Adam Kadmon — Cosmic-Body Mapping (Lurianic)

Arikh Anpin (אריך אנפין, 'Long Face' or 'Long-Suffering Face') — the head of Adam Kadmon, the partzuf encompassing Keter (the topmost sefirah, 'crown'). The Idra Rabba is dense with body-imagery for this region: the white hair of Arikh Anpin, the thirteen curls of his beard, the channels of mercy descending from his forehead to lower regions of the body. Daniel Matt's commentary in the Pritzker edition emphasises that the body-imagery is to be read theologically — the 'long face' names a divine quality of patient, far-extending mercy, not a literal anthropomorphism. In Lurianic cosmology Arikh Anpin is the first partzuf to emerge after the tzimtzum (the divine self-contraction that opens space for finite being); it is the source from which the channels of mercy descend toward Zeir Anpin and from there into the lower world. We render the rendered point at the third-eye / glabellar landmark, the canonical iconic locus of the divine face on a body-silhouette diagram.

Zeir Anpin (זעיר אנפין, 'Small Face' or 'Impatient Face') — the central torso of Adam Kadmon, the partzuf that encompasses the six middle sefirot from Chesed through Yesod. Where Arikh Anpin is the patient extending face of pure mercy, Zeir Anpin is the differentiated face that holds the tension between mercy (Chesed, right) and severity (Gevurah, left), brought into balance at the heart-locus of Tiferet (תפארת, 'beauty / harmony'). The Idrot devote extensive material to the body-imagery of Zeir Anpin: the chest, the shoulders, the lungs, and the heart are described as the seat of the differentiated divine attributes. In Lurianic cosmology Zeir Anpin is the partzuf most directly involved in the human work of tikkun (restoration / repair): the human work-in-the-world is read as a contribution to the rectification of Zeir Anpin's broken and partially-restored configuration.

The right arm of Adam Kadmon, identified with the sefirah of Chesed (חסד, 'lovingkindness'). In the Tree-of-Life sefirot diagram and in the Idrot's body-imagery alike, Chesed is the right-side outflowing principle: open-handed gift, expansive welcome, pure mercy. The right arm is the arm with which the Patriarch Abraham (the human exemplar of Chesed in Kabbalistic tradition) gathers the strangers to the tent. Following this project's coordinate convention, anatomical-right is at x<0.5 on the front-view silhouette; we render the rendered point at the right-shoulder / clavicle landmark (x=0.355, y=0.215), the canonical bilateral upper-limb attachment point. Note that the convention is anatomical, not viewer-relative — viewers looking at the silhouette from outside see Adam Kadmon's right arm on their own left.

The left arm of Adam Kadmon, identified with the sefirah of Gevurah (גבורה, 'severity' / 'might'), also called Din ('judgement'). Gevurah is the left-side restraining and limiting principle: the necessary judgement that gives form to mercy, the strength that says 'no' so that the right hand's 'yes' can mean anything. The Patriarch Isaac (the human exemplar of Gevurah, exemplified by his binding at Moriah) is the figure of the left-arm sefirah. Following this project's coordinate convention, anatomical-left is at x>0.5 on the front-view silhouette; we render the rendered point at the left-shoulder / clavicle landmark (x=0.645, y=0.215). The right-arm Chesed and left-arm Gevurah pair is the Idrot's most famous Kabbalistic body-image: the two arms that meet in the heart of Tiferet, where mercy and judgement are reconciled.

Yesod (יסוד, 'foundation') — the generative organ of Adam Kadmon, the ninth sefirah and the channel through which the upper sefirot transmit their accumulated influence into the receptive vessel of Malkhut (the kingdom, the world). The Idrot describe Yesod as the 'sign of the holy covenant' (ot brit kodesh), the embodied locus through which the masculine partzuf transmits its sustaining flow to the feminine partzuf. In Lurianic cosmology Yesod is the rectification-channel through which the human work of tikkun reaches the lower world; in halakhic-mystical practice, the discipline of sexual continence and the keeping of the covenant of circumcision are read as work performed on the Yesod-channel. The figure of the righteous Joseph (yosef ha-tzadik) is the human exemplar of Yesod. We render the rendered point at the pubic-bone landmark, the canonical Kabbalistic body-locus.