Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="HalWhitewyrm" data-source="post: 2049538" data-attributes="member: 4046">Right. These are the ubiquitous <a href="http://www.jewfaq.org/kabbalah.htm#Sample" target="_blank">Sefirot</a> (or Sephiroth, depending on the source of your transliteration) we hear so much about. In Kabbalah (in general, not only in the Lurianic [<a href="http://judaicaplus.com/Tzadikim/tz_viewer.cfm?page=ari.htm" target="_blank">Rabbi Yiztchak (Isaac) Luria</a>] tradition) these are divine emanations through which the Ein Sof (the Eternal, Endless quality of G-d) was "synthesized" into the physical realm.Just a note: though Lurianic Kabbalah does use the notion of the breaking of the sparks as an explanation for the existence of Evil in the world, it nonetheless follows traditional Jewish belief that Evil is only an earthly adjective, as all comes from G-d. Kabbalists also refer to a place called the Sithra Achra (literally "Other Place") from whence the forces of worldly evil emanate. This Sithra Achra is only "other" in relation to the physical world, not to G-d, who is everything, and as thus, though it is the Kabbalist's duty to liberate the sparks trapped in the world in order to close, so to speak, the entrance to the Sithra Achra, there is a bittersweet element to it, as it does mean closing off another source of G-dly emanation. In essence, it provides pathos to the quest to do a rectification of the world.Tikkun Olam (lit. "Restoration [of the] World).Sounds cool. A simple spin on an already-established quest of mystical proportions. I could suggest that perhaps not all the sparks are physical items. Our sages teach that some of the sparks are trapped in items both natural, like mountains or rivers, and man-altered, like inside the wood used to build a house. Each soul is also a spark, and for Jews, getting other Jews to practice the commandments (the mitzvot) enables that spark to ignite and begin the process of reunification. Some sparks are trapped in metaphysical realms/concepts, so perhaps a spark is in the astral realm, while another is trapped in the moment of a newborn boy's cry when he is circumcised. This way you can mix it up a little, have some quests that involve some heavy thinking (How do you get a spark trapped in that moment in time when a boy is circumcised? Well, tradition says that the soul of Elijah the Prophet is present at every circumcision, and Elijah can be contacted either physically during his lifetime [though he may not be aware of the things his soul does after his time on Earth] or through other mystical means. Just an example.) along with others that are your good old adventure romp through the fertile crescent.Sounds interesting. Hope it turns out to be a good game and hope the above helped a little.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Wow, that's profound indeed!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

Verification