צלם אדם ישרThe Upright Image

tzelem adam yasharIn Gamatria ↗

Circle and column: both maps of the sefirot are true.

The same line also runs straight from the top of the highest circle to the bottom of the lowest. It takes the form of an upright human figure of 248 limbs in three columns: right, left and middle. This is the 'image of God' of Genesis 1:27. Vital says almost all of the Zohar and Tikkunim speak of this upright aspect. It settles an old dispute among kabbalists, some of whom placed the sefirot as ten levels one beneath the other and some in three columns. Both are true, he says, like 'these and these are the words of the living God'. A further passage ranks the circles as the nefesh level and the upright line as the higher ruach.

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