Chapter 9 The Language of Kabbalists: Branches

When we think or feel something and wish to convey it tosomeone else so that he may feel it too, we use words. There is ageneral consensus in the use of words and their meanings; whenwe call something ‘‘sweet,’’ the other person immediatelyunderstands what we mean since he imagines the same taste.Yet how closely does his conception of sweet match ours? Howcan we best communicate our feelings while still using words?The feelings of Kabbalists are above our level. Nevertheless,they wish to convey to us their wonder at things thathave no meaning for us. They do this through means takenfrom our world: often words, sometimes music notes, and onoccasion, by other means.

Kabbalists write about their experiences and feelings in theupper worlds. They write about the higher forces and whatthey discover there. They write for other Kabbalists, since theinteraction of studies between them is so essential and sofruitful. Their writings are then extended to those whohaven’t yet sensed spirituality, for those whose spirituality isstill hidden.

Since there are no words in the spiritual world to describetheir spiritual feelings, Kabbalists call these experiencesbranches, a word taken from our world. Therefore thelanguage used in books on Kabbalah is called the languageof branches. It is a language that borrows words from ourworld and uses them to identify spiritual experiences. Sinceeverything in the spiritual world has an equivalent in thephysical world, each root of the spiritual world has a name andthe name of its branch. And because we cannot describe ourfeelings precisely and do not know how to measure orcompare them, we use all kinds of auxiliary words to help.Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag writes in his book Talmud EsserHaSefirot (Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1 Looking Inwards):

...the Kabbalists chose a special language that can bereferred to as the ‘‘language of branches.’’ Nothing takesplace in this world that is not drawn from its roots in thespiritual world. On the contrary, everything in this worldoriginates in the spiritual world and then descends intothis world. The Kabbalists accordingly found a readylanguage by which they could easily convey theirachievements to one another orally and in writing forfuture generations. They took the names of branchesfrom the material world; each name is self-explanatoryand indicates its upper root in the higher world system.

For every force and action in this world there is a forceand action in the spiritual world that is its root. Eachspiritual force correlates to only one force, its branch in thematerial world.

Of this direct correlation it is written, ‘‘There is nothinggrowing below that does not have an angel above urging it togrow.’’ That is, there is nothing in our world that does nothave a corresponding force in the spiritual world. Because ofthis direct correlation, and because spirituality does notcontain names — just feelings and forces without the mantle ofanimal, mineral, vegetable, or speech—Kabbalists use namesof branches in this world in order to define their spiritual rootsby them. Baal HaSulam writes further:

With all the explanations, you will comprehend whatsometimes appear in the Kabbalah books as strangeterminology for the human spirit, particularly in the basicKabbalah books, The Zohar and books by the Ari. Thequestion arises, why did Kabbalists use such simpleterminology to express these lofty ideas? The explanationis that no language in the world can reasonably be used,except for the special language of branches, based on thecorresponding upper roots... It should not be surprising ifstrange expressions are sometimes used, since there is nochoice in the matter. The matter of good cannot replacethe matter of bad, and vice versa. We must always conveyprecisely the branch or incident showing the upper rootas the occasion dictates. We must also elaborate until theexact definition is found.

In Kabbalah, the student repeats the main ideas ofKabbalistic wisdom: ‘‘place,’’‘‘time,’’‘‘movement,’’‘‘lack,’’‘‘body,’’‘‘body parts’’ or ‘‘organs,’’‘‘match,’’‘‘kiss,’’‘‘hug,’’etc., over and over again, until he feels within himself the rightfeeling for every idea.

A final word: It should be noted that there are some so- calledinstructors of Kabbalah who communicate erroneousinterpretations to their students. The error stems from the factthat the Kabbalists wrote their books using the language ofbranches and used words from our world to express spiritualideas. Those who do not understand the correct use of thislanguage are mistaken. They teach that there is a connectionbetween the body and the spiritual Vessel, for example, as ifby physical actions a person is doing something spiritual. Thebranches are an integral part of Kabbalah and without theiruse, one is not learning true Kabbalah.