Know That

וְדַע, כִּי טֶרֶם שֶׁנֶּאֶצְלוּ הַנֶּאֱצָלִים וְנִבְרְאוּ הַנִּבְרָאִים
Know that before the ne’etzalim (emanated beings) were emanated, and before the nivra’im (created beings) were created,
הָיָה אוֹר עֶלְיוֹן פָּשׁוּט מְמַלֵּא אֶת כָּל הַמְּצִיאו
the Simple Supernal Light filled the entirety of existence.
וְלֹא הָיָה שׁוּם מָקוֹם פָּנוּי בִּבְחִינַת אֲוִיר רֵיקָנִי וְחָלָל,
There was no vacant place, neither empty air nor void;
אֶלָּא הַכֹּל הָיָה מָלֵא אוֹר הָאֵין־סוֹף הַפָּשׁוּט הַהוּא.
rather, everything was filled with that simple Light of the Infinite (Or Ein Sof).
וְלֹא הָיָה לוֹ לֹא בְּחִינַת רֹאשׁ וְלֹא בְּחִינַת סוֹף,
It possessed neither beginning nor end;
אֶלָּא הַכֹּל הָיָה אוֹר אֶחָד פָּשׁוּט שָׁוֶה בְּהַשְׁוָאָה אַחַת,
everything was one simple Light, equal in perfect uniformity,
וְהוּא הַנִּקְרָא “אוֹר אֵין־סוֹף”.
and this is called the “Light of the Infinite” (Or Ein Sof).
וּכַאֲשֶׁר עָלָה בִּרְצוֹנוֹ הַפָּשׁוּט לִבְרוֹא אֶת הָעוֹלָמוֹת וּלְהַאֲצִיל אֶת הַנֶּאֱצָלִים,
And when it arose in His simple Will to create the worlds and to emanate the ne’etzalim,
לְהוֹצִיא לָאוֹר שְׁלֵמוּת פְּעֻלּוֹתָיו, שְׁמוֹתָיו וְכִנּוּיָיו,
to bring to light the perfection of His deeds, His Names, and His appellations,
שֶׁהָיְתָה זֹאת סִבַּת בְּרִיאַת הָעוֹלָמוֹת.
this became the cause for the creation of the worlds.
הִנֵּה אָז צִמְצֵם אֶת עַצְמוֹ אֵין־סוֹף בַּנְּקוּדָּה הָאֶמְצָעִית אֲשֶׁר בּוֹ בָּאֶמְצַע מַמָּשׁ,
Then the Infinite (Ein Sof) contracted Itself at the central point, exactly at its center.
וְצִמְצֵם אֶת הָאוֹר הַהוּא,
He contracted that Light,
וְהִתְרַחֵק אֶל סְבִיבוֹת צִדְדֵי הַנְּקוּדָּה הָאֶמְצָעִית.
and withdrew it toward the surrounding sides of the central point.
וְאָז נִשְׁאַר מָקוֹם פָּנוּי, אֲוִיר וְחָלָל רֵיקָנִי מֵהַנְּקוּדָּה הָאֶמְצָעִית מַמָּשׁ.
Thus there remained an empty place, an empty expanse of air and void, precisely at the central point.
וְהִנֵּה הַצִּמְצוּם הַזֶּה הָיָה בְּהַשְׁוָאָה אַחַת בִּסְבִיבוֹת הַנְּקוּדָּה הָאֶמְצָעִית הָרֵיקָנִית הַהִיא.
This contraction was perfectly uniform around that empty central point,
בְּאֹפֶן שֶׁמְּקוֹם הֶחָלָל הַהוּא הָיָה עָגוֹל מִכָּל סְבִיבוֹתָיו בְּהַשְׁוָאָה גְּמוּרָה.
so that the vacant space was perfectly circular and completely equal on every side.
וְהִנֵּה אַחַר הַצִּמְצוּם, אֲשֶׁר אָז נִשְׁאַר מְקוֹם הֶחָלָל וְהָאֲוִיר פָּנוּי וְרֵיקָנִי בְּאֶמְצַע אוֹר אֵין־סוֹף מַמָּשׁ,
After the contraction, when the empty space and void remained in the very midst of the Infinite Light,
הִנֵּה כְּבָר הָיָה מָקוֹם שֶׁיּוּכְלוּ שָׁם לִהְיוֹת הַנֶּאֱצָלִים, וְהַנִּבְרָאִים, וְהַיְּצוּרִים, וְהַנַּעֲשִׂים.
there was now a place in which the ne’etzalim, the nivra’im, the yetzurim, and the na’asim could come into being.
וְאָז הִמְשִׁיךְ מִן אוֹר אֵין־סוֹף קַו אֶחָד שֶׁלּוֹ, מִלְמַעְלָה לְמַטָּה,
Then a single line of the Light of the Infinite extended from above downward,
הַמִּשְׁתַּלְשֵׁל וְיוֹרֵד תּוֹךְ הֶחָלָל הַהוּא.
unfolding and descending into that empty space.
וְדֶרֶךְ הַקַּו הַהוּא הֶאֱצִיל, וּבָרָא, וְיָצַר, וְעָשָׂה כָּל הָעוֹלָמוֹת כֻּלָּם.
Through that line He emanated, created, formed, and made all the worlds.
קֹדֶם אַרְבָּעָה הָעוֹלָמוֹת הַלָּלוּ הָיָה אֵין־סוֹף אֶחָד וּשְׁמוֹ אֶחָד,
Before these four worlds, there was only the Infinite, and His Name was One,
בְּאַחְדוּת נִפְלָאָה וְנֶעְלָמָה,
in a wondrous and hidden unity.
שֶׁאֵין כֹּחַ אֲפִלּוּ בַּמַּלְאָכִים הַקְּרוֹבִים אֵלָיו וְאֵין לָהֶם הַשָּׂגָה בְּאֵין־סוֹף,
Even the angels nearest to Him possess no power to comprehend the Infinite,
כִּי אֵין שׁוּם שֵׂכֶל נִבְרָא שֶׁיּוּכַל לְהַשִּׂיגוֹ,
for no created intellect is capable ofj attaining Him,
הֱיוֹת כִּי אֵין לוֹ מָקוֹם, וְלֹא גְּבוּל, וְלֹא שֵׁם.
since He has neither place, nor boundary, nor name.

