page_title: Anthropomorphism in Kabbalah
section_title: The consciousness of Atzilut
hierarchical_section_title: Anthropomorphism in Kabbalah / Concepts / The consciousness of Atzilut
caption_attribution_description: English: Jewish-wedding Chuppah cropped image
context_page_description: Theosophical Kabbalah, the central system in Jewish mysticism, uses subtle anthropomorphic mythic symbols to metaphorically describe manifestations of God in Judaism. Based on the verses "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" and "from my flesh shall I see God", Kabbalah uses the form of the human body to describe the structure of the human soul, and the nature of supernal Divine emanations. A particular concern of Kabbalah is sexual unity between male and female potencies in Divinity on high, depicted as interaction of the two sides in the sephirot, between archetypal partzufim, and the redemption of the exiled Shekhinah from captivity among the impure forces below.
  Kabbalists repeatedly warn and stress the need to divest their subtle notions from any corporeality, dualism, plurality, or spatial and temporal connotations. All divine emanations are only from the spiritual perception of creation, nullifying from the Divine view into the Ohr Ein Sof. As "the Torah speaks in the language of Man", the empirical terms are necessarily imposed upon man's experience in this world.
caption: Kabbalists related sephirot, partzufim and shekhinah to male-female Divine principles, represented in union of Jewish marriage below. In Medieval Kabbalah man unites male-female divinity on high. In Lurianism man redeems exiled sparks of the shekhinah below
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