When people first meet the Kabbalistic idea of spiritual worlds, they often picture distant places. The tradition describes something closer. The four worlds are four levels of how the Divine shows itself, and all four are active in the same life and at the same moment.
The source in the Torah
The Kabbalists find the four worlds in a verse of Yeshayahu (43:7): “Everyone who is called by My Name, and whom I have created (berativ) for My glory, whom I have formed (yetzartiv), and whom I have made (asitiv).” The three verbs, creating, forming, and making, name three of the worlds. The fourth, Atzilut, takes its name from the root etzel, meaning “near” or “beside,” and the tradition also finds it in the word va’atzalti in Bamidbar 11:17.
The four worlds
Atzilut (Emanation) is the closest to Hashem. In the language of the Zohar and the Arizal, the Divine unity is felt here without interruption, and there is no separate sense of self. It is the world of the sefirot (Divine attributes) in their pure form.
Beriah (Creation) is the world where something separate first exists. It is the level of the throne and of pure intellect, where there is a being that stands before the Divine.
Yetzirah (Formation) is the world of angels and of emotion. Things take form here, and the attributes are distinct from each other.
Assiyah (Action) is the world of action, the physical level, where we live. It is the lowest of the four, and the one where the Divine is most hidden.
The connection to the Name
The Arizal taught that the four worlds correspond to the four letters of the Name Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey. The yud corresponds to Atzilut, the first hey to Beriah, the vav to Yetzirah, and the final hey to Assiyah. This is why the Name, in its structure, is read as a map of all existence.
Worlds within a person
The same four levels appear in the soul. The Kabbalists link the five levels of the soul to the worlds: Nefesh to Assiyah, Ruach to Yetzirah, and Neshamah to Beriah, with Chayah and Yechidah above them. A person is made of all of these, which is why a physical action can affect what happens in the higher levels.
This is also why prayer is arranged in stages. The morning service moves through the four worlds, from the blessings and the preliminary psalms, which correspond to Assiyah, up to the Amidah, which corresponds to Atzilut. Each part of the service has its own task in lifting the person upward.
How the worlds meet
The worlds are not far apart. Light passes from each to the next, and a deed in Assiyah reaches up through all of them. The Kabbalists describe the purpose of Creation as the revelation of the Divine in the lowest world, where it is most concealed. That is why a physical mitzvah, a meal eaten in holiness, a coin given in charity, or a word spoken with care, carries so much weight.
The soul-levels that correspond to these worlds are laid out in the article on the five levels of the soul. The Tu BiShvat seder uses the same four-part scheme in its four cups of wine, and the sefirot inside each world are in the Tree of Life article.