I paused at every line.
Haim Vital wrote this in the sixteenth century, speaking in the voice of his master, the ARI:
“Know that before the ne’etzalim were emanated and the nivra’im were created, a simple Supernal Light filled all of reality. And there was no empty place at all. Every place was filled with nothing but that infinite, simple light. It had no beginning and no end. Then the Infinite constricted itself at the middle point, at the very center, and constricted that light, and withdrew to the sides around that middle point. And so an open space remained. And then from the Endless Light a single line extended, from above to below, descending into that void. And from that line all the worlds were created.”

When these sentences are read, something else comes too. An infinitely dense point. Expansion. Light. Space. Time. Modern physics calls this the Big Bang. Lurianic Kabbalah calls this tzimtzum. Four hundred and fifty years apart, two separate languages, standing before the same thing.

So there it is.

These three words are not an explanation. They are a shock. What happens inside a person when they see two traditions arriving from two separate paths and meeting at the threshold of the same truth is difficult to describe. Language falls short before wonder. There is so much to say, yet nothing. And perhaps this inadequacy is not accidental. Because the text itself says, at the end: Ein Sof has no place, no boundary, no name. Some things cannot be named. At the threshold of the unnameable, a stilled tongue may be exactly the right response.

Now we are reading those pages. Heichal I, Sha’ar I.
Every origin story we are used to begins from a lack. First there was nothing, then something. Etz Hayim says the opposite: first there was fullness. Undivided, boundless fullness. Pashut. Unfragmented, holding no distinction within it. And creation began not with that fullness diminishing but with it making room for itself.

This difference seems small. It is not.

As a sociologist I have noticed: people tend to begin their own stories from a lack. As though everything is the child of an absence, a need. But telling the beginning of a relationship, an identity, a life as a story of fullness making room for itself produces a very different self. One is always chasing something. The other opens what it already carries.
So how did that fullness make room?

It constricted itself. Withdrew. Tzimtzum.

