Partzufim

Partzufim or Partsufim (Hebrew: פרצופים, singular partzuf, Hebrew: פרצוף, from Greek: πρόσωπον prósopon "face" or "mask"), are "countenances" or "personas" of God described in the Zohar.

The Idra Rabba describes a divine being composed of three partzufim: Arikh Anpin, the “Long-Faced One” or “Slow to Anger”; Zʿeir Anpin, the “Small-Faced One” or “Short-Tempered”; and Nukva, the feminine aspect of the Divine.^: 18 Although one can observe expression of certain sefirot in the partzufim, the Idra Rabba makes no attempt to bring these two paradigms into alignment.^: 33 The Idra Zuta describes five partzufim, the aforementioned three and two additional ones Abba (Father) and Imma (Mother), forming an “inner” divine “family” within the Godhead.^: 19

In Lurianic Kabbalah, the partzufim are reconfigured arrangements of the ten sefirot, the divine attributes or emanations. Each partzuf is thus a configuration of disparate entities into a harmonious unit.^: 117 Their full doctrinal significance emerged in Lurianic Kabbalah in the 16th century concerning The World of Chaos and The World of Rectification. The Lurianic system describes the dynamic relationships between personas, which interact. The higher partzufim clothe themselves within the lower ones as a soul is in a body.^{: 7–8, 117}