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The Great Constriction  | | " How did finite being evolve from the infinite...?" | | |
A question that puzzled Jewish philosophers and
theologians alike is how a finite world came to exist within the infinite being
of G-d. Prior to Creation, there was only G-d and His infinite revelation of
Himself, the Or Ein Sof, filling all existence (Etz Chaim,
Heichal A"K, anaf 2). How did finite being evolve from the
infinite? One cannot argue that Creation always existed, nor that finite being
is a mere illusion, since the Torah states explicitly, "In the beginning of G-d's
creating the heavens and the earth". (Gen. 1:1)
Before the Arizal, the prevailing view of how the
Creator brought the Creation into being can be summed up as follows: In order
for a finite world to come into existence within the revelation of the infinity
of G-d, a process of self-contraction or self-limitation of the infinite (the
Or Ein Sof) was required. The worlds then came about, according to
this view, by a series of emanations that proceeded in a sequence of cause and
effect, in which the Creator gradually reduced the intensity of the Or Ein
Sof and downgraded it from level to level until the worlds were created (see
e.g., Eilima Rabbati, Eyn Kol Tamar part 2, ch. 3-5, 11-12; part
3, ch. 1.) Accordingly, the Or Ein Sof was never actually "removed" from
any given place - it was merely reduced in intensity. | | " In the cause-and-effect relationship, the effect is already contained within the cause..." | | |
This view, however, is problematic: If G-d would have
merely reduced the intensity of His infinite revelation (the Or Ein Sof)
in a quantitative manner, i.e., in a gradual ebb from level to level by means of
cause and effect, a finite world could not have come into being, since in a
causal process "the effect is encompassed by the cause, in relation to which it
is essentially non-existent... so that even numerous contractions would not bring
about physical matter..." ( Tanya, Iggeret HaKodesh, ch. 20) by way
of an evolution from spirituality. In other words, in the cause-and-effect
relationship, the effect is already contained within the cause, albeit in an
unrealized state.
Thus when the final effect is eventually produced, it
is not a newly created entity; it is merely revealed from its former state of
potential or of concealment. Accordingly, the effect always remains in some way
commensurate with the original cause that produced it. Thus the infinite can
never become finite through gradual reduction: "The creation of the worlds is
not by way of a development from cause to effect... for even myriads upon myriads
of dwindling and evolution from level to level [of the Or Ein Sof] in a
causal process will not bring about the development and being of physical
matter... Rather, it is the power of Ein Sof who creates ex nihilo,
not progressively, but by way of a radical 'leap'" (Likkutei Torah, Devarim
46c). Thus, tzimtzum as contraction or self-limitation precludes the
existence of finite beings, and cannot explain how finite Creation came into
being.
Moreover, tzimtzum as contraction or
self-limitation also seems to contradict the important principle of "yesh
mei'ayin" - that the world was created ex nihilo,
and not that it
evolved from some prior state of being.
Accordingly, the Arizal explained that we must
understand the tzimtzum in an entirely different way - in a qualitative
sense - as the total self-exclusion of the infinite Or Ein Sof from its
state of revelation, thereby allowing finite worlds to exist:
Prior to Creation, there was only the infinite Or
Ein Sof filling all existence. When it arose in G-d's Will to create worlds
and emanate the emanated...He contracted (in Hebrew "tzimtzum") Himself
in the point at the center, in the very center of His light. He restricted that
light, distancing it to the sides surrounding the central point, so that there
remained a void, a hollow empty space, away from the central point... After this
tzimtzum... He drew down from the Or Ein Sof a single straight line [of light]
from His light surrounding [the void] from above to below [into the void], and
it chained down descending into that void.... In the space of that void He
emanated, created, formed and made all the worlds. ( Etz Chaim, Heichal
A"K, anaf 2)
The exact nature of the tzimtzum became the
subject of disagreement among later kabbalists. Some viewed the tzimtzum
as a metaphorical act of self-limitation in which the Or Ein Sof was
merely concealed , rather than removed, while the essence of G-d remained
completely unchanged. Others maintained that the Or Ein Sof was actually
removed, not merely concealed .
Another opinion maintained that the tzimtzum
was the actual withdrawal of G-d's essence as well as the removal of the Or
Ein Sof . A fourth view held that the tzimtzum consisted of a
concealment (but not a withdrawal) of both G-d's essence and the Or Ein Sof
.
The effect of the tzimtzum (irrespective of
which explanation is offered) is nevertheless clear: it established a
radical distinction between Creator and created (from the viewpoint of the
created, although not from the viewpoint of the Creator ), between cause and
effect, so that creation comes about by way of a "quantum leap" rather than by
way of a developmental, evolutionary order. To view "Ari Basics 3: Shattered Vessels"
click here
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