Editing Sefirot (section)

==Man-metaphor in Kabbalah==
{{Main|Anthropomorphism in Kabbalah}}
Kabbalah uses subtle [[Anthropomorphism in Kabbalah|anthropomorphic]] analogies and metaphors to describe [[God in Judaism]], both the God-world relationship, and the inner nature of the divine. These include the metaphor of the soul-body relationship, the functions of human soul-powers, the configuration of human bodily form, and female-male influences in the divine. Kabbalists repeatedly warn and stress the need to divorce their notions from any corporality, dualism, plurality, or spatial and temporal connotations. As "the Torah speaks in the language of Man",<ref>[[Talmud]] [[Berakhot (Talmud)|Berachot]] 31b and other sources in [[Chazal]]</ref> the empirical terms are necessarily imposed upon human experience in this world. Once the analogy is described, its limitations are then related to stripping the kernel of its husk to arrive at a truer conception. Nonetheless, Kabbalists carefully chose their terminology to denote subtle connotations and profound relationships in the divine spiritual influences. More accurately, as they see the emanation of the material world from the spiritual realms, the analogous anthropomorphisms and material metaphors themselves derive through cause and effect from their precise root analogies on High.

Describing the material world below in general, and humans in particular, as created in the "image" of the world above is not restricted in [[Rabbinic Judaism]] to Kabbalah, but abounds more widely in [[Hebrew Bible|Biblical]], [[Midrashic]], [[Talmudic]] and philosophical literature.{{sfnp|Schochet|1998|loc=ch. 1, "Anthropomorphism and Metaphors"}} Kabbalah extends the Man-metaphor more radically to anthropomorphise particular divine manifestations on high, while repeatedly stressing the need to divest analogies from impure materialistic corporality. Classical [[proof text]]s on which it bases its approach include, "From my flesh I envisage God",<ref>[[Book of Job|Job]] 19:26</ref> and the rabbinic analogy "As the soul permeates the whole body...sees but is not seen...sustains the whole body...is pure...abides in the innermost precincts...is unique in the body...does not eat and drink...no man knows where its place is...so the Holy One, Blessed is He..."<ref>[[Talmud]] [[Berakhot (Talmud)|Berachot]] 10a, Midrash Tehillim 103:4,5, Tikunei Zohar 13:28a and later Kabbalistic commentary. Cited in footnote 7, chapter 1, ''Mystical Concepts in Chassidism''</ref> Together with the metaphor of light, the Man-metaphor is central in Kabbalah. Nonetheless, it too has its limitations, needs qualification, and breaks down if taken as a literal, corporeal comparison. Its limitations include the effect of the body on the soul, while the World effects no change in God; and the distinct, separate origins of the soul and the body, while in relation to God's omnipresence, especially in its acosmic Hasidic development, all creation is nullified in its source.