4

Meditative prayer in Moshe Cordovero’s

Kabbalah
Alan Brill
Seton Hall University

Kabbalah constitutes the apex of Jewish mystical thought, strongly influenced

by mediaeval philosophy. It is also famous for its varied meditative practice,
historically influenced by Neo-platonic, Sufi and Catholic techniques, and
typologically resembling Tantric and Daoist practices. In this essay, Alan Brill
describes the meditative prayer of Moses Cordovero (1522–70). This practice is
based on the visualization of the ten divine emanations (sefirot), typically ascending
from the lower earthly realms towards higher and increasingly divine realms, but
also seeking to infuse the lower realms with divine energy brought down from
the higher realms. The traditional prayer book is transformed into a scripted
meditation manual, where visualization of the ten divine emanations, as well as
colours and light, is combined with the recitation of prayers, divine names, numbers
and vowels or letters of the Hebrew alphabet, often recited for the sake of their
auditory sound effect, and aided by the use of breath. The practice is associated
with a number of psychological states, such as calm, silence and love, eventually
merging with and returning everything to an undifferentiated divine unity. Along
with such techniques for inner transformation, however, Cordovero’s emphasis on
textual interpretation and the creation of complex visual patterns also has a clear
thematic and devotional focus.

This essay explores the meditative prayer practices of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero
(1522–70), a leading figure within the Jewish form of esotericism and mysticism
known as Kabbalah. Cordovero’s practices include meditations on the words of prayer
combined with visualizations of the Kabbalistic divine emanations, sefirot, as well as
of lights and divine names, with a simultaneous sense of ascent to the infinite. These
complex combinations of ascents, colours, lights and divine names, along with the
idea of everything returning to an undifferentiated divine unity, can be compared
typologically to the world’s other focused meditations found in Nyingma school of
Tibetan Buddhism, Daoism and Hindu Tantric yoga.

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 45 7/5/2013 7:13:54 PM

 46 Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Similar highly influential meditations on lights and divine names were first
developed in late twelfth- and thirteenth-century Provence and Gerona and continued
to develop as part of the Jewish tradition until the early modern era. The techniques
show the influence of Sufi and Neoplatonic terminology. In the middle of the sixteenth
century, these traditions were fully systematized by Cordovero, who led a prestigious
circle of Kabbalists in Safed. Cordovero had the ability to systematize diverse texts
and had turned the earlier corpus of Jewish mysticism into a coherent theology. He
also had the direct benefit of his scholastic training in mediaeval philosophy, which
gave his meditative thought theological depth, philosophy scaffolding and rigorous
terminology.1 Gershom Scholem, renowned scholar of the Kabbalah, referred to
Cordovero as ‘the great phenomenologist of the Kabbalah’. Before elaborating on his
system, I must offer a few definitions of the nature of the Kabbalah. These will be used
throughout the chapter.

Kabbalah

Kabbalah is the term applied to Jewish esotericism and Jewish mystical activity since
the formation of the thirteenth-century classics of Jewish esotericism such as the
Zohar. There are many strands of teaching in the Kabbalah, however the focus of this
chapter will be Cordovero’s view of the Eyn Sof and his view of the ten sefirot (plural of
sefirah, emanation).2
It is important to state at the outset that there are many different schemes of the
Kabbalistic divine emanations with many variations and differences in nomenclature.
Cordovero’s system presented the highest aspect of Divinity as the Eyn Sof (That
Which Is Without Limit). The Eyn Sof is inaccessible and unknowable to man but
God reveals Himself to mankind through a series of ten emanations, the Ten Sefirot, a
configuration of divine energies that issue from the Eyn Sof. They are keter, hokhmah,
binah, hesed, gevurah (din), tiferet, nezah, hod, yesod and malkhut (shekhinah). Through
contemplation and virtuous deeds based on the divine emanation, human beings can
also bring down the divine grace to this world.
The first of these sefirot is keter (crown) and refers to God’s will to create. The
next two sefirot, hokhmah (knowledge) and binah (understanding), represent the
unfolding in God’s mind of the details of creation. The next three sefirot are a triad
of hesed (lovingkindness), gevurah (judgement) and tiferet (glory). The first part
of the triad, hesed, refers to the uncontrolled flow of divine goodness. The second
component, gevurah (judgement), refers to uncontrolled flow of divine judgement
(din). The third and final part of the triad, tiferet (glory), refers to the mediation of the
two extremes. Nezah (victory), hod (majesty) and yesod (foundation) are a lower triad
mediating prophecy and providence. The last of the ten sefirot, malkhut (kingdom), is
the collecting point of all higher blessing and the fountain to which humans connect
through meditation and ritual. Names of the sefirot will vary based on context; for
example, the lowest sefirah is referred to as shekhinah (God’s indwelling) when
personifying the female divine immanence and malkhut while representing the lowest
of the ten sefirot.3

