Adam Kadmon is a phrase in the religious writings of
Kabbalah meaning "original man". The oldest
mainstream rabbinicsource for the term
Adam ha-Ḳadmoni is
Numbers Rabbah x., where Biblical
Adam is styled, not as usually
Ha-Rishon ("the first"), but "Ha-Kadmoni" ("the original"). In Kabbalah,
Adam Kadmon ("above") is the first of the comprehensive
Five spiritual Worlds in creation, distinguished from Biblical
Adam Ha-Rishon ("below"), who included within himself all future human souls before the sin of the
Tree of Knowledge. The spiritual realm of
Adam Kadmon represents the
sephirah (divine attribute) of
Keter ("crown"), the specific divine will and plan for subsequent creation.
In the
Lurianic systemisation of preceding Kabbalah, the
anthropomorphic designation for
Adam Kadmon describes its arrangement of the latent future sephirot in the harmonised
configuration of man. However,
Adam Kadmon itself is
divine lightwithout vessels, including all subsequent creation only in potential. This exalted anthropomorphism denotes that man is both the
theocentric purpose of future creation, and the
anthropocentric embodiment of the divine manifestations on high. This mythopoetic
cosmogenesis and
anthropogenesis enables the "Adam soul" to embody all human souls: the collective
Yechidah("singular") soul essence in
Adam Kadmon, and the collective
Neshamah ("soul") revealed soul in the Biblical
Adam Ha-Rishon in the
Garden of Eden.
In Judaism[edit]
Adam Ḳadmon—Diagram illustrating the Sefirot (Divine Attributes). (From Ginsburg,
The Kabbalah.)
Kabbalah[edit]
In
Kabbalah,
Adam Kadmon ("primordial man") and
Adam HaRishon (the Biblical "first man,"
Adam) are separate, though inter-related, concepts.
Adam Kadmon (abbreviated as A"K) is a pristine spiritual realm in creation, the first of the comprehensive
Five Worlds. It represents
Keter ("crown"), the specific divine will for subsequent creation. From Adam Kadmon emerge the following Four Worlds of
Atziluth ("emanation"-
Chokhmah divine wisdom),
Beriah ("creation"-
Binahdivine understanding),
Yetzirah ("formation"-
Tiferet divine emotions) and
Assiah ("action"-
Malkuth divine kingdom). Due to the transcendence of Adam Kadmon, it is sometimes listed apart from the Four Worlds, each represented by a letter of the
Tetragrammaton name of God; Adam Kadmon is represented only by the thorn of the first letter
Yodh.
The
anthropomorphic name of Adam Kadmon denotes that man below is both the ultimate divine purpose for creation, as well as an embodiment of the
Sephirot divine attributes. Adam HaRishon before the sin of the
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis was the supreme essence of contemporary man, his soul
including all subsequent souls within it. Adam Kadmon is paradoxically both created ("Adam") and divine ("Kadmon-Primary"), a feature it shares with physical Adam as interpreted in mainstream rabbinic
Midrashim. Adam Kadmon is a realm of infinite divine light without vessels, bounded by its future potential to create Existence.
The two versions of Kabbalistic theosophy, the "medieval/classic/Zoharic" (systemised by
Moshe Cordovero) and the more comprehensive
Lurianic, describe the
process of descending worlds differently. For Cordovero, the sephirot and Five Worlds evolve sequentially from the
Ein Sof (divine infinity). For Luria, creation is a dynamic process of divine exile-rectification enclothement, where Adam Kadmon is preceded by the
Tzimtzum (Divine "withdrawal") and followed by the
Shevira ("shattering" of the sephirot).
Closely related to the Philonic doctrine of the heavenly Adam is the Adam Ḳadmon (called also Adam 'Ilaya, the "high man," the "heavenly man") of the Zohar, whose conception of the original man can be deduced from the following passages: "The form of man is the image of everything that is above [in heaven] and below [upon earth]; therefore did the Holy Ancient [God] select it for His own form."[1]
As with Philo the Logos is the original image of man, or the original man, so in the Zohar the heavenly man is the embodiment of all divine manifestations: the ten
Sefirot, the original image of man. The heavenly Adam, stepping forth out of the highest original darkness, created the earthly Adam.
[2] In other words, the activity of the original essence manifested itself in the creation of man, who at the same time is the image of the heavenly man and of the universe,
[3] just as with Plato and Philo the idea of man, as
microcosm, embraces the idea of the universe or
macrocosm.
