The Sabbath Within God: The Candelabrum of the Sefirot

Joseph of Hamadan was a key Castilian kabbalist of the late thirteenth to early fourteenth century, now thought to have been an integral member of the circle(s) of kabbalists who composed the Zohar. In this passage, he depicts a metaphysical Sabbath, where the Sabbath is a dimension of divinity, one of the sefirot. The six days of the workweek, of ḥol, or “ordinary time,” are also seen as dimensions of the divine self. Two primary metaphors and images are used to describe this striking intradivine portrait. The first is that of emanational flow, utilizing the ubiquitous kabbalistic word shefa (flow of abundance), which blends the image of a heavenly river with the rhetoric of “blessing,” a common term for the life-force of the sefirot, and of “nourishment,” their life-giving sustenance. The second metaphor sees the sefirot as an intradivine candelabrum. Here, the lower masculine sefirah, yesod, serves as the central anchor of the menorah of lights, upon whose energy the six candles (the six middle sefirot) draw. The Sabbath stands between the first three metaphysical “days,” Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and the second three, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.