Neo-Platonism and the Cabalistic Structure of the Divine Emanation
Neo-Platonism and the Cabalistic Structure of the Divine Emanation

Summary/Abstract: The present paper attempts to shatter the widely disseminated idea that the Cabalistic system of the divine emanation is merely a variant of the Neo-Platonic system of emanation, permeated with Gnostic elements. By means of an analysis of a few texts belonging to the theosophical Cabala, I point out briefly to what extent the Cabalistic sephirotic structure is represented rather as a center-less, source-less configuration, and to what extent the Urgrund is really an Ungrund. This implies, and it is implied by a particular and assumed conception of the divine reality (the sephirot) as being a projected and adjustable structure, by a tensional, yet non-dialectic, rapport between being (yesh) and non-being (ayn), as well as by a different outlook on the conception of creatio ex nihilo (yesh meayn).

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