Preface

אדר א תשנ"ז

Preface1

Preface

In our modern day and age, new ideas on health and healing are being sparked—both with regard to applied techniques and to the theoretical basis of healing itself—not only by scientists and medical professionals, but also by educated and perceptive laymen.

The conventional methodology of diagnosis and treatment has traditionally focused on determining the immediate cause of an illness by empirical observation of its symptoms. However, interest in the psychological and spiritual origins of disease has begun to have a great impact on the way physicians practice modern medicine. Current physical diagnosis and treatment have begun to take into account the spiritual anatomy of the inner person. In addition, the growth and success of alternative medical therapy, as well as consumer education and sophistication in the Information Age, have challenged the very bases of health and healing.

Separation of the body and its physical systems from the inner person was once a medical axiom. However, this presumption has begun to change. Recent scientific research notes fundamental relationships between the mind and the body, connections that were known and described hundreds of years ago by scholars of the Torah and Kabbalah. In fact, a survey of modern research on “mind-body connections” suggests that these are attempts to describe, categorize, and understand the soul.

It seems most appropriate, therefore, to introduce the public to the long-standing tradition of healing and medical practice within Judaism in general, and Kabbalah in particular. This work has been written for the person who wishes to develop an understanding of this tradition and its wisdom regarding the nature of the body and its soul-roots.

In Kabbalah’s perception of spiritual physiology, the health and maintenance of the body is dependent upon that of the soul, a spiritual entity not traditionally recognized or related to in medicine. Kabbalah teaches us how to heal the spiritual afflictions of the soul together with the physical afflictions of the body; how to better understand the one from the other and thereby to bridge the soul to the body.

✻ ✻ ✻

In order to better appreciate the insights Kabbalah can offer in our understanding of physiology and medicine, and how we will see these insights unfold in the present work, we shall briefly consider a few introductory points regarding the nature of Kabbalah and its methodology.

The word “Kabbalah” derives from the Hebrew root whose original meaning in the Bible is “to parallel.” Kabbalah analyzes all of reality in “parallel” to basic spiritual/Divine models or frames of reference.

Together with the principle of parallelism, one of the most basic teachings of Kabbalah is that every well-defined set of objects appears as a hologram, where each element of the set reflects all of the others. This phenomenon is referred to as “inter-inclusion.”

The parallel principle and the inter-inclusion principle are interdependent, for when the proper parallels (one-to-one correspondences) are made between two sets, the inherent wealth of significance possessed by each member of the two sets is brought into relief. The property of inter-inclusion is thus better revealed within each set.

In order to apply these two inter-related principles of parallelism and inter-inclusion in any given context, we must possess a number of Kabbalah’s most basic sets of concepts. These fundamental conceptual sets will serve as models or frames of reference, which, through applying the principles of parallelism and inter-inclusion, will help us structure our understanding of the concepts discussed.

The three most basic models of Kabbalah, defined in detail in the first part of this book and employed throughout its remainder, are the four letters of God’s essential Name, the ten sefirot, and the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. These will be seen to correspond to the properties of our souls and to the limbs and physiological systems of our bodies. During the course of our discussion, they will be helpful in our quest for understanding how to maintain good health and heal states of disease.

✻ ✻ ✻

The material presented here is divided into three parts:

Part I: Human Anatomy and Physiology through the Eyes of Kabbalah

Part II: Kabbalistic Understanding of Disease

Part III: Kabbalistic Understanding of Healing

As medical practice is generally seen as consisting of diagnosis and treatment, the first two parts of the book deal with diagnosis, while the third deals with treatment. When we speak of healing, we tend to think of an illness of the body that requires a remedy. However, as we have noted, in Kabbalah no physical illness is separate from a spiritual illness, and spiritual illness often (though not always) manifests itself as a physical ailment.

Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch,[1] once said that “a small hole in the body causes a large hole in the soul.”[2] Therefore, we can sometimes understand the “small hole” in our bodies by examining its result, the corresponding “large hole” in our souls.

Thus, we begin this book with a look at the mystical perception of human anatomy/physiology.

