JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

emancipation
spring of water which, he says, is “the most fitting simile for
the action of one who is separate from matter” (Guide of the
Perplexed, 2:12). Divine emanation also accounts for cognition
and prophecy (ibid., 2:37). The governance of the lower world
is perfected by means of forces emanating from the spheres
(ibid., 2:5). Still, this emanation is said to be unlike that of heat
from fire and light from the sun in that it constantly assures
duration and order for the existents that emanate from God
by “wisely contrived governance” (ibid., 1:59). Maimonides’
insistence on creation in time and insertion of intention and
wisdom into a scheme of emanation appear to contradict the
presuppositions of the latter. *Levi b. Gershom found several
difficulties with the theory of emanation which postulates an
eternal procession from God (Milḥamot Adonai, 6:1, 7; see
also Guttmann, Philosophies, 211ff.). He maintained, for example,
that it was impossible for existence to flow constantly
from God to the heavenly bodies (as opposed to their being
brought into being at once), for the heavens would thus exist
only potentially.
[Joel Kraemer]
In Kabbalah
Though the term aẓilut has many meanings in Hebrew, the
Jewish philosophers and kabbalists used it to describe different
forms of emanation. The Hebrew term is understood as pointing
to both the process of emanation and to the realm that is
emanated. The major concept that is conveyed by this term
is the prolongation of a spiritual entity into a hypostasis that
does not separate itself essentially from its source. According
to such a view, the Infinity, Ein-Sof, underwent a process of
autogenesis that produced a realm of ten divine powers which,
different as they are from each other, nevertheless constitute
together the divine zone. In this mode of understanding the
process of emanation is conceived of as remaining within
God, offering a pseudo-etymology of aẓilut as if related to
the Hebrew word eẓlo, “with him,” namely with God. Though
articulated since the 13th century, this view has much earlier
Jewish sources, as early as second century, according to which
some angels are extensions of the divine glory and return to
it after completing their mission. This view is known in Kabbalah
as the doctrine of essence, which means that the divine
emanated powers are identical with the divine essence. According
to another view, the emanation is constituted as the
shadow of the higher plane of being. This view understands
aẓilut as if derived from the Hebrew ẓel, “shadow,” and points
to a concept of efflux that somehow leaves its source. This view
is more consonant with the kabbalistic theory according to
which the first emanated powers are the instruments used by
the Infinite to create the world and to interact with it, or the
vessels which contain the divine energy, which pour themselves
out. The instrumental view of emanation is closer to,
and derived and adapted by, the kabbalists from Neoplatonic
sources which reached them via Arabic and Latin translations.
In some few cases, the astrological theory of emanations descending
from stars and other celestial bodies was represented
by the term aẓilut.
Though emanation explains the gradual descent from
the Infinity to the lower world as part of a great chain of being,
in two important cases there is a direct emanation from
the divinity: both the Torah and the soul are described as
circumventing the great chain of being, and having a special
relationship with the divine. In these cases, evident in Naḥmanides
and Cordovero, the special emanation is described
as a cord that allows the kabbalist to have a theurgical impact
on the divine sphere.
In many forms of theosophies, the first world is described
as the world of emanation, olam ha-aẓilut, as part of the fourfold
distinction ABYA (Aẓilut, Beri’ah, Yeẓirah, Asiyyah). During
the Renaissance period, kabbalists in Italy like Johanan
*Alemanno or David Messer *Leon paid special attention to
the processes of the emanation of the Sefirot, and this development
influenced the Safedian kabbalists.
[Moshe Idel (2nd ed.)]
Bibliography: Guttman, Philosophies, index; D. Neumark,
Geschichte der juedischen Philosophie des Mittelalters 1 (1907), 503ff.;
Scholem, Mysticism, S.V. emanation; idem, in: Tarbiz, 2 (1931/32),
415–42; 3 (1932/33), 33–66; J. Ben-Shlomo, Torat ha-Elohut shel R.
Moshe Cordovero (1965), 170–82. Add. Bibliography: E. Gottlieb,
Studies in Kabbalah Literature (1978), 11–17, 397–476; E. Gottlieb
and M. Idel, Enchanted Chains (2005); M. Idel, “Between the View
of Sefirot as Essence and Instruments in the Renaissance Period,” in:
Italia, 3 (1982), 89–111 (Heb.).
EMANCIPATION.
Definitions and Dialectics
Emancipation of the Jews in modern times stands alongside
such other emancipatory movements as those of the serfs,
women, slaves in the United States, and Catholics in England.
The term “emancipation” is derived from Latin (emancipatio),
and originally meant in ancient Rome the liberation of a
son from the authority of his father and his attainment of independent
legal status. It has come to mean the liberation of
individuals or groups from servitude, legal restrictions, and
political and social disabilities. Jewish emancipation denotes
the abolition of disabilities and inequities applied specially to
Jews, the recognition of Jews as equal to other citizens, and
the formal granting of the rights and duties of citizenship.
Essentially the legal act of emancipation should have been
simply the expression of the diminution of social hostility
and psychological aversion toward Jews in the host nation.
Indeed, Jewish emancipation was related to the weakening
of the general social antipathy toward Jews; but the antipathy
was not obliterated, and constantly hampered the realization
of equality even after it had been proclaimed by the state and
included in the law. Emancipation was achieved by ideological
and social change and political and psychological strife. Before
achieving full emancipation the Jews in many countries passed
through several transitional stages. They had to overcome
the barriers of vested interests and such ancient prejudices
as the hateful image of the Jew as alien, his religion odious,
and his economics unscrupulous. Ideologically, emancipation
374 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6