Malkuth
Malkuth (/mɑːlˈkuːθ/; Tiberian Hebrew: מַלְכוּת, romanized: Malḵūṯ [malχuːθ] "kingdom"; Ashkenazi: Malkhus [malxus]), Malkhut, Malkhuth, or Malchus, is the tenth of the sefirot in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
"Earth" is equivalent to the sefirah of Malkhut, which is associated with the earth. Therefore earth – like Malkhut – represents the Oral Law. And the Oral Law is the source of the spirit of every living being, as the verse states: "Let the earth bring forth living creatures, each according to its own kind"
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Likutey Moharan I, 12:1).
| The Sefirot in Kabbalah | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category:Sephirot | ||
In the Zohar, an important Kabbalistic text from late al-Andalus, Malkhuth sits at the bottom of the Tree of Life below Yesod and "governs the simple fact of existence in the physical world"; it is also known as Shekhinah. "[T]he central teaching of the Zohar coalesced around an anthropomorphic model, in which the sefirot represent a cosmic anthropos. The lower sefirot, Malkhut, Yesod, Hod, and Nezah, constitute the most physical dimension of life, the nefesh."
Unlike the other nine sephirot, it is an attribute of God which does not emanate from God directly. Rather it emanates from God's creation—when that creation reflects and evinces God's glory from within itself.