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 46 7/5/2013 7:13:56 PM

 Meditative Prayer in Moshe Cordovero’s Kabbalah 47

The sefirot are not separate sefirot deities, but are commonly represented in
a diagram generally referred to as the Tree of the Sefirot or the Kabbalistic Divine
Emanations. There is great significance to the position of these various attributes and
their interconnectedness. At many points in the meditations we are going to discuss,
the ten sefirot are treated as three triads plus malkhut. In general, Cordovero perceives
these ten sefirot as concentric, similar to tree rings or celestial spheres, with the malkhut
in the centre and Eyn Sof as the perimeter (Figure 4.1).
In other places, he arranges them as a tree consisting of three triads plus malkhut
(Figure 4.1).
One starts meditating on the lowest level, the earthly level of the shekhinah (=
malkhut). From there, one attains via yesod access to tiferet as the trunk and body of
the system, and from there one proceeds to the top triad of keter, hokhmah and binah
as the divine mind. The triad is also conceptually personified without images. The
shekhinah is the feminine bride image of God (and is therefore referred to as ‘she’),
tiferet is the male or groom, and hokhmah and binah are the Divine mother and father.
Keter is portrayed as above personification leading to the undifferentiated oneness of
Eyn Sof. In this arrangement, the kabbalist frequently speaks about the marital union
of the bride shekhinah and the groom tiferet.
The ten sefirot are also represented by the nine Hebrew vowels applied to the four
letter name of God called the Tetragrammaton (YHVH), ranging from the longest
sound at the top at keter and gradually decreasing down to the short vowel at yesod.
Malkhut or shekhinah does not have her own sound but is a Tetragrammaton without
vowels. (See below for more details.)

Figure 4.1 Sefirot as concentric circles

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 47 7/5/2013 7:13:56 PM

 48 Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

keter

binah hokhmah

gevurah hesed

tiferet

hod nezah

yesod

malkhut

Figure 4.2 Sefirot as a tree

In some prayers, there is an assumption that reality is made up of four ascending

worlds with the ten sefirot repeated with the same names in each of the four worlds for
a total of 40. In other prayers, the realm of the ten sefirot is further visualized as having
divine chambers (heikhalot), gates and gatekeepers.

Cordovero and Kabbalah

The Cordovero Kabbalistic system treats the above described ten sefirot as a dynamism
of the mutual activities of a downward light (or yashar) and an upward flow of light (or
hozeh). This is in contrast to those who treat the sefirot as actual metaphysical levels.
These fluid images of the Divine as light offer many panentheistic formulations, in
which everything is filled with this Divine energy that flows from the infinite Divine
into every lowly material world item. Cordovero does this despite his strong theistic
and transcendental elements.

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 48 7/5/2013 7:13:58 PM

 Meditative Prayer in Moshe Cordovero’s Kabbalah 49

Moshe Idel, currently the leading academic scholar of Jewish mysticism, describes
Cordovero’s practice as following what Idel refers to as a mystical-magical model in
which one mentally ascends through visualization into the source of spiritual energy
and then descends while magically drawing down the supernal energy. Idel observes
that it is the auditory sound produced from proper enunciation of the punctuation of
the letters, not the graphic forms of the letters themselves that has the power to draw
down the spiritual forces.4
According to Idel, Cordovero’s meditative ascent creates a realm of inner space
in the mind of the mystic, a ‘luminous area of experience’, which culminates with
assimilation, into the Divine. These experiential dimensions sometimes include the
additional results of self-effacement, transcending the world, inner transformation
and feelings of nothingness.5
Beyond Idel, this chapter will show that all ascents are not the same, that each
word of prayer has its own mental task and that the ‘luminous area’ has specific, non-
transferable configurations of the inter-divine structures for each word of prayer.6

Cordovero’s meditation

Cordovero’s meditative activity is accomplished through active visualizations and

imaginations done concurrently with enunciations. In the process, one focuses one’s
thought and emotion onto the visualizations. He does not suggest or allude to a
tradition of breathing, sitting or relaxing. The practice is a visualization process, but
the explicit results are an experience of drawing down divine energy. Nevertheless,
Cordovero consistently describes the results as reaching a place of silence, selflessness
and reaching beyond pain and suffering. These are results that are derived from the
practice of visualizations of Divine names.

