Philosophy of Religion

Etz Chaim (The Tree of Life)

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Isaac Luria

c. 1572

Etz Chaim (The Tree of Life) is the foundational text of Lurianic Kabbalah: the systematic exposition of Isaac Luria's teachings compiled and edited by his principal disciple, Chaim Vital, from notes of oral instruction delivered in Safed in the 1560s. Luria himself wrote almost nothing; what survives is Vital's careful reconstruction of the master's cosmological and theosophical system. The text develops three interlocking doctrines that transformed Jewish mysticism and exerted an enormous influence on subsequent Jewish — and, through Christian Kabbalah, European — thought. Tzimtzum: God's primal self-contraction to create space for the world, so that creation is at once an act of divine concealment and a making-room for the other. Shevirat ha-Kelim (the shattering of the vessels): the catastrophic failure of the first created vessels to contain the divine light, scattering divine sparks (nitzotzot) throughout the material world. Tikkun (repair): the redemptive process by which human beings, through prayer, right action, and mystical intention, gather and elevate the scattered sparks, restoring the original cosmic harmony. The Etz Chaim is among the most complex and influential works of Jewish mystical literature.