Israel and Humanity - The theory of emanation and Judaism

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THE ONE GOD

IV.

The theory of emanation and Judaism.

The theory of emanation is particularly interesting because it contains a dual belief that says eminently suited to the Aryan genius: polymorphism or pluralistic element in the Godhead and immanence. See if Judaism does not contain anything similar and if the Pentateuch itself does not provide us a solid foundation for building such a system. Or so we said theosophy which, despite denials that he was opposed by all sides, has the merit of teaching, before any other school, the theory of emanation is not foreign to the Bible.

The first trace we find is the very word is used in Genesis to describe the act by which God created the world, the tense Bara . Although some writers have wanted to see wrong in this term the proof of creation ex nihilo other, and predominantly Ibn Ezra, have not gone unnoticed that this is precisely the sense diametrically opposite, cutting, separating, extracting something preexisting . Furthermore, why the angelic creatures and souls of men they are not among the creations Partial Genesis mentions, if not because one and the others are assumed to belong to the divine world? The angels, in many passages of the Bible, are identified with the Godhead and that there is no other explanation possible that the presence of a doctrine emanationist with the gradual descent and hierarchical beings. Each time we described the action to call into existence, it is under the spiritual image of a broadcast from the Creator. Thus it is the human soul: "The Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth, he breathed on his face the breath of life, and man became a living being" . Similarly, to a lesser degree, all animals and plants also live only by the breath that God communicates to them and die when it withdraws, "You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust thou send your Spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the earth "Psalm . The heavens and all that moves in only subsist by its powerful blast

As for immanence, doctrine less metaphysical than the last, we can expect to find it even more clearly expressed in the Bible. The angels of God's agents in creation is through them that he is in communication with the universe. Let no one say they are intended to fill a gap between the Creator and his works visible and known to act as instruments of subordinates who remained the first cause itself remains inaccessible. They appear instead as an extension of the Deity in nature, as its actual presence, the Talmud even says its members, its own organs.

What's more remarkable that this name Life worlds VOWELS IN HEBREW חי העולמים Reading is the most common indeed, חי with Patah, , which gives meaning a little different. But according to several authorities, must be read VOWELS IN HEBREW חי העולמים with Tester, which means just life worlds. V. commentary Tosefet J. T. on the Treaty Tamid VII, 4; Arugat Abbosem XXII on Orach Chaim Ateret Zekènim LIV. But the idea of the author evidently the result of Daniel XII, 7, Nehemiah, IX, 6. (Editors note ) </ref> given to God by Hebraism which, in fact, continues to attribute all natural phenomena? God is nowhere regarded as an isolated being who, having accomplished the work of creation, never to leave the laws he has established the task of governing the universe. These laws are represented as an expression of constant relations between cause and effect, they constitute the divine here, the Shekina God residing in his work. We are far from this abstract unity without communion with the whole of creation we are told to be monotheism Semitic.

Those who take the trouble to study carefully how the Bible conceives of God's dealings with the world will be struck by how full and primitive orthodoxy is ultimately agree with the most advanced science. The human mind in this question has run through three phases. At first, he imagined a god or gods doing all things in the manner of men and, for him, everything was so miraculous in nature. Then he created the world and God separated the ruler by general laws to which the miracles are sometimes make exceptions, by a sort of anthropomorphic last intervention by the Creator. Finally God and the universe itself appear united by ties of emanation and the miracle of nature, the general law and its exception identified in a higher law. Hebraism, ahead of the progress of human thought, has not taught something else. For him a miracle, an echo of the prelude to the genesis and palingenetic marks the passing of an order of things to another, it is the hyphen that eliminates any break in continuous creation. The conclusions reached by the modern scientific movement in its effort to unite the party in all, the Pan Monad, are consistent with data from the oldest religion. It can rightly aspire to become universal, because his doctrine is precisely remove the alleged philosophical impossibility of bringing the Greek and Hindu beliefs of biblical monotheism.

We now understand what a disservice to make their own case those who under the pretext of defending the pure doctrine Jewish reject as foreign import theosophical Kabbalah, which alone can ultimately restore harmony between Judaism and the Gentiles. Through it, in fact, that resemble the Aryan and Semitic monotheism that the Israelites give satisfaction to the Aryan tendencies. It is quite noteworthy in this pool to each other, which is common doctrine among the Gentiles, is esoteric for the Jews, while those for which it is exoteric, remains secret teaching in pagans. For the latter, the truth has been the target of mystery, as it is an object of faith for Christians object of science in Israel. It will suffice to illustrate this with an example, to quote the cherubim of the tabernacle

We recalled, speaking of the spirituality of God among the Hebrews, the horror of them for pictures. And yet here we find two figures placed in the most noble of the sanctuary remain the cherubim, indeed, carefully hidden by the veil, but they do not cover under their wings over the mercy seat. What does this strange anomaly? For us, these are two material symbols of Jewish theosophy they probably represent one of the most haunted truths, but at the same time they seem to belong, both as an idea and a sensible image, the popular religion of the Gentiles. Therefore, such figures were prohibited elsewhere in Israel and these two, one exception, were to remain under-treated in all eyes.

In the religious development occurred over the ages, then we assign to the Semites, or rather to the Israelites, the pure monotheistic doctrine of free philosophical speculation expensive to Aryans, and the latter, the symbolism and the mythological element . For the former, apart from the Theosophical Kabbalah, a divine personality, indivisible, is still far above the material creation, the latter instead feel the need to humanize the gods, to embody the divine to the last degrees of the scale of beings. Theosophy enables us to see how these two trends translated it by the plural name of the Deity (Elohim), the former by the incommunicable name of our God, are united in the synthesis of religious Judaism.