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Adam Kadmon: Difference between revisions
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Some Kabbalists teach that when the [[sefirot]] emanated from [[Ein Sof]], they first took the form of Adam Kadmon. Kabbalists describe him as “the concealed shape of the Godhead itself.”<ref>Gershom G. Scholem, ''On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead: Basic Concepts in the Kabbalah'' (New York: Schocken Books, 1991), p. 39.</ref> Adam Kadmon is androgynous; in him the male and female forces are in complete harmony and balance. | Some Kabbalists teach that when the [[sefirot]] emanated from [[Ein Sof]], they first took the form of Adam Kadmon. Kabbalists describe him as “the concealed shape of the Godhead itself.”<ref>Gershom G. Scholem, ''On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead: Basic Concepts in the Kabbalah'' (New York: Schocken Books, 1991), p. 39.</ref> Adam Kadmon is androgynous; in him the male and female forces are in complete harmony and balance. | ||
Kabbalists usually depict Adam Kadmon so that we are viewing his back. This is based on the passage from Exodus where Moses asks God to show him his glory but the Lord reveals only his back to Moses, saying: “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me and live.... And thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.”<ref>Exod. 33:22, 30.</ref> | Kabbalists usually depict Adam Kadmon so that we are viewing his back. This is based on the passage from Exodus where [[Moses]] asks God to show him his glory but the Lord reveals only his back to Moses, saying: “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me and live.... And thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.”<ref>Exod. 33:22, 30.</ref> | ||
The Adam of the [[Garden of Eden]] was the anthropological counterpart of Adam Kadmon. Before he sinned, Adam’s body was spiritual and ethereal. After he fell from his divine state in Eden, Adam took on a material body. But Adam Kadmon never descended below the realm of heavenly perfection. | The Adam of the [[Garden of Eden]] was the anthropological counterpart of Adam Kadmon. Before he sinned, Adam’s body was spiritual and ethereal. After he fell from his divine state in Eden, Adam took on a material body. But Adam Kadmon never descended below the realm of heavenly perfection. | ||