KABBALAH AND PSYCHOLOGY
© The Torah Science Foundation
Part 1
General Overview
Kabbalah teaches that God created the entire world with the letters of the
Hebrew language, the Holy Tongue, and in Torah literature, mankind is referred to as
‫ מדבר‬, “a speaker.” The uniqueness of humans is in their ability to speak and
understand language. Language reflects the most profound levels of the human soul.
For this reason, when approaching any subject from a Torah perspective, it is crucial to
see and connect to the key terms and concepts in the original Hebrew. This is even
more significant when the subject is the psychological health of the human “speaker.”
In the Zohar, Man is referred to as a “miniature world,” created with the same
order as the physical world. Just as God created the world via the emanation of the ten
sefirot, so, too, Man reflects the ten sefirot of creation in his psyche. In addition, the
seven primordial worlds of chaos correspond to the seven midot (spiritual character
traits) of the soul (love, fear, compassion etc). Just as each primordial king (see Gen.
36: 31-39) wanted to rule over the world (with the phrase,"I will rule"), so each of the
psyche’s midot want to be in control. Yet, the (sometimes subtle) desire of the ego for
absolute control is a chaotic state of mind that is liable to lead to psychological
breakdown. In order to achieve balance in his soul, Man must work to achieve interinclusion between all his midot.
In order to better understand the psychology of Man, we must first see how the
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Torah describes the creation of the world. The first two words of the story of Creation
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Creation, Health and Creativity
are ‫בראשית ברא‬, “in the beginning [He] created.” Taking a look at these two words we
see that the first three letters of the first word are identical to the three-letters of the
second word. In fact, one interpretation of the word ‫ בראשית‬in the Zohar reads it as a
composite of two words: ‫ברא שית‬, meaning, “He created six [days].” In this context, the
second word, ‫ברא‬, refers to the creation of the Seventh day, the day of Shabbat. Our
sages teach that “All sevenths are beloved.” In the context of language, the reference to
six in the first word alludes to the fact that every three-lettered root in the Hebrew
language has six possible permutations.
Creation began on the 25th of Elul. Adam and Eve were created on Rosh
Hashanah, the sixth day of Creation. On that very day, God commanded Adam and Eve
not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Yet, they disobeyed the single commandment
given to them by their Creator. The prohibition against eating from the Tree of
Knowledge was only intended to last until the Shabbat would enter at twilight– a matter
of a mere three hours. Adam and his wife ate from the tree while the fruit was yet
unripe.
The Tree of Knowledge represents science, and psychology in particular. The
word ‫עץ‬, meaning “tree, is also the root of the word, ‫עצה‬, meaning “advice”. A good
psychologist is a counselor who gives sound advice. Thus, the lesson to be learned
from the primordial sin is that it is not possible for sound advice to contradict the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil.1 Psychological growth occurs best in the fertile ground of
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The ultimate rectification of the Tree of Knowledge is alluded to in the Chassidic rendering of the verse,
"the Tree of Knowledge of Good --- and evil you shall not eat."
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the Torah’s positive commandments and prohibitions.