Prerequisites, attention and focus

Cordovero exhorts towards an ethical, meditative path of imitating God vis-à-vis
cultivating patience, selflessness and a sense of calm. Many of the qualities that Western
meditators look to attain through meditation Cordovero assumes are prerequisite
qualities attained through moral and ascetic training. He requires Sufi-like attention on
God attained through a continuous focus on the Torah and the ideas of the Kabbalah,
sometimes leading to an influx of divine energy during the act of reading or study.

The static ascent through the luminous realm

For Cordovero, the meditative process begins at the visualization of the ten sefirot in
front of one as if in a chart, map or tree, basically a visual mental screen of the sefirot.
Then, through visualization starting at the bottom, one makes an ascent through the
lower levels of the chart. The sefirot are not a chart, as usually drawn in books about
Kabbalah, but rather a spatial realm that is visualized as a mental screen with different
lights as locations in that space. In Cordovero’s version, the mental screen is free-floating

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 49 7/5/2013 7:13:58 PM

 50 Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

and ethereal like vapour. Within the luminous area of the screen there is an imagined
complex realm of gatekeepers, heavenly palace chambers (heikhalot), and sefirot, yet all
is vapour. The Divine energy descends and one re-ascends with energy and then draws
down specific spiritual forces. Sitting in prayer and reaching the sefirot have results of
turning from the world and attaining calm.

The dynamic ascent into oneness

The next part of the meditative process is the dynamic ascent, which correlates to
specific words in the Jewish prayer service during which one visualizes moving around
within this luminous space. In the thirteenth-century Provençal method, there was
an ascent of the mind from shekhinah (= malkhut) to tiferet or binah, contrasting with
Cordovero’s sixteenth-century method, in which the shekhinah itself is raised and the
entire system collapses up like the folding up of a telescope. One folds shekhinah up
beyond yesod, nezah and hod which makes her the same as tiferet; the point is not that
there is only tiferet or that she has merged into tiferet, but that she has been raised to the
point of tiferet. It culminates in bringing everything to binah, which is seen as already
partaking of the energy and merging into oneness of the higher realms.

Detailed directions for the words of prayer

There are clear, detailed directions for further superimposed visualizations while
enunciating the words of worship, with a different focus for each word. Examples will
be given below.

The use of superimposed names

At designated points in the meditative prayer, Cordovero requires one to visualize
a variety of Divine names. He also requires one to visualize the spelling out of the
numerical value of the Divine name (141, 151, 161, et al.). In the courses of his
meditations, Cordovero makes use of several representations of the Divine name,
including interspersions of two names, the phonetic spelling out of a Divine name and
the magical powers of the 72, 63, 42, 53 letter names of God.

The parts of Jewish worship

Jewish daily morning worship is divided into four units – the preliminary blessings, the
prefatory praises, the doxology of the shema (declaration of faith) and standing before
God’s presence in the amidah (central prayer). The simple non-meditative explanation
of these sections is as follows: The first part, the preliminary blessings, is a fixed
formula blessing of God for the renewal of the day and includes blessings for daybreak,
clothes, freedom from slavery, eyesight and strength. It also includes a recitation of
the sacrifices that were previously offered in Temple times. The second part, prefatory
praises addressing God as King, is an adoration consisting of hymns, Biblical psalms

