Biblijny opis stworzenia w nauczaniu Bnei Baruch

Abstract

In the paper I present the Bnei Baruch’s interpretation of the biblical story of creation (from the Book of Genesis), especially of the category of the “days of creation”. This doctrine is a small part of the whole system of Bnei Baruch “Kabbalah”. The commentary of the creation account is radically different from the classical theological interpretation. Bnei Baruch’s optics is the example of an nonliteral exegesis, but even in this one can clearly see its exceptionality. The key-categories around which the whole interpretation is focused are the ideas – in some way philosophical and psychological – of the “will to receive” (egoism) and the “will to bestow” (altruism). The “days of creation” characterize here the process of human correction, they are the stages of the tikkun, where the final stage is the so-called equivalence of form with the Creator. According to Bnei Baruch, the biblical words do not describe the physical world but deal with the “upper” reality – the spirituality. On the strength of this statement it is said that the language the whole Bible is written in is the “language of the branches” (while the spiritual realm is the root).