About The Power Of Soul

By Dorthy Lloyd


There are ten sefirot which come from the ten powers of the soul possessing names similar to sefirot. The soul is manifested and expressed via its powers. There are two major categories of such which are transcendent and immanent powers. The transcendent are also referred to as oneg and ratzon and they correspond to the above mentioned keter while the immanent ones are classified into emotions and intellect. The intellect ones are daat, bina and chochma regarding the power of soul.

Chochma intellectual power is creative and also unpredictable and is seen in insights and inspirations. Bina is the intellectual ability of understanding. It is the one that develops and also articulates the energies of Chochma so that is becomes detailed and conceptual.

Daat is the capacity to harmonize and integrate completely opposing views. Daat plays two roles. One is binding together bina and chochma powers and two is acting as a go between the divergent domains of emotional and intellect soul attributes.

Love and kindness is a first emotional aspect of a soul. It is geared by the forces of love and compassion. It actually makes all the other attributes to grow and develop to their full maturity levels. Tiferet is that attribute of truth which blends and makes the opposite attributes of love and largesse to blend. The aspects of truth depend on the merit given to the recipient. It works well with other attributes of love and kindness. Together they make the attribute of mercy.

Gevura is tied to din force and confines expansiveness of chesed on its benevolence. It also represents fear as an emotional attribute. Whereas chesed fosters generous and unconditional giving not taking into account worthiness of the person receiving the act of goodness, gevura debates that this should not be the case for fear that the recipient may misuse what they receive or are not earnest to receive it. On the same note, the receiver credibility is judged in relation to their degree of merit.

Netzach got several meanings denoting the different specs inside the soul. It infers orchestration, eternity and victory. Common to all this aspects is persistence and initiative sense necessary to overrule resistance encountered in bringing feeling and thought to positive action. Victory implies initiative, eternity indicates persistence while orchestration implies an innovative plan to dispatch the other qualities intelligently.

Hod implies surrender and it complements Netzach. Where netzach moves ahead to break the barriers in between benevolence outflow and who it is intended for, hod makes sure the recipient success is based on him recognizing the divine being behind his might and power. It thus represents innocence and sincerity. The Zohar terms this complementing relationship as two side of the same body, like twins.

Yesod is that quality that blends all the mentioned qualities to a single unit. It also represents a saintly individual. It builds an individual who is God fearing and acts according to how slaves follow their masters. Being loyal and sovereign also important. If one believes that there are heavenly powers taking control, then he will have the strengths and the wisdom he needs.




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