Kabbalah, like any school of thought, has arguments within it.
I have studied the Kabbalah Centre version of thought, and here is what Rav Berg teaches (from Wikipedia)
Origins of the Universe according to Berg
The light is understood as part of the duality in the “light filled vessel” metaphor central to Berg’s cosmology. In Berg’s telling, the Kabbalistic origin of the universe is in agreement with the Big Bang – prior to a massive explosion, a sacred vessel was united with the light that filled it. The light was the force of creation and the vessel the force of desire/receiving. When the vessel desired to create, the two separated, resulting in void, followed by an explosion which shattered the vessel. These broken shards of vessel and light became the imperfect physical universe.
Said in a more poetic way: In the beginning there was The Light. Its nature was giving, but there was nothing to receive. So The Light created The Vessel, and the vessel was infused with the desire to receive.
At some point The Vessel experienced “bread of shame” and refused to receive the light of The Light unless it earned it.
The Light complied and withdrew itself to a tiny point… in the vacuum (space) the physical Universe sprang into place (the Big Bang.)
Bread of shame refers to the guilt and shame one experiences when one receives without a chance to reciprocate it or earn it.
The Vessel broke to tiny bits in the explosion and each tiny fragment is a soul, from time to time inhabiting a human in the physical universe, in the world of scarcity and separation, earning their light, so one day they can return to the world of unity and onness.
« Back to Glossary Index