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 50 7/5/2013 7:13:58 PM

 Meditative Prayer in Moshe Cordovero’s Kabbalah 51

and blessings of God’s kingship. The third component of the prayer service, the shena,
is a doxology of God as one together with the Biblical verses on love of God (Deut.
6.4–9). It also includes three blessings about God’s love. The fourth part, the amidah,
is a recitation of 19 blessings or petitions, as if one is standing in the direct presence of
God as King. This is followed by prostration and supplication as if one were addressing
the deity directly in front of one. Finally, there are closing hymns and chants to ward
off the evil forces that may attach themselves to one’s prayers.
The meditative explanation of the four sections of morning worship is as follows:
The initial recitation of the sacrifices moves one beyond the external world into the
zone of prayer. The second part, the prefatory, utilizes praises to draw energy down
to malkhut, thereby developing an intricate luminous mental screen. The third part
of prayer, the shema, creates a static image through unification. The fourth part of
the service, the amidah, is the mystical ascent and loss of self, followed by a slow and
complex drawing down of higher forms through Kabbalistic energy.
In short, Cordovero’s meditation is a mental process of manipulating specific
foci within these luminous realms and developing a complex system of conduits. In
his visualization, the meditator keeps returning above and reconnecting the higher
realms to the lower realm. Many patterns of movement are possible: horizontally based
variations move to the right side and then to the middle and left side, or one crosses
from right to left and vice versa, or one moves each triad to connect to the next triad.
There are vertical variants that move each level of the mediations down sefirah by
sefirah as ten steps, and there are other versions that connect the higher realms directly
to the lower realms. After creating the mental, luminous realm, at specific points one
either unifies the array or manipulates it in other ways. Examples would be thinking of
the blessing of the Divine names to invoke magical powers, or thinking of other images
such as the 12-sided image of tiferet or 40-point image of malkhut, during the amidah
or shema respectively. These preparatory sensory images of the sefirot bring one to the
intuition of the Divine essence. Then one collapses this image upward, similar to the
process of autohypnosis, followed by the annunciation of the words of prayer.7 There
are always two parts to the ascent: the unified undifferentiated ascent of the mind,
volition and breath as the first part, followed by the differentiated ascent of words as
the second part.
There are two aspects to prayer: the enunciated words and the mental intention.
The enunciation of the words, with the breath, raises the words above while the
visualization of the graphic images of the words, along with their auditory vowels, are
the vessels containing the descending influx. However, the intention merges everything
into God; cleaving to the Divine requires an intellectual and volitional binding in the
mental ascent (and ascent of the breath) followed by ascent of the words and visions
of ascending palaces.

Nominalism
Cordovero treats the spatial descriptions of the sefirot as actual descriptions of
the attributes of God, however the names of sefirot are just nominalist names

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 51 7/5/2013 7:13:58 PM

 52 Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

for certain states, levels and visualization experiences. The sefirot are all analogy
(mashal), our refracted human attempt to explain our experiences of the Divine
hierarchy through a glass. Cordovero relates his practice to the thought of the
Jewish philosopher Maimonides (d. 1204) by using a negative theology of God
and by treating the attributes of God as only a means of describing reality from
the human perspective. Cordovero considers meditation and experience as the
basis for understanding Kabbalistic texts. He writes that the sefirot, unlike all the
diagrams of the sefirot drawn throughout the centuries, ‘do not exist in a spatial
continuum, and therefore, it is impossible to differentiate them except through
analogy’. Cordovero adds that one should not treat the sefirot as literal, corporeal
or even as real entities:

[The sefirot] do not exist in a spatial continuum, and therefore, it is impossible to

differentiate them except through analogy. Using colours as metaphor, one can
differentiate between ascending, or increasing, according to the relation between
one colour and another. The dynamics of the sefirot can therefore be alluded to
completely through the interplay of colours. All this is to ‘ease the physical ear’,
allowing the verbal expression of these concepts. There is no question that the
colours can thus serve as a door to the dynamics of the sefirot. They are also useful
in transmitting influence from a given sefirah.8

In keeping with a non-literal approach, Cordovero instructs the reader not to treat the
sefirot literally and to visualize the sefirot as letters. Cordovero uses the vowels of the
Tikkunei Zohar tradition from the late thirteenth century (Tikkun 70), which ascribes
the long vowels to the highest realms, while the shorter vowels are gradually ascribed
to lower sefirot. The vowel keter is kametz, hokhmah is patah, binah is zerei, hessed is
segol, gevurah is sheva, tiferet is holem, nezah is hirik, hod is kubetz, yesod is shuruk
while malkhut does not have a vowel because it reflects the influx of the energy of the
other vowels (Table 4.1).

Table 4.1 Sefirot and vowels

Sefirah Hebrew vowel name Hebrew vowel sign

(combined with ‫)ב‬
Keter (Crown) Kamaz ‫ָב‬
Hokhmah (Wisdom) Patah ‫ַב‬
Binah (Understanding) Zeirei ‫ֵב‬
Hesed (Kindness) Segol ‫ֶב‬
Gevurah (Severity) Sheva ‫ְב‬
Tiferet (Beauty) Holam ֺ‫ב‬
Nezah (Victory) Hirik ‫ִב‬
Hod (Glory) Kubetz ‫ֻב‬
Yesod (Foundation) Shuruk ּ‫בו‬
Malchut (Kingship) No vowel

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 52 7/5/2013 7:13:58 PM

 Meditative Prayer in Moshe Cordovero’s Kabbalah 53

The visualization of the Divine names changes in the mind during meditation based
on the vowel associated with it. Changing vowels is equivalent to an ascent or descent
in the sefirotic realm:

There are ten of these Divine names, and Rabbi Shimeon b. Yohai has explained all
of them in the Tikkunim. They are the following: The first is for keter, YoHoVoHo;
its vowels are kamaz. The second is for hokhmah, YaHaVaHa; its vowels are patah.
The third is for binah, YeiHeiVeiHei its vowels are zeirei. The fourth is for hesed,
YeHeVeHe; its vowels are segol. The fifth is for gevurah, YeHeVeHe; its vowels are
sheva. The sixth is for tiferet, YoHoVoHo; its vowels are holam. The seventh is for
nezah, YiHiViHi; its vowels are hirik. The eighth is for hod, YuHuVuHu; its vowels
are with three dots [kubetz]. The ninth is for yesod, YuHuVuHu; is vowels are
shuruk. The tenth is malkhut, Y-H-V-H; it does not have any vowels for it receives
[the downward influx from] all the vowels. The reason is that She [the Shekhinah]
performs all activities.9

These Divine names function as a mental icon for use in meditation and not as a
pictorial icon of a deity:

Furthermore, it is fitting for the meditator during his meditations to be careful so

that he does not think of the attributes as corporeal things. Rather, meditate on the
attributes using Divine names, for we are unable to bound or define each attribute
except through these Divine names.10

According to Cordovero, one cannot pray directly to the sefirot as an icon of the
infinite deity, because prayer needs to reach the actual infinite aspect of the Divine. On
the other hand, one cannot pray without the ascending mediation through the levels
starting from the bottom, because that would be ineffectual, since one cannot skip over
the lower levels, the same way that one cannot get to the centre of a palace without
going through anterooms first.

It is improper to meditate such that his meditation should be on the attributes

[of God], with his thought arising only on the attributes. Rather, all [thought
should be] mysteriously connected to the source . . . However, there is no [mental]
activity connected to the source Himself without coming through His attributes.
Therefore, it is fitting for the worshiper in saying ‘Blessed’ to know and understand
the attribute through which the source is called ‘Blessed,’ and similarly for the
other attributes and names.11

Cleaving to God: Cordovero’s description of the event

Cordovero has a complex theory of the soul, beyond the scope of this chapter, in which
humans have over 20 parts to their soul, ranging from the biological pneuma, through
one’s veins up to various astral bodies, each of these in turn consisting of several parts.

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 53 7/5/2013 7:13:59 PM

 54 Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

The soul, which is often considered to harbour consciousness or psyche, possesses

intellect, volition and emotion; these are to be channelled into service of the higher
soul (neshmah). The higher soul cleaves in both thought and emotions to the Divine
and enters into the Divine realm, thereby attaining peace, enlightenment and a return
to its source. To achieve this:

A person can cleave to Him through directing his will to the mystery of the sefirot,
the Tetragrammaton, and the [other] Divine names. One who does not know the
mystery of how to cleave to Him will not have the ability to grasp Him.
‘He will cleave like a flame in a coal . . .’
Man’s volition and soul ascends from the will of his heart to be certainly bound to
the supernal palaces. Thus, man should first meditate on repairing malkhut. Her
repairs are the mystery of the palaces, like a flame bound in a coal,
The mystery of man’s intention is the breath of his mouth created from the vapour
of his mouth, and the soul arising through the breath. They cleave and return to
their source . . . He should meditate on binding and unifying her . . . There is the
beginning of holy cleaving and binding oneself in unification.12

Cordovero experiences his connection in thought and emotion to the shekhinah and
thereby his ascent to cleaving to God as a way of the flame; as a flame rises up as
fire and smoke, so too the human soul. We see here that he describes his practices as
volitional rather than visionary. One must direct the will towards the Divine and ignite
the inert coal so that the flames can allow everything to be obliterated into smoke,
representing Divine oneness. One repairs the shekhinah as the coal by making sure
that the flame is bound to the coal. The flame is the energy from above that ascends
as vapour into the unknown of the air around the fire. Cordovero also offers breath as
a metaphor for this ascent, since every breath returns as vapour to its Divine source
above. Cordovero reverses the order of the Zohar where the flame of the sefirot is
connected to the source of the fuel in the infinite coal, and the theosophical fire is the
ephemeral manifestation of the hidden energies of the coal. For Cordovero, the fire is
real and the coal is ephemeral. The meditation practice is to enter the chambers and
palaces below the shekhinah and raise them into the shekhinah, thereby raising one’s
own soul.