Part I—a reference guide to body and soul interaction—presents a mystical map of the body as follows:

Chapter 1, “Soul and Body,” provides an overview of some of the most basic vocabulary in Kabbalah—the Divine channels of energy and the corresponding powers of the soul. Afterwards, this chapter moves on to draw associations between these spiritual powers and the physical structure of the body.

Chapter 2, “Mystical Anatomy,” begins a systematic (though not exhaustive) mystical examination of various parts of the body—such as the eyes, the fingers, and the procreative organ (brit).

Chapter 3, “Mystical Physiology,” continues the mystical examination of the body, focusing on systems such as the respiratory system, the circulatory system, and the immune system.

Part II focuses on disease and the Kabbalistic understanding of its causes, as follows:

Chapter 4, “Origins of Disease,” examines the phenomenon of the primal fear of death and its relationship to illness, in its three symbolic manifestations, the fear of the wolf, the fear of the lion, and the fear of the snake.

Chapter 5, “Understanding Illness,” considers the transformational power of illness and looks at illness as a spiritual lack and as spiritual estrangement. It focuses in particular on the immune system, which is shown to be central in understanding disease and developing the ability to fight it.

Chapter 6, “Lupus: A Case Study,” examines an example of an autoimmune disease, applying the above models to an understanding of a particular illness.

Part III discusses healing as follows:

Chapter 7, “Methods of Healing,” looks at the power of the physician and considers various forms of contemporary medical practice—including homeopathy, allopathy, osteopathy, and naturopathy—and their mystical correspondences.

Chapter 8, “The Healing Power of Prayer,” explains how healing power can be drawn down through various spiritual practices, and especially through the most potent healing tool of all—that of teshuvah (“return to God”).

If “understanding an illness is half its cure,”[3] then giving full expression to one’s existential longing to become one with the ultimate source of life, the Creator of the universe, through heartfelt prayer and teshuvah (return to God), is the other half. Would both halves be complete, one would have no need for external remedies. When external remedies are indeed required, with greater understanding of the illness comes the insight to discover new, better methods for its cure.

✻ ✻ ✻

In this book, Rabbi Ginsburgh has compiled material he originally presented in lectures on human physiology, medicine, and healing, in various cities in Israel and America, including Jerusalem, Shechem (at Yeshivat Od Yosef Chai), Rehovot, New York, and Los Angeles.

In addition to the main flow of ideas in the text, Body, Mind, and Soul contains a wealth of more advanced material intended for seasoned students of Kabbalah and Hassidism. These expositions are appended as supplementary essays and endnotes, and even the beginner will be enriched by perusing them.

✻ ✻ ✻

We have observed the following conventions in this book:

Several Names for God are used in the Bible and referred to here. Because of their holiness and spiritual power, it is forbidden to pronounce these Names other than in prayer or when reciting a complete Biblical verse. Therefore, we have deliberately altered the transliteration of these Names, in accordance with the time-honored practice of how observant Jews pronounce them in non-liturgical contexts.

The unique, four-letter Name of God is known generally as the Tetragrammaton and is referred to in Jewish writings (and in this book, as well) as “the Name Havayah.” We are forbidden to pronounce this Name altogether, and indeed, its correct pronunciation is not known nowadays. In liturgical concepts, the Name Adni is pronounced in its place; in non-liturgical contexts, the word Hashem (“the Name”) is substituted. Due to its special sanctity, it has been intentionally abbreviated (or hyphenated) when a verse is written in Hebrew. In English, we have spelled it with large and small capitals (“God”) in order to distinguish it from all the other Names of God except for Shakai, which we translate as “the Almighty.”

The term “Bible” (Tanach) comprises the Torah (the Five Books of Moses); the Prophets (consisting of eight books: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Prophets); and the Writings (consisting of eleven books: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Ruth, the Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles).

The term “Torah” must be understood according to the context: in its narrowest sense, it refers to the Five Books of Moses, but more generally, it can refer to the entirety of God’s written and orally transmitted teachings to Israel and all of humanity.

