Ohr

{{Short description|Term in the Jewish mystical tradition}}

{{Hatnote|"Ma'ohr" (luminary), "Kli" (vessel) and "Shefa" (pleanty) redirect here. For vessels in the Talmud, see Keilim.

For other uses, see Ohr (disambiguation) and KLI.}}

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{{Kabbalah}}

Ohr ({{langx|he|אור|ʾor|Light}}, plural: {{lang|he|אורות}} ʾoroṯ) is a central Kabbalistic term in Jewish mysticism. The analogy to physical light describes divine emanations. Shefa "flow" ({{lang|he|שפע}} šep̄aʿ) and its derivative, hashpaʾa "influence" ({{lang|he|השפעה}} hašpāʿā), are sometimes alternatively used in Kabbalah and medieval Jewish philosophy to mean divine influence, while the Kabbalists favour ʾor because its numerical value equals {{lang|he|ר״ז}}, a homonym for {{lang|he|רז}} rāz "mystery".{{cite book |last1=Schochet |first1=Jacob Immanuel |author1-link=Jacob Immanuel Schochet |title=Mystical Concepts in Chassidism: An Introduction to Kabbalistic Concepts and Doctrines, 3d Revised Edition |date=1988 |publisher=Kehot Publication Society |isbn=978-0-8266-0412-5 |pages=42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vFvOPwAACAAJ |quote=The mystics have a special affinity for the term Or because its numerical value (gematriya) is equivalent to that of raz (mystery): "'Let there be light' (Gen. 1:3)-i.e., let there be Raz (Mystery; Concealment); for Raz and Or are one thing"; Zohar I:140a and Zohar Chadash, Bereishit:8d; see Tikunei Zohur 21:53b, and cf. R. Moses Cordovero, Or Ne'erau (Fuerth,1701),111:ch.4.}} ʾOr is one of the two main Kabbalistic metaphors for understanding God, along with the other metaphor of the human soul-body relationship for the sefirot.Mystical Concepts in Chassidism, Kehot pub., chapter 1 "Anthropomorphism and Metaphors": (i Anthropomorphism, ii The Man-Metaphor, iii The Light-Metaphor)