Atziluth

These difficulties are threefold: The simile used for the emanation is either the soaked sponge that emits spontaneously the water it has absorbed, or the gushing spring that overflows, or the sunlight that sends forth its rays—parts of its own essence—everywhere, without losing any portion, however infinitesimal, of its being.

Since it was the last-named simile that chiefly occupied and influenced the Kabbalistic writers, Atziluth must properly be taken to mean "eradiation"; compare Zohar, Exodus Yitro, 86b).

Atziluth assumed a more specific meaning, influenced no doubt by the little work Masseket Azilut "Mask of Nobility".

Moses Cordovero and Isaac Luria were the first to introduce the fourfold world as an essential principle into Kabbalistic speculation.

According to this doctrine, In contradistinction to the Atzila, which constitutes the domain of the Sephirot, the three other worlds are called by the general name Pirud.