The term “Kabbalah” is sometimes used in its specific sense, to refer to the classic texts of the ancient Jewish mystical tradition, and sometimes in its more general sense, to refer to the whole of the inner dimension of the Torah, including the teachings of Hassidism. Indeed, Hassidism is referred to in Hassidic texts as “the Kabbalah of the Ba’al Shem Tov,”[4] inasmuch as its revelation of the innermost core of faith and wisdom lies at the base of all the classic texts of Kabbalah.

✻ ✻ ✻

We wish to thank here a number of individuals for their contribution to this book:

Mr. Avichai Madmoni, for inspiring us to undertake this work.

Our medical advisor, Dr. Yosef Lev (Jeffry Lee) Kashuk M.D., F.A.C.S., for his professional comments and insights.[5]

Mr. Yechezkel Anis, Rabbi Asher and Mrs. Sara Esther Crispe, Rabbi Moshe Genuth, Mrs. Rachel Gordon, Mr. Uri Kaploun, Mrs. Uriela Sagiv, and Rabbi Moshe Wisnefsky, for their invaluable editorial assistance.

Our hope and prayer is to continue to shed light on the field of medicine from a traditional Jewish perspective, opening up the wellsprings of the Kabbalistic tradition for the benefit of all mankind.

Gal Einai Publications

Jerusalem

10 Shevat 5764

Part One - Human Anatomy and Physiology

ויברא אלהים את האדם בצלמו

And God created man in His image

Genesis 1:27

1. Soul and Body

In the Image of God

And God said,

Let us make man in our image,

after our likeness.”[1]

The Torah begins with the account of creation, the apex of which is the creation of the human being, who alone was created “in the image of God.”[2] By creating us in His image, God imbued us with an innate affinity to Him, which manifests itself as our ability to consciously connect to our Divine source, our Creator, in faith and knowledge. Our belief in Him and knowledge of His presence in all aspects of our lives are the keys to our spiritual and physical well-being.

Just as God’s initial creation of the universe was twofold—“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”[3]—so did He create the human being in a twofold manner, body and soul. In man, his “heavenly” part, the soul, so permeates his “earthly” part, the body, that they appear to be one entity. In truth, the physical body perfectly mirrors the spiritual soul vested in it. This is why Kabbalah views physical health to be inseparable from spiritual health.

Since in Kabbalah body and soul function as a unit, in order to access the mystical understanding of human anatomy and physiology, we must first understand how Kabbalah perceives the soul and the soul’s interaction with the body.

In this regard, one of the most fundamental teachings of Kabbalah is the system of the ten sefirot, the channels of Divine life-force or energy. These ten sefirot are sometimes eleven, when both the super-conscious keter and its conscious counterpart, da’at, are counted.

The meaning of the term sefirot fluctuates according to the context in which it is used. The ten sefirot can refer to the ten manifestations of God, the ten powers of the soul, or the ten structural forces of reality.[4] All of the worlds that we inhabit, whether spiritual or physical, display the same array of supernal characteristics. Thus, each sefirah, or channel of Divine energy, can be understood as a creative force at work behind the scenes, forming worlds, or, at the most personal level of manifestation, forming the basic intellectual and emotive properties of our souls.

First of all, we will examine the Kabbalistic model known as the “Tree of Life” (portrayed on the next page) and explain how its sefirot manifest as powers of the soul that relate to all facets of the human condition.

The Sefirot

left axis	middle axis	right axis
	keter “crown”
binah “understanding”		chochmah “wisdom”
	da’at “knowledge”
gevurah “might”		chesed “loving-kindness”
	tiferet “beauty”
hod “thanksgiving”		netzach “victory”
	yesod “foundation”
	malchut “kingdom”

The first of the properties of the soul, keter (lit., “crown”), is the super-conscious experience of the soul. Just as a crown sits above the head, so too, keter reflects the power in the soul to connect to a transcendent region that is beyond the horizon of the conscious mind, a region outside the domain of normative logic and reason. In Hassidic thought,[1] the realm of the super-conscious is broken down into three distinct super-conscious experiences: faith, pleasure, and will.

