On the Nature and Origin of the Doctrine of Emanation among the Kabbalists

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the radiance original: "Eradiation" the universe of things or the sum of all beings in infinite kinds and levels, which altogether are joined most precisely in and to one another to form his holy body, Sacred Body, System of All original: "Corpus sanctum, Systema omnium".

Namely, his divine power expanded into all degrees of light, into all stages of spirits, and into all kinds of life.

The entire system of the Kabbalists rests upon these three concepts, and all their individual ideas dissolve into them. Specifically, they view the emanations of the Firstborn of the Divinity:

I. As so many degrees of light—from the purest and highest to the shimmer of the weakest; as a rainbow that surrounds the throne of the King of Light and represents all colors or kinds of visibility ⁸).

The radiance of his glory has four stages or worlds from top to bottom, and within its scope seven light sources or Sephiroth Sephiroth: The ten attributes or emanations in Kabbalah through which the Infinite (Ein Sof) reveals itself and continuously creates both the physical realm and the chain of higher metaphysical realms, serving as vessels of all life forces. These, together with the three highest—which he himself wears as a crown—constitute the universe of things or the Perfection of All original: "Perfectio omnium".

The four worlds, considered as so many levels of light, are his inner and outer garment, from which

8. III, 14, 530.