Silence and clouds

Ascent in silence is Cordovero’s interpretation of the loss of differentiation and

integration of the self within the third sefirah, binah. This ascent, during the silent
prayer of 19 blessings (amidah), allows the entrance and then the merging of the soul
into the supernal realms. Cordovero uses ascent imagery such as breath, clouds, vapour
and air to explain the process. Cordovero writes with a light ephemeral approach about
the supernal realms. He calls the ascent itself silence (hashai), because in the place of
silence, all differentiation of the sefirotic realms vanishes like vapour into the mystical

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 54 7/5/2013 7:13:59 PM

 Meditative Prayer in Moshe Cordovero’s Kabbalah 55

oneness. The union of the sixth sefirah, tiferet, and the final sefirah, malkhut, exists as
unarticulated silence; however, the second sefirah, hokhmah, is beyond the realm of
language and is depicted as an apophatic cloud. The silence ascends, while the clouds
descend. When everything is dissolved into the undifferentiated oneness, the lack of
structure causes the infinite light, as mediated by the 72-letter name, to descend with
the shekhinah and down to the person praying.

[The Tikkune Zohar writes:] ‘When the Shekhinah enters into these clouds, she
enters in silence with the silent prayers’ etc.
The ascent of the Shekhinah does not literally mean that [only] She ascends. Rather,
the mystery of Her ascent is really the mystery of the ascent of all of the sefirot to
connect above to their source . . . Through the shekhinah’s ascent to bind [herself]
with tiferet, she causes tiferet to bind with Her through the mystery of the descent
of the higher levels. That is, keter flows into hokhmah, and hokhmah into the
[other] sefirot . . . Then, the mystery of the setting of the clouds will be fulfilled.
Nevertheless, the adornments are all gathered together, and do not go up word by
word. Rather, the breaths of prayer become unified with the air of the world until
all prayers are gathered together . . . When they [the sefirot] do not have any Divine
influence to influence [the lower worlds], they are silent.13

Unity of shema

To demonstrate how this is done during a prayer service, we will look at how it is done
with the doxology of the shema, which consists of six words. ‘Hear O Israel, The Lord
is God, the Lord is One’.
The Zohar describes the moment of the recitation of the shema as a unification of
the divine realm. For Cordovero, the Zohar’s unity of the sefirot becomes a visualization
and the raising of human volition unto the infinite Eyn Sof (that which is without
limit). The enunciated words of the shema are the means to ascend to the sefirot.14

‘To make one unity of the six words of Hear O Israel (Deuteronomy 6:4), and to
direct the will on them above.’
[The Zohar] deliberately said ‘six words’ and then ‘direct the will’ because the Ein
Sof cannot be connected to any word, name, serif, or crown. Rather, the words and
names only refer to the sefirot. Their unity comes through reciting the words of the
Shema. This is what is meant by the phrase, ‘To make one unity of the six words of
Hear O Israel,’ because the words themselves are in the sefirot.15

Cordovero writes his own summary intention in the margin above the words of the
liturgy:

The section of ‘Hear O Israel’ (shema yisrael) has six words alluding to six sefirot
within tiferet. In the verse ‘Blessed is the name of His glorious kingdom forever
and ever,’ there are also six words alluding to six sefirot within yesod:

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 55 7/5/2013 7:13:59 PM

 56 Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Meditate on malkhut, which is the opening of the entering [into tiferet].

Hear (shema)
Supplicate to tiferet that he should dwell with her. in hokhmah
Israel! (Yisrael) The Lord (Y-H-V-H)
Bind hokhmah with binah. tiferet.
Is our God (e-lo-heinu) the Lord (Y-H-V-H)
Malkhut united with tiferet.
Alone (ehad).

Adonai ascent

To use another example, in the fourth part of Jewish liturgy, the amidah, one is standing
before God personified as king. One enunciates an opening of six words: ‘Lord, I open
up my lips. And my mouth will declare your glory’ (Adonai S’fatai Tiftach. U’fi yagid
tehilatecha). These words will serve as a springboard to do the requisite visualization
of starting with malkhut down below and then visualizing the movement up to tiferet
and then a return to malkhut to visually ascend to hokhmah.
A scripted version of the visualization on just this one line would proceed as
follows: at the start of the amidah, one seeks to enter into the divine realm by crossing
‘the two gates of prayer’, nezah and hod. This means that through visualization one
raises malkhut higher than nezah and hod, and from there one visualizes that malkhut
becomes connected to tiferet together with the influx from hokhmah and binah into
tiferet.
There are six successive levels of visualization or meditation of the prayer, some of
them mental screen upon mental screen while others are comprised of screen replacing
screen. The first level is the visualized ascent, the second is the volition bringing
everything up, the third is the visualization of sefirot upon the luminous background,
the fourth is the sefirot upon and within other sefirot. There are micro visions within
a larger vision, the fifth element is to see oneself as rising through the four worlds, in
which the sefirot are considered different each time. Finally, one visualizes that divine
names are superimposed on the mental screen.
Cordovero describes the process of prayer as a process of volitionally going
through doors in combination with the language of ascent. For Cordovero, one
experiences oneness with the luminous realm as well as reaching the discreet sefirot
that one is instructed to reach. He also gives directions for concurrent love, loss of
self and volitional intention, some of these are the results of meditation and others
are prerequisite emotions of adoration that are needed to enter the meditation.
It is hard to decide if they are prerequisites or results. For example, the amidah
meditation contains strong volitional elements, in which one is told to focus on love
and submission to enter the gates of tiferet. One silently opens the gates to reach the