In the context of healing, one must first believe in God the Creator,[2] “who heals all flesh and acts wondrously.”[3] One must then connect to the innate pleasure of life and the will to be healed.

Next, there are three intellectual properties of the soul called:

❖ chochmah (“wisdom”)

❖ binah (“understanding”), and

❖ da’at (“knowledge”).

The first intellectual property of the soul, chochmah (lit., “wisdom”), refers to the mind’s intuitive ability to uncover and perceive new insights. By introducing new flashes of insight into a person’s consciousness, chochmah provides the mind with the conceptual seed or kernel idea from which all cognition sprouts. The manifestation of chochmah in the soul depends upon the degree to which one possesses an inner state of selflessness.

Selflessness creates the concave vessel in the soul that, like a vacuum, draws into itself spiritual light and life-force.

Binah (lit., “understanding”), the second intellectual property of the soul, reflects the native analytical ability of the mind, which processes and structures new insights by means of contrast and comparison. This logical construction process yields fully matured and developed states of consciousness. The inner psychological experience of binah in the soul is one of joy.

Joy in the service of God comes from a full understanding of the great merit afforded to a mortal, finite human given the opportunity to serve the Infinite One, blessed be He. Hassidism teaches that joy, the inner experience of understanding, fuels the soul’s longing to return and become one with God (teshuvah). In Isaiah, we find: “and his heart shall understand, and he shall return [to God] and become healed.”[4] This is the power of understanding (and joy) to heal.

The third intellectual property of the soul, da’at (lit., “knowledge”), is the ability to unite the two previous mental processes of chochmah and binah, and is dependent on the power of concentration. Da’at relates to the truth that it perceives as a unified whole,[5] and is thus an inner psychological experience of unification.

The experience of unification is the conscious counterpart of the highest of the three super-conscious levels of the soul, faith. Knowledge of God the Healer reflects one’s absolute faith in Him and in His power to heal. By connecting to Him consciously we draw His healing power into our entire being.

After this, come three emotive properties of the soul, called:

❖ chesed (“loving-kindness”)

❖ gevurah (“might”), and

❖ tiferet (“beauty”).

Chesed (lit., “loving-kindness”) denotes the expansive state of the heart, in which it is emotionally open and eager to give. Motivated by love, the attribute of chesed expresses itself as giving to another out of concern for the other’s spiritual growth.

By contrast, gevurah (lit., “might”) falls into the category of restraint, causing one to withhold. It is motivated by fear.

In the context of health, love motivates one to feel concern for the well-being of others, as well as for one’s own well-being,[6] and seek means to improve physical health. The fear of illness, on the other hand, augments one’s conscious drive to maintain good health. It provides one with a balanced (not over-exaggerated) sense of caution and restraint with regard to unhealthy items or situations. Ideally, both the love of good health and the fear of disease should exist for God’s sake, in order to best fulfill one’s purpose in life.[7]

The third emotive property arrives as the synthesis between the first two. Tiferet (lit., “beauty”) denotes the beautiful effect of combining many colors. Balancing between the extremes of loving-kindness and restraint/judgment, tiferet is identified with mercy or compassion.

Compassion is one’s sense of sincere empathy with another. Here, healing another’s illness is experienced as healing oneself. One feels, on his flesh, the illness of the other and rejoices in his recovery. In Kabbalah, this is seen as the most essential spiritual property of the dedicated physician.

Next, come the three operative or behavioral properties of the soul. Described by the functions they perform, they serve to direct the energy and output of the mind and heart into action. They are:

❖ netzach (“victory”)

❖ hod (“thanksgiving”), and

❖ yesod (“foundation”).

Netzach (lit., “victory”) refers to the ability to overcome obstacles in executing an action. This depends upon one’s sense of confidence.

With regard to healing, we are confident that, with God’s help, the efforts made to facilitate our cure will bear fruit. In times of illness, the Torah instructs us to seek the aid of the most expert physician available and to follow his or her advice. God is the true Healer, but His emissary is the expert physician. While seeing a doctor and making every effort to cure ourselves and lead a healthy life, we anchor our trust in God alone.