The conception of Adam Ḳadmon becomes an important factor in the later Kabbalah of
Isaac Luria. Adam Ḳadmon is with him no longer the concentrated manifestation of the Sefirot, but a mediator between the En-Sof ("infinite") and the
Sefirot. The En-Sof, according to Luria, is so utterly incomprehensible that the older Kabbalistic doctrine of the manifestation of the En-Sof in the Sefirot must be abandoned. Hence he teaches that only the Adam Ḳadmon, who arose in the way of self-limitation by the En-Sof, can be said to manifest himself in the Sefirot. This theory of Luria is treated by
Ḥayyim Vital in "'Eẓ Ḥayyim; Derush 'Agulim we-Yosher" (Treatise on Circles and the Straight Line).
The first to use the expression "original man," or "heavenly man," was
Philo, in whose view the γενικός, or οὐράνιος ἄνθρωπος, "as being born in the image of
God, has no participation in any corruptible or earthlike essence; whereas the earthly man is made of loose material, called a lump of clay."
[4] The heavenly man, as the perfect image of the
Logos, is neither man nor woman, but an incorporeal intelligence purely an idea; while the earthly man, who was created by God later, is perceptible to the senses and partakes of earthly qualities.
[5] Philo is evidently combining philosophy and
Midrash,
Plato and the rabbis. Setting out from the duplicate Biblical account of Adam, who was formed in the image of God (
Genesis 1:27), and of the first man, whose body God formed from the earth (
Genesis 2:7), he combines with it the Platonic doctrine of ideas; taking the primordial Adam as the idea, and the created man of flesh and blood as the "image." That Philo's philosophic views are grounded on the Midrash, and not vice versa, is evident from his seemingly senseless statement that the "heavenly man," the οὐράνιος ἄνθρωπος (who is merely an idea), is "neither man nor woman." This doctrine, however, becomes quite intelligible in view of the following ancient Midrash.
Midrash[edit]
The remarkable contradiction between the two above-quoted passages of
Genesis could not escape the attention of the
Pharisees, for whom the Bible was a subject of close study. In explaining the various views concerning Eve's creation, they taught
[6] that Adam was created as a man-woman (androgynous), explaining זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה (
Genesis 1:27) as "male and female" instead of "man and woman," and that the separation of the sexes arose from the subsequent operation upon Adam's body, as related in the Scripture. This explains Philo's statement that the original man was neither man nor woman.
This doctrine concerning the Logos, as also that of man made "in the likeness,"
[7] though tinged with true Philonic coloring, is also based on the theology of the Pharisees. For in an old Midrash
[8] it is remarked:
'Thou hast formed me behind and before' (
Psalms 139:5) is to be explained 'before the first and after the last day of Creation.' For it is said, 'And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,' meaning the spirit of the Messiah ["the spirit of Adam" in the parallel passage, Midr. Teh. to cxxxix. 5; both readings are essentially the same], of whom it is said (
Isaiah 11:2), 'And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.'
This contains the kernel of Philo's philosophical doctrine of the creation of the original man. He calls him the idea of the earthly Adam, while with the rabbis the spirit (
רוח) of Adam not only existed before the creation of the earthly Adam, but was preexistent to the whole of creation. From the preexisting Adam, or Messiah, to the Logos is merely a step.
There is a fundamental theosophical statement by
Akiba in the
Talmud relative to this topic. He says, in Abot, iii. 14, "How favored is man, seeing that he was created in the image! as it is said, 'For in the image, אֱלֹהִ֔ים made man'" (
Genesis 9:6). That "in the image" does not mean "in the image of God" needs no proof; for in no language can "image" be substituted for "image of God." The verse quoted is not that of
Genesis 1:27, wherein the creation of man in the image of God is primarily stated.
Genesis 9:6 treats only secondarily of man's creation. In fact Akiba does not speak only of the image (צֶ֣לֶם) according to which man was created, but also of the likeness.
[9] בְּצֶ֣לֶם really has no other signification than "after the image." Akiba, who denies any resemblance between God and other beings, teaches that man was created after an image, an archetype or an ideal, and interprets
Genesis 9:6, "after an image God created man," an interpretation impossible in
Genesis 1:27. In the benediction in Ket. 8a, בצלמו בצלם דמות תבניתו, wherein God is blessed because "He made man in His image [בצלמו], in the image of a form created by Him," the concluding explanatory words state, in Akiba's style, that Adam was created after the image of a God-created type (תבנית).