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 56 7/5/2013 7:13:59 PM

 Meditative Prayer in Moshe Cordovero’s Kabbalah 57

Divine, since the amidah is silent. One visualizes standing at the tiferet of the sefirah
of binah, as a micro sefirah within a sefirah; there is a repeat of all ten sefirot within
the sefirah of binah so one focuses on the tiferet of binah. One’s goal is a mental unity
(yihud) with the divine attained by getting past the first noise in the mind to get to
that point of tiferet.
The opening words of the liturgy, (Adonai [ADNY] S’fatai Tiftach. U’fi yagid
[YAGID] tehilatecha), become a complex visualization based on the division of the
Hebrew words of the prayer into separate visualizations. The Divine name Lord
(Adonai) ADNY is divided in the visualization into two parts AY and DN. The first
and fourth letters of the name, AY, become the word AYn as in Ayn Sof, the infinite
of God, so it reflects the Infinite oneness found within the ten sefirot, showing the
unity of keter, tiferet, and malkhut. The middle two letters DN, become the word DiN
meaning judgement, so it represent the forces of judgement and materiality showing
the emanation process as privation from the Divine goodness.
This method of breaking words into separate letters and interpreting each
letter was already practised in the thirteenth century for isolated words such as the
division of one (ehad) of Shema into three units, E, H and D with three separate
visualizations. But here we have words of the amidah, especially the name A-donai
(A-d-n-y), divided into aleph, for the top three sefirot, daled-nun as judgement of
the world and yod as the ten sefirot. The infinite light above (aleph) descends to the
earthy world of judgement (daled-nun) through the means of the ten sefirot (yod).
The infinite light cascades down in emanation as the discrete units of the three
Divine names: E-yheyah, Y-H-V-H and A-donai. These names fill the mental screen,
almost like flash cards.
The word ‘will tell’ (yagid) of ‘will tell wisdom’ (yagid hokhmah) is given a similar
treatment. Yagid has dual connotations of the literal meaning, ‘to tell a secret’, and
the esoteric meaning, ‘sexual organ’ (gid), meaning that the primordial wisdom of
hokhmah comes down as a drop of semen and shoots out like an arrow. Gimmel and
daled, as the third and fourth letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which equals seven,
stand for the emanation of wisdom into the seven (GD) lower sefirot telling (yagid)
their secrets. They also represent the sexual organ (gid), which corresponds to the
sefirah of yesod, to which malkhut was joined in order to reach beyond nezah and
hod.
These complex letter manipulations, which are superimposed on the pattern of
ascent, necessitate the personal writing of a prayer book to be used during prayer. One
must master the details by converting textual descriptions into workable mnemonics.
I have noticed that twenty-first-century Kabbalists use coloured markers, colour tabs
and highlighters in prayer books to indicate the directions for the proper visualizations
to be used in prayer meditation. The complex visualizations can be done with ease
when one is turning the pages of pictures of the ideal visualized words, letters and
sense of space.
With the start of the actual amidah, there is a resulting moment of the mind seeming
to merge with the higher realm of binah. Following this, the meditator looks further
above to the higher levels in order to bring the infinite into the world of judgements

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 57 7/5/2013 7:13:59 PM

 58 Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

(din, also called gevurah in other contexts). In this meditation, there is the sense of
infinite, and there is the transformative sexual image in which Divine wisdom is
portrayed as semen. (According to traditional biology, semen was produced in the
brain and travelled down the spinal cord.)

ADNY, this name is malkhut.