Hod (lit., “thanksgiving”) is the power to persevere by acknowledging God as the source of all of one’s abilities and thanking God for all that He bestows. Here, one walks a path of simplicity [8] and sincerity.

Here, together with his complete faith in God who will surely heal him, he accepts the pain he experiences with love for God, remembering that “he whom He loves does God chastise.”[9] His complete faith assures him that his temporary suffering is in fact a cleansing, rectifying process for both soul and body.

The third property in this group, yesod (lit., “foundation”), is the power of self-actualization and sense of self-fulfillment. Self-fulfillment is known in Kabbalah and Hassidism as the attribute of truth, for it is dependent upon one’s devoted effort to “validate” oneself, both to oneself within and to the world at large.

Here, one reaches the apex of one’s drive to be healthy and sound in body and soul. Truth brings keter’s super-conscious sense of the innate pleasure of life to its consummate state of experiential fulfillment. Sound health becomes one’s true reality.

The final property of the soul is called malchut (lit., “kingdom”). A kingdom is a person’s domain of influence. Likewise, a kingdom is the expression of all the powers of the soul as they become manifest in outer reality and actually affect the world. Hassidism teaches that true sensitivity to one’s domain of influence, one’s kingdom, depends upon one’s sense of lowliness, as expressed by King David, the archetypal soul of malchut: “And I shall [always] be lowly in my own eyes.”[10]

In lowliness, one says to himself: “I do not deserve to be healthy. As is the case with regard to all the gifts of life, good health is a gratis gift of God. I must try my best to emulate God and bestow the gratis gift of whatever may advance good health upon all those in my circle of influence.”

In summary:

sefirah or property of the soul	power of the soul	inner (psychological) experience	in the context of health
	keter “crown”	super-consciousness	faith, pleasure, will	belief in God the Healer, connection to the innate pleasure of life, and the will to be healed
intellectual properties	chochmah “wisdom”	insight	selflessness	the vessel drawing healing power into itself
binah “understanding”	analysis	joy	the healing that comes with returning to God in joy
da’at “knowledge”	concentration	unification	to know God, the Healer, is to become healed
emotive properties	chesed “loving-kindness”	giving	love	sincere concern for the well-being of others
gevurah “might”	restraint	fear	caution with regard to anything unhealthy
tiferet “beauty”	balance	compassion	true empathy with the sick
behavioral properties	netzach “victory”	overcoming obstacles	confidence	one’s efforts to become well will surely bear fruit
hod “thanksgiving”	perseverance	sincerity	whatever God bestows in one’s life is surely for his own good
yesod “foundation”	self-fulfillment	truth	the apex of the drive to be healthy
	malchut “kingdom”	influence on one’s environment	lowliness	good health is a gratis gift of God

The Four Letters of God’s Name

The ten sefirot may also be organized by their relationship to the four Hebrew letters of the essential, unpronounceable Name of God known as the Name Havayah, which in itself represents perhaps the most fundamental model of Kabbalah. Indeed, the ten sefirot are but a manifestation of the Divine process encoded in these four holy letters.

Although the essence of this Name of God is above meaning, etymologically it is derived from the Hebrew root that means “existence,” and can be read as either “He who was, is, and will be” (essentially above time), or as “He who continuously brings [all reality] into existence.”[1] According to this latter reading, the four letters of this Name teach us that we may conceive of “existence” or “life” in terms of a four-stage unfolding structure.

The transcendent sefirah of keter (“crown”) is alluded to by the upper tip of the first letter of God’s Name, the yud. The yud itself corresponds to the seminal sefirah of chochmah (“wisdom”). The first hei corresponds to the expansive comprehension of the sefirah of binah (“understanding”). The vav corresponds to the next six [2] sefirot—from chesed to yesod—which are collectively known as the midot (“characteristics”). The final hei corresponds to the domain of the sefirah of malchut (“kingdom”).

