sefirah

English

Alternative forms

• sephirah, sephira, sefira

Etymology

From Hebrew סְפִירָה (s'firá, “sefirah”, literally “counting, enumeration”), plural סְפִירוֹת (s'firót).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛfɪɹɑː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /səˈfiɹə/

Noun

sefirah (plural sefiroth or sefirot)

1. (Kabbalah) Each of the ten attributes that God created, through which he can project himself to the universe and man.
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 256:

     Other nights, depending on how swanky the function and fashionable the gown, there might also be observed, tattooed in exquisite symmetry below Madame Eskimoff's bared nape, the Kabbalist Tree of Life, with the names of the Sephiroth spelled out in Hebrew, which had brought her more than enough of that uniquely snot-nosed British anti-Semitism

   • 2007, Karen Armstrong, The Bible: The Biography, Atlantic, published 2008, page 249:

     The kabbalists also called the first sefirah, the dark flame that started the revelatory/creative process, "Nothing", because it did not correspond to any reality that we could conceive.

2. (Judaism) The counting of the Omer, that is, the period of 49 days between Passover and Shavuot.