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A bit on Klippoth (or Klipot) from Kaballah
As per a members request i'm am going to talk breifly about Klipot in Kaballah, Jewish Mysticism
A Klipot comes from the world Klipah in Hebrew and means "a peal". Now on fruit a peal is something that covers and draws life from the fruit itself, and must be discarded in order to enjoy the fruit itself (this is all metaphoric of course as recent studies have shown the peal to be very nutritious)
Now all things in the universe draw energy from the Divine force, however, in order to allow for free will He had to form 2 facets of existance, one of these facets is impenatrable to the Divine light. If this part of the universe were to come into contact with the Divine light it would be completely destroyed. But it must continually draw source from the Divine as that is the only true source of energy in the universe, therefore it must maintain a distance from It. This facet is the Klipah.
So how does it draw energy? That's where man comes in. Man is the only being with "free will" and there for serves as a connection between the Divine and the Klipah. Now man has the Nefesh Elokit, the higher life force which spawns our better qualities, and this is connected continuously with the Shechinah, the Divine presence of HaShem. The Nefesh Elokit is housed within the Nefesh Habehamit, the physical life force. this serves as the filter between the Nefesh Elokit and the Klipah. In this way the Klipah can safely draw lifesustaining energy from the Nefesh Elokit, but only through severing the Nefesh Elokit's connection to the Shechinah. How is this done?
There are activities which can be performed which are in no way a function of serving the Shechinah in the world. Lets take a forbidden sexual act for example, incest. Sleeping with one's mother serves no purpose aside from physical gratification. This, for Judaism, is the antithesis of the purpose of Divine creation.
The Nefesh Elokit is the immidiate source of Divine energy, if this energy is used for the positive, such as the performance of Mitzvot, it reattatches the physical world to it's origins in the Divine realm, Azilut. If it is used for neutral purposes, actions neither prohibited or encouraged in the Torah, then they have a Neutral reaction. But if it is used for a purpose opposed to the Divine purpose of creation the Nefesh Elokit becomes severed from the Shechinah and is trapped in the Klipah.
this loss of energy to the Klipah dulls and destroys the spiritual connection and alters the reality of the person. They do not feel the fire of the Shechinah nor do they have a connection to the Divine. They begin to fall from a spiritual plain and begin to see things only in a worldly materialistic way.
but this can be reversed if done through repentance and diverting that energy to serve the Divine purpose.
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שמע ישראל
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