The full correspondence of the letters of the Divine Name to the ten sefirot is thus:

י upper tip of yud	keter	“crown”
י yud	chochmah	“wisdom”
ה hei	binah	“understanding”
ו vav	midot	“emotions”
ה hei	malchut	“kingdom”

We will see later how these five levels manifest themselves in all aspects of human anatomy. In relation to the creative process or the healing process (“creation” in Hebrew is cognate to “healing”[3]), these five levels are known as the five stages of:

❖ infinite, absolutely concealed Divine light

❖ contraction of the infinite light into one point of creative potential

❖ expansion of the point to create “hidden worlds”

❖ linear projection of the hidden reality toward revealed reality

❖ expansion of the projected line to create “revealed worlds”

Vis-à-vis the healing process, one must first connect in faith to God’s infinite light, the source of all healing. Then, through selflessness, one contracts the infinite light into a single point of healing potential (intended to heal a specific soul and body). The healing energy must then expand, by means of a detailed understanding of the problem at hand and the joy that comes with understanding, to create anew—to heal—one’s inner self, the “hidden worlds” of the soul (one’s mindsets, opinions, and thoughts in general). By the means of the emotive attributes of the soul, one projects his inner image—“And He created him in the image of God”[4]—toward his outer image (the body). Finally, one integrates the healing energy into the body itself, recreating the body by means of lowliness: “I deserve nothing; all is a gratis gift of God.”

To summarize:

י upper tip of yud	keter “crown”	connection to source of healing
י yud	chochmah “wisdom”	contraction to single point of healing potential
ה hei	binah “understanding”	creating anew one’s inner self
ו vav	midot “emotions”	projecting one’s inner self on one’s outer self
ה hei	malchut “kingdom”	integrating the healing energy into one’s body

Powers of the Soul and Human Anatomy

Now that we have a picture of the powers of the soul, we shall take a look at how Kabbalah relates these spiritual powers to aspects of the human anatomy.

(In the traditional Kabbalistic literature, great emphasis is placed on the correlation between the ten sefirot and the physical limbs and organs of the human body, skipping directly from the plane of the Divine to the plane of the physical. Only at a later stage in the historical unfolding of the revelation of the Torah’s hidden wisdom did the Ba’al Shem Tov, the 18^th-century founder of Hassidism, and his disciples come to ascribe the psychological correlates noted above to both the supernal sefirot and their physical parallels. These psychological correlates (love, fear, joy etc.), serve as the spiritual intermediaries by means of which the Divine sefirot become reflected in the physical limbs of the body.)

Identifying powers of the soul with parts of the body illustrates the Kabbalistic idea of hitlabshut (“enclothement”), wherein a higher reality is vested in a lower one. In this instance, a power of the soul is the higher reality that expresses itself through the medium of a lower reality, a limb or organ of the body.[1]

The correspondence presented in Kabbalah between the sefirot and the limbs of the body can be summarized as follows:

	left axis	middle axis	right axis
	keter “crown” skull
intellectual properties	binah “understanding” left hemisphere of brain	da’at “knowledge” posterior of brain	chochmah “wisdom” right hemisphere of brain

emotive properties	gevurah “might” left arm	tiferet “beauty” torso	chesed “loving-kindness” right arm

behavioral properties	hod “thanksgiving” left leg	yesod “foundation” *brit*	netzach “victory” right leg

		malchut “kingdom” mouth

Keter (“crown”) is manifest in the body as the skull. Just as a crown encircles the head, so the skull encircles the brain. The skull further suggests the erection of a physical border around our field of conscious experience. Consciousness, which gives definition to the mind and places limits on its ability to expand and inflate, is itself always surrounded by a border of unconscious experience that, in turn, gives it shape.

Chochmah (“wisdom”) is considered to be the essential mind or the “mind within the mind,” while binah (“understanding”) can be regarded as the “heart within the mind.” (In addition, binah is reflected in the heart itself, the physical seat of emotive experience born of the understanding of the mind.) This distinction also plays itself out in the body, where chochmah is positioned in the right hemisphere and binah in the left hemisphere of the brain,[2] while da’at (“knowledge”) is located in the posterior region of the brain.

