W artykule ukazano kabalistyczne (tj. z obrębu średniowiecznego i późniejszego mistycyzmu żydowskiego) ujęcie idei poznania, mianowicie poznania określanego i warunkowanego przez seksualną unię mężczyzny i kobiety. Ponieważ kabała bazuje na tekstach Tanachu, przeto elementem kluczowym jest tu werset z Księgi Rodzaju (4,1). Pojawiające się w nim słowo jād‛a (ידע) (‘obcował’/’poznał’) [Adam z Ewą/Ewę] zestawiane jest kolejno, na podstawie jego leksyki, z kategorią da‘at (דעת) – ‘wiedzą’, ‘poznaniem’ oraz nazwą kabalistycznej sefiry. W związku z rolą odgrywaną w mistycznej teologii judaizmu przez tę ostatnią, ukazane zostały zależności seksualne zachodzące w dominium sefirotycznym, które stanowią de facto wzorzec dla relacji ludzkich. Ideałem owych relacji na planie ziemskim jest osiągnięcie między mężczyzną i kobietą pełnego (skutkiem wydarzającego się seksualnego ziwwuga kadisza, zespolenia przeciwnych, ale komplementarnych, pierwiastków) poznania drugiej osoby, a także pewnego typu duchowe poznanie Boga, który w kabale jest coincidentia oppositorum oraz sefirotyczną strukturą.
EN
The article presents kabbalistic (i.e. from the medieval and later Jewish Mysticism) perspective on the idea of knowing, namely knowing that is defined and determined by the sexual union of man and woman. Since Kabbalah, when doing its interpretations, is based on the texts of Tanah, the starting point is made here the vers from the biblical Book of Genesis (4,1). The word jād‛a (ידע) (‘made love’/‘knew’) [Adam with Eve/Eve] from here is then lexically compared to the category of da‘at (דעת), „wisdom’, ‘knowing’, and the name of the kabbalistic sephira. Due to the role of this sephira in the doctrine of mystical judaism, the text presents the sexual connections that happen in the sephirotic dominium which form the pattern for the human relations. The ideal of these relations is on the material plane the attainment by man and woman (as an effect of the sexual zivvuga kadisha, an union between contradictory but complementary elements) the complete knowing (wisdom) of the partner, but also of God. This kind of spiritual knowing of God is determined by the fact that God is in Kabbalah the coincidentia oppositorum and the sephirotic structure.
DE
Im Beitrag wird die aus der Kabbala, d.h. aus der mittelalterlichen und späteren jüdischen Mystik, bekannte Idee des Erkennens ausdiskutiert, die sich auf das Erkennen durch die sexuelle Einheit von Mann und Frau stützt. Da die mystischen Interpretationsansätze der Kabbala auf den Tanach-Texten basieren, rückt in den Mittelpunkt der Betrachtungen der Schlüsselvers 4,1 aus dem Buch Genesis, in dem das Wort jād‛a (ידע) [’verkehrte’/’erkannte’ – Adam mit Eva] aufgrund seiner Lexik mit der Kategorie da‘at (דעת) [’dem Wissen’, ’dem Erkennen’] und mit der kabbalistischen Bezeichnung Sefira kombiniert und zusammengestellt wird. Weil im mystischen Judaismus die Da‘at-Sefira eine relevante Rolle gespielt hatte, wurden auch sexuelle Verhältnisse bzw. Wechselbeziehungen aufgezeigt, die sich im Sefirot-Dominium zutragen und die im Endeffekt das Musterbeispiel einer zwischengeschlechtlichen Beziehung (Mann-Frau) bilden. Auf Erden sollte zwischen Mann und Frau ein vollkommenes Erkennen ‚stattfinden’, das sich aus dem sexuellen zivvuga kadisha, aus der Verknüpfung von widersprüchlichen, aber in sich komplementären Teilchen resp. Elementen ergibt, und das zum Ziel sowohl das Erkennen der anderen Person als auch das Erkennen des Gottes, der in der Kabbala ein coincidentia oppositorum ist und sich durch eine Sefirot-Struktur definiert, hat.
The present article deals with the fundamental concept in Kabbalah, i.e. the classical Jewish mysticism (Jewish esoterism) from the 11th century onwards, namely the Ein Sof category. Ein Sof - the term that indicates the status of Deus absconditus, Deus otiosus, the totally transcendent God - exemplifies the apophatic, ultra-negative way of thinking and talking about God. Ein Sof, literally “without end”, “endlessness”, refers to God in “his” unknowable, unthinkable, inaccessible, and non-revealing peculiarity. And yet, Jewish mystics did try not to leave this concept completely without any specifications. As a matter of fact, kabba- lists, to talk about the manifested Ein Sof, use the conception of sephiroth that in developed kabbalistic exegesis means divine attributes, potencies, and emanations, through which - cause they are the immanent part of Ein Sof’s nature - God can be comprehended and even described. Jewish mystics treated the sephiroth as the divine “instruments”, “vessels” (kelim), and the question of great significance was how far the kelim were consubstantial, isomorfic with Ein Sof. The majority of kabbalists came to a conclusion that the sephirothic kelim are in fact identical with Ein Sof in their essence, with the assertion that in sephiroth Ein Sof, i.e. Deus absonditus, becomes Deus revelatus. Hence, sephiroth are simultaneously the substance of Ein Sof and the divine “instruments”, and it is only owing to them that God Ein Sof can be anyhow held forth on.
