Ohr

Ohr (Hebrew: אור, romanizedʾor, lit.'Light', plural: אורות ʾoroṯ) is a central Kabbalistic term in Jewish mysticism. The analogy of physical light is used as a way of describing metaphysical divine emanations. Shefa "flow" (שפע) and its derivative, hashpoah "influence" השפעה), are sometimes alternatively used in Kabbalah, a term also used in Medieval Jewish philosophy to mean divine influence, while the Kabbalists favour Ohr because its numerical value equals ר״ז, a homonym for רז rāz "mystery".[1] It is one of the two main metaphors in Kabbalah for understanding God, along with the other metaphor of the human soul-body relationship for the sefirot.[2]

  1. ^ Schochet, Jacob Immanuel (1988). Mystical Concepts in Chassidism: An Introduction to Kabbalistic Concepts and Doctrines, 3d Revised Edition. Kehot Publication Society. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-8266-0412-5. The mystics have a special affinity for the term Or because its numerical value (gematriya) is equivalent to that of raz (mystery): "'Let there be light' (Gen. 1:3)-i.e., let there be Raz (Mystery; Concealment); for Raz and Or are one thing"; Zohar I:140a and Zohar Chadash, Bereishit:8d; see Tikunei Zohur 21:53b, and cf. R. Moses Cordovero, Or Ne'erau (Fuerth,1701),111:ch.4.
  2. ^ Mystical Concepts in Chassidism, Kehot pub., chapter 1 "Anthropomorphism and Metaphors": (i Anthropomorphism, ii The Man-Metaphor, iii The Light-Metaphor)

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