With regard to the three emotive properties of the soul, we find that the right arm embodies chesed (“loving-kindness” and the left arm gevurah (“might”). This is alluded to in the verse from the Song of Songs,[3] “His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me” and in the saying of the sages,[4] “let the left arm reject and the right arm draw near.” To “reject” in this context means to disengage, granting the other a sense of independence before drawing him near. Similarly, the imagery of “his left arm is under my head” means that he nurtures my sense of independence before embracing me with his right arm. The torso is the balancing position of tiferet (“beauty”), which incorporates all the parts of the body, and is centered between the body’s two arms.[5]

Of the behavioral properties of the soul, those of netzach (“victory”) and hod (“thanksgiving”) correspond to the legs of the body. Legs represent one’s first and most continual contact with outer reality. Moreover, the legs facilitate the movement of the body as a whole, bringing a person where he or she wants to go. Netzach is the quality of putting “one’s best foot forward” in an assertive posture. Hod is the left leg, which keeps a person’s movement on course by monitoring and validating his or her assertive thrust. Finally, the property of yesod (“foundation”) corresponds to the male and female reproductive organs. Referred to as the “conclusion of the body,”[6] yesod is the body’s physical manifestation of its own ability to actualize and fulfill itself in procreation, as well as to connect and communicate with others.

The last power of the soul is manifest in the mouth. Malchut (“kingdom”) is the domain of a person’s influence. As it is written, “the word of the king is his authority,”[7] meaning that the extent of the king’s rule is marked by how far his word travels. The ability of the mouth to speak is the power to affect one’s environment, one’s world.

Spiritual Holism

From the analysis above, we see that the powers of the soul are divided into three general levels of consciousness: intellectual, emotive, and behavioral characteristics.

(Above the intellectual characteristics is the super-conscious keter, which in Kabbalah is considered an adjunct to them.[1] Similarly, below the behavioral characteristics is malchut, which is also considered an adjunct to them.[2])

Each of these three groupings further divides into three axes—right, left, and middle.

This basic division of the powers of the soul into three, and three into three, is mirrored in the human body in several ways. For example, we are taught in Kabbalah that the human body as a whole and each of its limbs divides into three segments or joints.

With regard to the complete stature of the human being, these are the head, the body, and the legs. Each of these further subdivides into three: the head has a brain with three regions; the body has two arms and the torso; the legs consist of two plus the procreative organ, which is considered in Kabbalah to be a “third leg.”

And so it is with respect to each one of the limbs in particular. If we look at the arm, we see that it consists of the upper arm, the forearm, and the hand. The hand consists of the wrist, the palm, and the fingers. Each finger is made up of three joints (the thumb’s third joint is in the hand, below the palm). And so it is with all the parts of the body, which can be divided into smaller and smaller parts.

In Kabbalah, this general phenomenon is understood to indicate that each part of the body possesses a beginning, middle, and end, or “a head, a body, and feet.” It is considered to be one of the most important indications of the intrinsic holism of the human body.

Spiritually, this means that every limb possesses characteristics that are intellectual (head), emotive (body), and behavioral (feet).[3]

Building Blocks of Creation

The Hebrew word Kabbalah derives from the root k-b-l whose original meaning in the Bible is “to parallel.” This is because Kabbalah analyzes all of reality in “parallel” to basic models or frames of reference. Thus far, we have looked at two such models: one consisting of ten levels or developmental stages, the ten sefirot (and its division into three and into three again); and a second, an even more fundamental frame of reference, known as the “seal of creation,” the four Hebrew letters of God’s essential Name, Havayah.

The third basic model is represented by the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.[1] Relative to one another, the ten sefirot, which most simply correspond to the ten numbers from 1 to 10, the basis of all abstract thought, are referred to as “lights” (whose inner essence is God’s essential Name, Havayah), while the twenty-two letters, the building blocks of intelligible language, are referred to as “vessels.” Together, the ten sefirot and twenty-two letters become the “thirty-two pathways of wisdom” through which God created the world.[2]

The classic Kabbalistic text, Sefer Yetzirah, the “Book of Formation,”[3] describes the twenty-two Hebrew letters as the building blocks of creation and divides them into sub-groups based on both grammatical/phonetic and spiritual considerations. There are three sub-groups:

