Tzimtzum

'contraction/constriction/condensation') is a term used in Lurianic Kabbalah to explain Isaac Luria's doctrine that God began the process of creation by limiting the Ohr Ein Sof (infinite light) of the Godhead in order to allow for a conceptual space in which the Four Worlds, or finite realms, could exist.

This primordial initial contraction, forming a "vacant space" (חלל הפנוי, ḥalal hapanuy) into which new creative light could beam, is denoted by general reference to the tzimtzum.

In Kabbalistic interpretation, tzimtzum gives rise to the paradox of simultaneous divine presence and absence within the vacuum and resultant Creation.

To put it another way, the omnipresent God, who exists beyond time and space before creation, withdraws a part of his infinite presence into himself.

[2]Because the tzimtzum results in the space in which the spiritual and physical worlds and, ultimately, free will, can exist, God is often referred to as "Ha-Makom" (המקום‎ lit.

"the Place", "the Omnipresent") in rabbinic literature ([3] ʿOlam, the Hebrew term for a world, is derived from the triliteral עלם "concealment".

This etymology is complementary with the concept of tsimtsum in that the subsequent spiritual realms and the ultimate physical universe conceal to different degrees the lifeforce of creation.

The new doctrine of Luria advanced the notion of the primordial withdrawal or dilug (radical "leap") to reconcile the causal creative chain from the Godhead with finite existence.

A commonly held[4] understanding in Kabbalah is that the concept of tzimtzum contains a built-in paradox, requiring that God be simultaneously transcendent and immanent.

"Inside-Him".Chokhmah, Binah and Daat are like onion skins because the Pardes transcends all literal significance of Torah: And all the heavens are one on top of the other, like onion skins one on top of the other, some below and some aboveBefore Creation and before Tzimtzum "God filled all space", that is, God alone existed because Creation had not yet been created.

[7] Isaac Luria introduced four central themes into kabbalistic thought, tzimtzum, Shevirat HaKelim (the shattering of the vessels), Tikkun (repair), and Partzufim.

The third step, Tikkun, is the process of gathering together, and raising, the sparks of God's Light that were carried down with the shards of the shattered vessels.

In Chabad, the concept of tzimtzum is not meant to be interpreted literally but rather to refer to how God impresses his presence upon the consciousness of finite reality.

[14] Shlomo Elyashiv articulates this view clearly (and claims that not only is it the opinion of the Vilna Gaon, but also is the straightforward and simple reading of Luria and is the only true understanding).

This is to say that the ein sof didn't change at all in itself and its necessary true existence and it is now still exactly the same as it was before creation, and there is no space empty of Him, as is known (see Nefesh Ha-Chaim Shaar 3).

This shows His great power in delivering the oppressed from his oppressor, as David says, "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as are of a contrite spirit."

Finding a burning torch, he got rid of thorns and pits, but he still feared wild beasts and bandits ... not knowing where he was on.

Rav Chisda says: "It is the Talmid chacham and the day of death" (Talmud, Sotah 21a)On the contrary, someone who would study Torah but loose himself in the vanity of the world is like a person without a soul, i.e. without true faith: Similarly, R. Chaim Vital also describes431 this sin as excluding one from the World to Come, 'weaving it in the same weave'432 there, equating it with the cases that Chazal state for whom "Gehinom will end but for them it will not come to an end!,"433 the Merciful One should save us.

Similarly, in [his] judgment, that his actions which were not good distance him, 'and his sin withholds the good from him'434 as he was able to involve himself with and engage in Torah study, and 'out of intentional sin'435 and 'contempt of the soul'436 chose 'and took a bad purchase for himself,'437 others, and all the worlds despising the everlasting life of the Holy Torah – the life and light of all the worlds – through which he was attached, so to speak, with God, Who gives life to all but stretched out his hand to destroy the palace of the King – diminishing, darkening, and extinguishing the bestowal of light in the worlds and also of his own soul.

Similarly, Chazal determined his fate, 'that his hope is decreed as lost'440 forever, God forbid, that he also 'will everlastingly not see light'441 that he will not 'live again forever'442 at the end of days when 'those sleeping in the dust of the ground will awaken for everlasting life'…[17]The Chazal taught that all Jews must say: "All universe is created for me", so God has created the World with "pillars" of Heavens and Earth, i.e. Chokhma and Binah… Torah is the light of God and "Torah Study" can be the life of the universe and of "myriads of worlds" to not destroy the Creation.

[18] An Israeli professor, Mordechai Rotenberg, believes the Kabbalistic-Hasidic tzimtzum paradigm has significant implications for clinical therapy.

According to this paradigm, God's "self-contraction" to vacate space for the world serves as a model for human behavior and interaction.

The tzimtzum model promotes a unique community-centric approach which contrasts starkly with the language of Western psychology.

Since Edom symbolizes the unrectified existence of evil, the first seven kings are understood to refer to the primordial, unrectified version of Creation described here, the world of "Tohu"[21]Attributing to the Arizal the theory of the kings who ruled the Land of Israel at the primordial origin of Creation is a common error in both Israelite and non-Israelite university, for example in Italy as well; the Arizal refers to the kings, among whom it seems that only one of them remains, although on the side of rigor, precisely to define the consequences of the "other side" on Creation and therefore also on the kingdom on earth.

[22] Indeed, the changes of the Tzimtzum are not directly linked only to the kings described as different Kelipot but to the entire Creation: they therefore represent the partial or total possibility of the Tikkun.

Thus the Kelipot are metaphorically valid as the corrupt origin of good, that is to say with "the mixture of good and evil", but originally the only "substrate" useful for the divine "Maaseh Breishit" concerns only mercy: affirming that rigor is the only initial measure is certainly error; the presence of the kings who ruled could not have been present before the world of Creation as described in the Hebrew Bible and its commentaries.

It is therefore a methodological contradiction unconsciously "ignoring" the presence of the Hyle and with an obvious tendency to "mythologize" numerous figures of the Torah, also denying the "literal exegesis" which then allows in accessing other hermeneutic levels of "Pardes".