Understanding the mystical symbols called Sefirot is central to understanding the mystical doctrine of Creation. Sefirah is unrelated to the Greek Sefairah ("sphere”) but rather to the Hebrew Sappir ("sapphire”). The radiance of God is likened to that of the sapphire. But many more synonyms abound. The Sefirot are called "sayings,” "names,” "lights,” "powers,” "crowns,” "attributes,” "garments,” "mirrors,” "aspects of God,” "shoots,” and "sources.”
What is agreed upon by the main stream kabbalists is the following: the God who manifests Himself in His Sefirot is the very same God of traditional religious belief. Therefore, the emanation of the Sefirot is a process within God Himself. This cojoins the hidden God of the Ein-Sof ("Infinite”) with the God of biblical (external) revelation.
What is the essence of the Sefirot? Although Ten were created, there was no specific hierarchy involved; that is, the eighth emanation was as close to the Emanator as the third. It is also conceived that some of the emanations could join together to form mystical unions of their own. The early kabbalists believe the Sefirot are identical with God’s substance. They constitute God Himself; the Emanation is the Divinity. The Zohar asserts: "He is They, and They are He.” However, the latter kabbalists view this process of emanation as an intermediate stage between God and His Creation. The Sefirot do not form the essence of God but only serve Him as vessels or tools in the process of Creation. Applying this formula, it may be deduced that all creatures below the Sefirot exist independently of Divinity, possessing natures of their own.
How to depict the process? See the Sefirot as emanating from Ein-Sof in succession: one candle is lit from another without the Emanator being diminished in any way. Thus God remains greater than the sum of his "powers,” in this process of His passing from unity to plurality. While God’s manifestation of the Sefirot gives a sense of His "outer” personality, the nature of the Emanator remains a mystery at the head of the first Sefirah, known as the Keter, the "crown.” The mystery of God’s unity and the appearance of plurality within the One in his Sefirot have been expressed through a multiplicity of images: the Sefirot are compared to a candle flickering in the midst of ten mirrors set one within the other, each a different color. The light is reflected differently in each, although it is the same single light. The Sefirot have also been perceived as Divinity’s ten garments.
The complexity of the process and the possibilities of perception are unending. The Sefirot are the key to interpreting the world according to the kabbalists. Contained in the Godhead, they inform every living creature outside "it.” They are the warp and woof of Creation.