❖ three “mother” letters: alef, mem, shin

❖ seven “double” letters: beit, gimel, dalet, kaf, pei, reish, tav

❖ twelve “simple” letters: hei, vav, zayin, chet, tet, yud, lamed, nun, samech, ayin, tzadik, kuf

The terms “mother,” “double,” and “simple” refer to the phonetic properties of the letters. “Mother,” aim in Hebrew, means both “womb” and “source.” The three “mother” letters define the phonetic parameters or extremes of the alphabet—the three corners of the phonetic triangle: The alef is “pure voice,” the mem “soft voice,” and the shin “sharp voice.” Each of the seven “doubles” possesses two phonetic forms. The “simples” possess only one such form.

Sefer Yetzirah further identifies each letter with a part of the body. In the healing process, meditation on a specific letter draws spiritual energy and healing power into its corresponding limb.

The three “mother” letters correspond to the three primal elements of creation—air, water, and fire—and the three general divisions of the body respectively: chest corresponds to air; abdomen to water; and head to fire.[4]

letter	element of creation	part of body
alef	א	air	chest
mem	מ	water	abdomen
shin	ש	fire	head

The seven “double” letters correspond in the body to the seven “gateways” of the head. Each one serves as a gateway for the senses of sight, hearing, smell, and taste—the sensations of external reality—to enter the consciousness of the soul. Each gateway, when sanctified, serves as a portal through which a Divine gift or blessing can be received, as follows:

letter	gift	gateway of head
beit	ב	wisdom	right eye (sight)
gimel	ג	wealth	right ear (hearing)
dalet	ד	children	right nostril (smell)
kaf	כ	life	left eye (sight)
pei	פ	rule	left ear (hearing)
reish	ר	peace	left nostril (smell)
tav	ת	favor	mouth (taste)

The twelve “simple” letters correspond to twelve basic limbs and organs of the body. Each of these “controls” (often in a most mysterious way, for no overt relationship is apparent) a spiritual sense or talent of the soul, each of which corresponds to one of the twelve tribes of Israel:

letter	Tribe	sense/talent	Limb/organ
hei	ה	Judah	speech, expression	right leg
vav	ו	Issachar	thought, contemplation	right kidney
zayin	ז	Zebulun	walking, progress	left leg
chet	ח	Reuben	sight, perception	right hand
tet	ט	Simon	hearing, understanding	left kidney
yud	י	Gad	action, rectification	left hand
lamed	ל	Ephraim	touching, sexuality	gall bladder
nun	נ	Menasheh	smell, sensitivity	intestines
samech	ס	Benjamin	sleep, dreaming	lower stomach
ayin	ע	Dan	anger, indignation	liver
tzadik	צ	Asher	eating, taste	higher stomach
kuf	ק	Naphtali	laughter, exuberance	spleen

In Summary

Thus far, we have examined three basic Kabbalistic models that are the foundations of all creation (including, of course, the creation of the human being who was formed in the image of God). As Sefer Yetzirah tells us in its very opening sentence:

With thirty-two wondrous pathways of wisdom, God engraved...and He created His world with three books (sefarim): “scribe” (sofer), “book” (sefer), and “story” (sipur).

The three primordial “books” of creation referred to in the first sentence—the “scribe,” the “book,” and the “story”—correspond to the models of four, of ten and of twenty-two which we have discussed above. The model of four is that of the Name of God, who is the author, or “scribe,” of creation. The model of ten is that of the ten sefirot, as inscribed in the “book” of creation. (The ten correspond to the ten sayings of creation, the essence of the book of Genesis. They also correspond to the Ten Commandments, the essence of God’s entire book, the Torah.) The model of twenty-two is that of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which relate the “story” of creation.

With these foundational models in mind, we are now ready to look more closely at the human body—its parts, limbs, organs, and systems. To examine the body in detail would take a textbook of hundreds of pages, an undertaking outside the scope of this work. Instead, we will look at a sampling of phenomena that illustrate the mystical correspondences enumerated above, which will lay the groundwork for our subsequent discussion of disease and healing.[1]