Paroketh

Paroketh (Hebrew: פָּרֹ֫כֶת "curtain, veil") is, according to the Kabbalah in the Sefirot tree, the veil below the sefira Tiferet (Beauty) that separates the soul world from the physical-etheric world respectively from the world of the four elements and thus is a lower analgon of Da'at at the sheath of the spiritual world and the soul world. Paroketh is also called the veil of illusion or the water curtain and has its external equivalent in the temple curtain (Greek: καταπέτασμα katapetasma) of Solomon's temple, which separated the Holy of Holies from the temple in front and which was torn with the death of the Christ on Golgotha (Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45). The first mention of this curtain is in Exodus 26:31 in the instructions for building the tabernacle:

„You shall make a curtain of blue and purple, scarlet and twined fine linen, and you shall weave in cherubim with skillful work ...

Hebrew: וְעָשִׂ֣יתָ פָרֹ֗כֶת תְּכֵ֧לֶת וְאַרְגָּמָ֛ן וְתֹולַ֥עַת שָׁנִ֖י וְשֵׁ֣שׁ מָשְׁזָ֑ר מַעֲשֵׂ֥ה חֹשֵׁ֛ב יַעֲשֶׂ֥ה אֹתָ֖הּ כְּרֻבִֽים׃“

– Exodus 26:31

Paroketh - similar to the Abyssus that separates the Devachan (Olam Atziluth, Hebrew עולם אצילות, the world of sublimity) from the worlds below - acts at the same time as a filter and a mirror for the divine light streaming from the Ain Soph. A part of this light is reflected back to its origin, as it were, and only a smaller part penetrates the lower world levels in a weakened form. This dynamic of descending and ascending light is an essential principle of later Kabbalistic thought. What happens in the lower worlds thus has an effect on the higher worlds.

See also

• Abyssus
• Tehom
• Da'at

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