The origin, nature and final destiny of Evil is one of the central concerns for theologians, philosophers and mystics. Developments in early Kabbalah (c. 13th. century) made for a dramatic and daring reconception of Evil as beginning within the dynamism of the divinity itself. This episode explores one of the earliest texts about this new Kabbalistic theory of Evil, the Treatise on the Emanations of the Left or Ma'amar HaAtzilut HaSma'lit. This difficult and obscure texts details the origins of Evil, Demons and their final destiny as understood in one of the earliest strata of Kabbalah and serves as the foundation for the later development of the Klippot in later Lurianic Kabbalah.

#kabbalah #klippot #jewishdemonology

Recommended Readings:

Treatise on the Emanations of the Left ( Ma'amar HaAtzilut HaSma'lit) in Dan Early Kabbalah 9780809127696
Tishby The Wisdom of the Zohar (esp. volume II) 9781874774280
Scholem On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead 9780805210811
Wolfson Light through Darkness: The Ideal of Human Perfection in the Zohar https://www.jstor.org/stable/1509586?...
Idel Primeval Evil in Kabbalah 9781602804036