The article deals with the Jewish concept of devekut („clinging on”), a type of communio mystica, realized in two kabbalistic - i.e. specific for mystical, esoteric trend in Judaism, originated in the 12th century - methods. These methods are the meditation and contemplation (moreover also: visualization, recitation and vocalization) of the divine biblical name YHWH - Tetragrammaton, and the explication of it, the so called science of the combination of letters, hochmah ha-tzeruf, immanently associated with the sacred text (precisely: the combinations and permutations made on it, namely on divine name/names), which most known representative was Abraham Abulafia. What distinguishes present text from other scientific publications about both Abulafia’s mystical technique and the concentration on Tetragrammaton, is the emphasis placed on the ideal of devekut, which can be implemented in these mystic behaviours, as well as treating the presented mystical methods as the way, simultaneously - the system, of personal spiritual growth, spiritual development and self-cultivation.
The article presents the history of the Sepher Yetzirah (Book Yetzirah, Yetzirah Book) – the earliest written work of Jewish mysticism or esoterism. Sepher Yetzirah arose in the first centuries A.D., so the prevalent opinion that it exemplifies the kabbalistic writing is false (viz. Kabbalah is the branch of Jewish mysticism/esoterism which came into being around XII century). The article deals with the hypotheses about the time the treatise was written, the problem of the authorship of the book, it analyses the title and presents the main ideas of this influential work – Sefer Yetzirah played namely an enormous role in the whole Jewish mystical, esoteric system of thought. Apart from Sefer ha-Zohar and Sefer ha-Bahir, the Book Yetzirah was the fundamental book which was explored and widely commented by a great number of kabbalists. For this reason the article briefly characterizes also the Jewish commentators of the book, as well as takes up the question of the variety of versions and editions of Sepher Yetzirah, and, besides, contains the information about the translations of the book (written in various languages). Furthermore, the present text describes the structure of the work and gives the characteristic of each yetziratic chapter, placing emphasis on the role playing in the Yetzirah Book by the concept of ten sephiroth and twenty two letters of Hebrew alphabet. The article is also noted into bibliographical guidelines on the presented topic.
This article presents the essential thesis from the Kabbalah theosophy i.e. from the theosophic philosophy of the mystical Judaism, which is the monisitc view of pantheism, viz. the monistic view of the godhead, in the context of determining by it the parallel for the pantheistic, monistic philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. The elements of the philosophical systems in question, on the basis of which their analogies are shown, are the categories of substance, attributes and modes (spinozism), and Ein Sof and sephirot (Kabbalah). The deity of Spinoza, i.e. the nature (for deus sive natura), is the substance (with the quality of singularity, unity, and oneness), the infinite number of attributes andthe manifested modifications (of the substance), and it is suggested in the present optics that the fundamental kabbalistc ideas as God Ein Sof and divine sephirot constitute the equivalents for them. Such correspondences are presumed due to the fact that Ein Sof is “characterized” (as far as it can be described, because Ein Sof is a product of the negative, apophatic theology/philosophy) by the descriptions specific for the Spinozian substance and its transcendental attributes, whereas the sephirot are the hypostases for the qualities that are ascribed to the comprehensible potencies from Spinoza’s pantheism: namely the two manifested attributes – res extensa and res cogitans – and the modi. What is more, the kabbalistic godhead is synonymous with the nature – as it is done in Spinoza’s system. Since the substance and the attributes with modifications, resp. Ein Sof and its sephirot, are ontologically one (they are characterized by the ontic identity), and, moreover, these categories – as a whole – set the entirety of the natural (= divine) entity, it is a well-grounded tendency to define the two analysed systems as the pantheistic monism, or monistic pantheism, which terms the present article uses.
The article presents the ethical orientation being against abortion. The text shows arguments that support the thesis of the reasonableness for not performing abortion and does it on the basis of the so-called Reverence for Life conception of morality, of which the main representative (at the same time the author) is Swiss philosopher and theologian Albert Schweitzer. The ethical philosophy in question proclaims that every Will to Live – i.e. life in its every manifestation – has the right to live. Because foetus, according to this orientation, will obtain the onthic status (since it is a manifestation of Life and in fact constitutes a kind ofWill to Live), the act of abortion will be disapproved. This viewpoint is in opposition to Mary Anne Warren’s one, who in her article Abortion is pro (performing) abortion – although she, in some way paradoxically, is reffering to Schweitzer’s moral system too. The present article argues with Warren’s point of view on abortion, advancing arguments for the contrary standpoint. Nevertheless, the present text does not opine that foetus has a status of human being – it claims for the right to life for embro due to its onthological worth and the fact that it hypostasises Schweitzer’s category of Will to Live.
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