That group of Spanish Kabbalists which centered on theosophy, the pondering of the meaning of creation, the nature of G-d and His connection with Man, the meaning of Torah and Mitzvot, reached its heights in the late thirteenth century. As Kabbalists are generally reticent about revealing their secrets, it is difficult to know how many of these ideas had been carefully guarded throughout the centuries, only now to be revealed, or how many might be recent innovations and insights. Many people base their concepts of authenticity on how ancient a book or idea is. In my opinion, this matters little. That Einstein challenged Newton, and Newton challenged Aristotle, is an idea that we find acceptable. So may we see this in the advancement of ideas. In fact, most Kabbalists believe in the idea of continual revelation (one Torah, but with new depths being constantly revealed). The influence of these Kabbalists on subsequent Jewish thought is immeasurable, After the Expulsion from Spain in 1492, many Kabbalists settled in the town of Safed in the Upper Galilee, interpreting and building a comprehensive system for understanding Torah. This system became standard Jewish belief for nearly all Jews for the next century, and for many even today (including yours truly).
The teachings of Spanish Kabbalah, and its later incarnations, included the idea of a great cataclysm at creation. The full understanding of the "whys" is beyond the scope of this series. The basic concept is that at creation, G-d made a Universe that was unstable. The Light was too powerful for the "vessels" to contain. The vessels shattered, with their light returning back to G-d. The now shattered "vessels", however, were still of a spiritual height beyond anything which we can imagine. We can only wonder what the "light" that had been too great for these vessels must have been like! This first Universe is known as "Olam HaTohu" (the world of chaos). "Sparks of the vessels (288 of them to be exact) scattered. The Universe was then recreated in a much more stable form, but with far less observable "light".This is the "Olam HaTikkun" (the world of repair or order). The sparks of Tohu are scattered throughout Tikkun. They await elevation. Once they are all elevated, the world will be redeemed, and once again fully spiritual. Two hundred and two sparks were redeemed through the Egyptian Exile. Eighty six remain (the gematria, numerological equivalent, of both Elohim and Hateva, G-d and Nature). An aspect of Divinity is in the natural world, awaiting elevation and redemption. Although Man was put into the World of Tikkun in order to find these sparks and elevate them, the sins of Man caused a cosmic hemorrhaging of the Divine Light, making holiness to be less present in our world, and strengthening the imprisonment of the trapped energy. All that began to change at Sinai. The purpose of Torah and Mitzvot was to struggle with the physical world, remove its mask and reveal the spiritual world. The sparks hidden in nature could thus be elevated and redeemed, together with all subsequent hemorrhaging of the light. This is where Mitzvot come in. How? That will be my next post.