Meditate that She is now higher than nezah and hod, as She is silently rising. The
individual is silent because the union is in silence. The mystery of this verse [to
open the lips] is to open the door of the palace for the worshiper to enter inside.
One knocks and says, ‘my Lord’ (ADNY), who is malkhut, as she is the aspect
bound in the mystery of daled nun that she is the mystery of alef, which is the
name eh-yeh in binah and the mystery of yud, which is Y-H-V-H in tiferet. This
is why she is called Ado-nai, tied to three names, Eh-yeh, Y-H-V-H, Ado-nai on
nezah and hod.
‘My lips’ are nezah and hod;
‘open’ (tiftah) from inside the palace.
‘and my mouth’ (u’fi) for through the opening of the lips the mouth is formed,
which is malkhut.
Immediately, ‘will express’ (yaggid), from the side of hokhmah, which is the mystery
of gimmel daled, seven sefirot GYD, a drop from the brains that are drawn down in
the mystery of semen that shoots like an arrow.16

First blessing

The first paragraph of blessing in the amidah offers a sample of the meditations on
each of the amidah’s 19 blessings. The goal of the first blessing during the silent amidah
is to draw down from binah into the lower sefirot. One has a whole vision in which the
energy descends into yesod and malkhut.
Cordovero alerts the reader not to misunderstand the process by thinking that one
is still just connecting the lower to the higher sefirot. Rather, during the time one is
reciting this blessing, one is completely within the infinite energy of binah and drawing
the energy down within the depths of the oneness. Binah is treated as if it was a specific
psychological state, a chamber unto itself, and the references to sefirotic locations are
all within this binah chamber. The entire first blessing is not only in binah but also in
a place called the depths of binah, either indicating a deeper chamber or a deeper state
of mental cleaving. The imagery is of an infinite king, a cosmic deity great enough to
have a multitude of aspects (bekhinot), called inner limbs.

This entire blessing is in the depths of binah until [the last words of the blessing]
‘shield of Abraham’ when She descends into hesed. Whenever it says that [the
prayer] goes down into malkhut and the avot, it is all hidden in binah.17

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 58 7/5/2013 7:14:00 PM

 Meditative Prayer in Moshe Cordovero’s Kabbalah 59

Cordovero reiterates that his method is to go from top to bottom during blessings,
drawing down from the Eyn Sof to malkhut.
Cordovero sees the question of whether one should visualize top to bottom or
bottom to top as a practical issue; for him, the best means of bringing influx and
sweetening is by starting at the top and drawing the influence down:

‘Bless’ During the amidah, one should direct ‘bless’ down from the Ein Sof to yesod
including all ten sefirot from the Source of everything, to bring down influence
from on high until malkhut below through thought.
Should he start ‘bless’ from bottom-up, then he is standing in din. Rather, start
from the top; this is the mystery of ‘blessed’ from top-down to repair it beforehand
with influx and sweetening its judgements.18

Energy is drawn down from the top three sefirot to the middle six; first as keter,
hokhmah and binah into tiferet, into a 12-sided version of tiferet, and in the concluding
blessings of the amidah the bringing of the spiritual energy into malkhut.

UbaLezion and demons

Before Cordovero ends his practice, he offers a meditation to keep the demons away.
Demons play an important role in Cordovero’s meditative process as personified forces
of vice. The demons are not an independent realm, as in thirteenth-century Castilian
Kabbalah, nor do they imply a fallen world. The meditation UbaLezion allows the
closing of the liturgical service to be a time when the person praying can fortify the
holiness of God and thereby not leave any space for the demons to enter. In the start
of the prayer service, the recitation of the sacrifices serves to create the mental sacred
space by removing the demonic forces; the end of prayer needs to expand the sacred
space by undoing the limited prayer realm through expansively engaging in a fight
with the demons of one’s ordinary life.

Conclusions

Cordovero offers a complex path of meditation that is to be followed on a daily

basis by turning the traditional prayer book into a scripted meditation manual of
visualization of a luminous realm, sefirot, Divine names and the Hebrew letters of
the prayers. Concurrent with this were a number of psychological states that are
both prerequisite and results, such as merging with the Divine, calm, silence and
love. Cordovero inherited several Neo-platonic, Catholic and Sufi techniques with
their ability to be above pain, in the light, and returning to the One. However, his
emphasis on textual interpretation of the Kabbalah and the creation of Kabbalistic
visual patterns into complex patterns has transcended the practical for the
interpretive.

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 59 7/5/2013 7:14:00 PM

 60 Meditation in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

His approach of combining ascents, colours, lights and divine names with the
returning of everything to an undifferentiated divine unity can be compared to the
world’s other focused meditations found in Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism,
Daoism and Hindu Tantric yoga meditations. This presentation moves the investigation
of Kabbalistic meditation away from discussions of the mystical unity or magical
ascents to the complex mental meditations. Much further work needs to be done to
explore Cordovero’s ascent into lights, colours and names.

9781441122148_Ch04_Fpp_txt_prf.indd 60 7/5/2013 7:14:00 PM