Lurianic mythology represents an intensely personal view, in which earlier cabalistic symbolism is used to express new and original ideas. The lurianic system as a whole can be seen as a single metaphor for a new relation between man and the deity which is not yet fully realized. The cabalistic myths of his sources express the reality of the relations of being in the lurianic corpus. The lurianic system seeks to reformulate the relation of man and god, concentrating on the way that the being of the deity is revealed in man. The main protagonist of the lurianic myth is the deity itself, beginning with the initial contraction and culminating in the god-man that evolves in the course of the restoration of the flawed creation. The revelation of the deity is expressed in terms of the human processes of life and death and the relation of man and god is largely relocated in the realm of human sexuality. The lurianic view implies a mutual dependence between man and god, since man is seen as the revealed aspect of the deity and the deity as the transcendent aspect of man. This unity is also problematic and the unbridgeable gap between man and god is explored in the doctrine of the female waters, in which his absorption into the transcendence of the deity entails the destruction of man.

Daphne Freedman studied Cabala at Jerusalem University and philosophy at Kings College London; she received her Ph.D. at University College London where she is currently a research fellow. She has taught at London and Southampton universities.