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is, the healing of Creation, called Tikkun (fixing) Olam (the world) in Kabbalah, is the Work, the Purpose of our existence. This will happen when the will to receive is linked to the will to give. And I haven't even mentioned Tzimtzum, the withdrawal of G-d's Self that made all of this possible

I wrote all of those words, which I have learned in my studies. As I said, it could take me the rest of my life to figure them out in any way approaching understanding. Unless I go deeper into the Orchard. Before I enter the Orchard, though, let me provide another concept about Kabbalah, related directly to the Emanation(s) of Or. That is, the Sefirot.

The Ten Sefirot make up the Tree of Life, also the Divine Body. It is this "image of G-d" in which we are made, not the literal physical body we express here. These are the Ten Sefirot and some rough representations of what they emanate as the Or passes through:
Keter - Crown Ayin / Will / Nothingness
Chokmah Wisdom / Beginning
Binah Understanding / Palace / Womb
Chesed Love / Grace
Gevurah Din - Judgment/ Rigor
Tif'eret Rahamim Compassion / Sun / Harmony
Netsach Eternity / Prophecy
Hod Splendor / Prophecy
Yesod - Foundation / Covenant / Phallus
Malkuth / Shekhinah - Lower Crown Kingdom / Physical Presence of the Divine / Moon / Apple Orchard
- (adapted from Matt, The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism)

The Or emanates from Ein Sof at Keter through the Ten Sefirot, arriving into our World (Creation) through the final Sefirot, Malkuth (also knows as Shekhinah). Final isn't right, though, as the last Sefirot becomes the first as the Or emanates from Creation back to Ein Sof. The Sefirot are not linear nor are they exactly hierarchical, but they are ordered. They are often drawn as a branching Tree of Life, or a series of interconnected circles. They can be represented as concentric circles, with the layers going in or out in the usual "order" of the Sefirot. Each specific Sefira has intricate interconnections with each other Sefira. These relationships, along with the flow of emanated Or, are Creation and Create what is.

The final concept that is, I think, at the heart of Kabbalah is the Orchard. The Hebrew word for Orchard is Pardes. The consonants form an acronym for a method of reading, or understanding, Creation (Torah, Kabbalah, the World, our lives). PaRDeS:
P'shat surface reading, the literal sense of words, senses, experience, thoughts. This is the first level of understanding a text, but also, certainly, of any life experience.
Remez hints, allusions, resonances. How does what we read (experience) connect with our lives, our experiences, our intuitions, our other knowledge. What are its resonances.
Drosh what has been said by others. How have others described, explained, expanded upon this text, its themes, this experience, its realities?
Sod secret. This is the revealed sense of direct experience of Creation, G-d. By making one's way through all of the levels, that is, by walking through the layers of the Orchard (Pardes), one arrives at the Secret, the Tree of Life, the Revelation. It is the holisitic totality of experience, reading, living, taken together. It is a glimpse of Or, the Beloved, Love.
Through Pardes, entering the Orchard carefully and with a clear heart and open mind, one comes to understand something. What? It is Ein Sof.

Beware, though. There is the cautionary tale of the rabbis who entered the Orchard. One died. One went crazy. One turned from G-d. Only one of the four came out with Understanding. The journey is not for everyone.

Learn more about this author, Michael Deqel.
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