principles, and his character, there cannot exist any longer

The ten “holy” Sefiroth have their counterparts in ten “unholy” or “impure” ones; the latter, however, are distinguished from the former in that each one has a highly personal character.

To a certain extent, therefore, mysticism signifies a revival of mythical thought, although the difference must not be overlooked between the unity which is there before there is duality, and the unity that has to be won back in a new upsurge of the religious consciousness.

“to unseal the soul, to untie the knots which bind it,”

“for it is wholly in thee and thou art wholly in it.”

There is, however, one important respect in which Hasidism differs sharply from its Christian contemporaries: it does not enjoin sexual asceticism. On the contrary, the greatest importance is assigned in the Sefer Hasidim to the establishment and maintenance of a normal and reasonable marital life. Nowhere is penitence extended to sexual abstinence

He who gains the deepest knowledge of the true essentials of reality—so he says in one place—at the same time acquires the deepest humility and modesty.42

The finite word of man is aimed at the infinite word of God.

The compiler of the Yalkut Shim’oni collected in the thirteenth century the old Aggadahs which, as preserved by the Midrashic literature, accompanied the biblical text. In the Yalkut Reubeni, on the other hand, we have a collection of the Aggadic output of the Kabbalists during five centuries.