The Sefirot (Part 1)

In our last post we forwarded the kabbalistic Sefirot as an overarching construct for a Jewish parallel to the Chronicles of Narnia. Let us now expand on this idea and try to outline what themes and accompanying motifs would be manifested in each volume of such a series. In this post we’ll start with the first two, Kindness and Strength. 

The first of the lower Sefirot, which encompass our perception of how God interacts with man, is kindness. In fact, it is God’s unbounding kindness that motivated Him to create the world and humanity. No doubt, then, our first book would be permeated with kindness with characters perhaps reflecting on biblical figures who exemplified this trait such as Abraham and Rebecca. The sefirah of kindness also has a color, white, and is symbolized by water (Rebecca’s kindness is demonstrated by her giving water to Abraham's servant, Eliezer, and his donkeys). We can thus paint a setting for at least part of our story. 

Kindness, left alone, can become overwhelming and smothering. God’s kindness is infinite and creation based on kindness alone would leave no room for the initiative, creativity, and independence of finite humans. Similarly, a child treated with only kindness will not become an individual and will instead be spoiled. Thus, the second Sefirah, that of strength or judgment. God, as it were, held Himself back to create ‘space’ in His infinity for the finite world. God’s willingness to ‘limit’ Himself as it were, provides humans space to develop and grow, and also to degrade and fail. Paraphrasing C.S. Lewis (Screwtape Letters) “He cannot ravish but can only woo,” for He wants humans to become sons. Biblically, the paradigm of strength is Isaac who, without protest, allows his father to bind him in sacrifice to God. 

With this in mind, the characters in our second book manifest strength and the unswerving belief in their ideals. They resist the sirens of sin and desire as stated by our Sages, “Who is strong? One who conquers his evil nature.” Judgement is symbolized by fire and is represented by the color red. Thus, the evil cities of Sodom and Gemorrah are punished with fire while on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, the thread attached to the entranceway of the Temple goes from red (judgement) to white (kindness) to demonstrate that God has granted forgiveness. 

Wishing everyone to be inscribed in the Book of Life on the upcoming Day of Judgement.