read from ...

transcendence creates through it. Kabbalistically, in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

the concealment is less severe

Notes

{{reflist Jewish theology Kabbalah Sefirot Hebrew words and phrases Kabbalistic words and phrases Light and religion

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See also

Notes