The Sefirot and the Laws of Bnei Noach
It is well known that there are 7 mitzvot that God expects all of humanity to follow:
The Sages taught: The descendants of Noah, i.e., all of humanity, were commanded to observe seven mitzvot: The mitzva of establishing courts of judgment; and the prohibition against blessing, i.e., blaspheming, the name of God; and the prohibition of worshipping idols; and the prohibition against forbidden sexual relations; and the prohibition of bloodshed; and the prohibition of robbery; and the prohibition against eating a limb from a living animal.
Since there are 7 Noachide laws, it makes perfect sense to correspond them to the seven emotive/behavioral powers of the soul which derive from the sefirot from loving-kindness to kingdom. The way to understand this correspondence is that each of the seven Noachide commandments is meant to guard against the violation or perversion of one of these essential channels of Divine energy.
- might-gevurah גְּ בו ּרָ ה: Prohibition against Bloodshed
- loving-kindness-chessed חֶ סֶ ד: Prohibition against Adultery
- beauty-tiferet תִּ פְ אֶ רֶ ת: Prohibition against Robbery
- acknowledgment-hod דֹ הו: Prohibition against Blasphemy
- victory-netzach נֶצַ ח: Prohibition against Idolatry
- foundation-yesod דֹ יְסו: Prohibition against Eating Flesh from a Live Animal
- kingdom-malchut מַ לְ כוּת: Injunction to Establish a Just Legal System
Explanation of the Correspondence
That adultery is a perversion of loving-kindness and murder is a perversion of might seems obvious. Robbery is a perversion of the sefirah of beauty, since beauty as an emotive attribute enables one to relate to another with concern and empathy. The spiritual attribute of beauty desires to manifest in others their own full spectrum of beauty, the spectrum created by themselves together with all their possessions. The desire and concern that another person’s beauty be expressed prevents us from depriving that person of anything that rightfully belongs to him or her. The Torah relates beauty with honor (דֹכָּבו). The sages teach that “Who is honorable? He who honors others,” implying that the spiritual attribute of beauty entails giving honor and showing respect for others. There is no greater lack of respect and consideration than robbing possessions from another person.
True faith in the One God represents the human being’s ultimate victory over evil (whose only real power is its ability to misdirect one’s faith) and is the gateway to eternity. Thus, idol worship defeats the sefirah of victory. Just as the sefirah of acknowledgment is the complement of the sefirah of victory, so blasphemy, the complement to idol worship is a perversion of the soul’s expression of thanksgiving to or acknowledgment of God.
There are two opinions of the sages as to when the sixth Noachide commandment—the prohibition of eating flesh from a living animal (הַ חַ י מִ ן אֵ בֶ ר), was given to mankind. One opinion is that God gave this commandment to Adam with all the others. Adam and Eve had been instructed by God to be vegetarian, but were forbidden from partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge: “...for on the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Indeed, for Adam and Eve, the primordial sin itself—eating the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil—was comparable to eating a limb torn from a living animal.
In Kabbalah, we learn that had Adam and Eve been patient enough to wait only three hours until the Sabbath eve, the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge would have become permissible. The holiness inherent in the Sabbath would have elevated the spiritual life-force of the Tree of Knowledge, just as ritual slaughtering elevates the life-force of a permissible animal. Eating from the Tree of Knowledge on the Sabbath would have brought with it the blessing of new life (the power to procreate in sanctity, to bring new, holy souls into the world), instead of the penalty of death.
According to another opinion, while the first five and the last of the Bnei Noach commandments had already been given to Adam at the outset of creation, the sixth was given to Noach and his children only after the Flood. As noted, Adam and his descendants had been instructed by God to be vegetarian. After the Flood, God permitted Noach—whom the Torah calls the righteous one, the foundation of his generation—to eat animal flesh in general but forbade him from eating limbs amputated from a living animal.
In the body, the sefirah of foundation corresponds to the procreative organ (and thus to sexual arousal). The procreative organ is referred to as the “living limb” (אֵ בֶ ר חַי), a clear allusion to the correspondence of the commandment not to eat limbs amputated from a living animal (אֵ בֶ ר מִ ן הַ חַ י) and the sefirah of foundation. The spiritual base of this commandment is not to be cruel to living creatures, and, in general, not to be impulsive in one’s behavior. The psychological energy inherent in eating flesh torn from a living animal is similar to that which is the basis for an act of rape, the most impulsive of all behaviors. The ability to control oneself and not to succumb to the innate impulsivity of one’s animal nature is the power of foundation, as taught in Kabbalah and Chasidut.
The seventh Bnei Noach commandment is the only positive one. It is the commandment to establish a legal system in order to judge those who transgress the previous six commandments, and in this way to regulate and rectify society. This commandment corresponds to the sefirah of kingdom, for law and order is the basis of any kingdom. As the sages say, “the law of the kingdom is the law to be obeyed.”
Structure in the Partzuf
To gain further insight into the Kabbalistic logic behind the correspondence just presented, note that the first three commandments—the prohibitions against adultery, murder and theft—correspond to the triangle formed by the three primary emotions of the heart, lovingkindness, might, and beauty. These three moral commandments certainly constitute a category unto themselves. The next two commandments—the prohibitions against idolatry and blasphemy—correspond to the integral pair of behaviorist attributes, victory and acknowledgment, known in Kabbalah as “two sides of the body.” The next commandment—not to eat flesh taken from a living animal—corresponds to the sefirah of foundation, in a certain sense the most fundamental of all of the Laws of Bnei Noach, as will be explained. And so, in logical order, a division of three is followed by a division of two that is followed by a division of one, a general structural phenomenon with regard to the six attributes of the heart.
Finally, the one positive commandment—to establish a just legal system—corresponds to the sefirah of kingdom, as explained above. It too, like the commandment that prohibits eating a limb from a live animal, is all-inclusive in nature. But, unlike the singularity of foundation which unifies the preceding sefirot, the sefirah of kingdom receives and then reflects them all. Likewise, the purpose of establishing just courts of law is to regulate the observance of all the other Noachide commandments.
The Noachide Laws and the Rainbow Colors
As a final exposition of our partzuf, let us see what happens when we superimpose it on the partzuf of the colors of the rainbow appearing in the previous article:
- might-gevurah גְּ בו ּרָ ה: Prohibition against Bloodshed – red
- loving-kindness-chessed חֶ סֶ ד: Prohibition against Adultery – blue
- beauty-tiferet תִּ פְ אֶ רֶ ת: Prohibition against Robbery – yellow
- acknowledgment-hod דֹ הו: Prohibition against Blasphemy – orange
- victory-netzach נֶצַ ח: Prohibition against Idolatry – violet
- foundation-yesod דֹ יְסו: Prohibition against Eating Flesh from a Live Animal – green
- kingdom-malchut מַ לְ כוּת: Injunction to Establish a Just Legal System – indigo
As noted earlier, the physical order of the seven colors as they appear in the rainbow, from higher to lower frequency (from right to left in the spectrum), is: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. Let us follow this order in our partzuf:
- red
- blue
- indigo
- yellow
- orange
- violet
- green
The logic behind this path traced between the sefirot and the colors is a continual left-down and up shift, beginning with victory, the mid-point of the seven sefirot of the physical soul. Now, as we saw, victory corresponds to the prohibition of idolatry, the most fundamental of all seven Noachide Laws, making it the natural place to start.