In Hebrew, tzimtzum carries both a real withdrawal and a concealment. Did HaShem truly depart from a place, or did He simply become invisible, remaining there all along? This difference was debated for centuries. The literal reading says the former. Hasidic thought says the latter. Perhaps both are true. Perhaps a true act of self-giving is at once a real loss and a hidden continuity. Ein Sof does not disappear in tzimtzum. It withdraws to the periphery. It remains as the light encircling the void. And here, perhaps, lies the metaphysical root of what modern psychology calls a healthy boundary. A boundary is not drawn to exclude the other. It is drawn to create the space in which the other can exist. Winnicott calls this the holding environment. A good-enough mother withdraws her presence to make room for the child but does not disappear. She becomes the frame. Tzimtzum is not a refusal. It is an invitation. Only a being secure in its own fullness can offer this invitation. The one who is weak cannot make room. They are afraid of losing themselves.

After tzimtzum a void remains. Chalal. Perfectly round on every side. When the Kav, the single line extending from the Endless Light, enters that void, two things happen simultaneously: circular waves of light rippling outward, iggulim, and a linear column running from the edge toward the center, yosher. Not sequential. Simultaneous. They appear contradictory but complete one another through that very contradiction. What is outside for one is inside for the other. Vital calls this coincidentia oppositorum. The coincidence of opposites. In iggulim the outermost sefirah is the most exalted, because being outside means being closest to Ein Sof. In yosher the sefirot are arranged in three columns, Chochmah-Chesed-Netzach on the right, Binah-Gevurah-Hod on the left, Keter-Tiferet-Yesod-Malchut in the center. Both are true. At the same time. Without canceling one another.

Over years of working with people I have seen the same tension. Some relationships we can only understand from the outside, others only from within. The same relationship sometimes looks like a presence that encircles us entirely, sometimes like a line running straight through us. Perhaps truly understanding means being able to see both at once.
In the Hebrew original two words stand side by side. Ne’etzalim and nivra’im. Both are translated as “those who were created” but their roots point to two entirely different processes. Ne’etzalim comes from the root of Atzilut. Etzlo, meaning near him. Overflowing from HaShem, unified with Him. Like one candle lighting another without losing anything of its own flame. Nivra’im comes from the root of Beriah. Creation from nothing. Yesh me’ayin. A true rupture. Then Yetzirah, formation. Asiyah, action. From these four modes the four levels of the human soul are born from Atzilut, chayah, from Beriah, neshamah, from Yetzirah, ruach, from Asiyah, nefesh. The four worlds are not only a cosmological map. They are the layers of our own being.
Both exist in our lives. Some things overflow from within us, from root, from family, on their own. Others are built through rupture, through trauma, through migration, through decision.

Both are real. And knowing which is which gives a person the ability to read their own history.

Tikkun, repair, is most often sought only in action. Only in the visible. But if we understand that the four worlds depend on one another, this is not enough. Without chayah, neshamah has no foundation. Without neshamah, ruach has no direction. Without ruach, nefesh has no life. If your intention in Atzilut is broken, no matter how much you correct your action, the repair will not hold. If your feeling in Yetzirah is still fractured, your action will not be authentic. True tikkun passes through all four layers.

At the end of the text comes a striking admission. Ein Sof has no place, no boundary, no name. Even the angels cannot grasp it. Even the angels close to it had no power. Closeness does not guarantee understanding. You can never fully know what lies within the person closest to you. This is not a failure. It is the sign of the other’s reality. If you could fully grasp another person, that person would no longer be an other, they would have become an extension of you. A true other always remains, in some part, ungraspable. Just like Ein Sof and perhaps this is why I paused at every line.

To know is not an intellectual acquisition here. In Hebrew, the verb yada, to know, carries both intellectual knowledge and the deepest intimacy in the Bible. The same word is used both for recognizing someone and for the most intimate union with them. Daat is not an independent sefirah. It is a state born from the union of Chochmah and Binah. Chochmah is like a father planting a seed. Binah is like a mother nourishing and developing that seed. Daat is the child born of their union, concrete, solid, bound to the real world. Without Daat, knowledge stays suspended in the air. With Daat, knowledge becomes part of one’s being, descends into the heart, turns into action.

To know and to unite are not two separate things here.
A sixteenth-century text describing the Big Bang has reached us. In every line two languages speak at once. And that moment of “so there it is” is not a consolation. It is a responsibility. Because if two traditions meet before the same truth, carrying that truth belongs to both.
Know that. Be ready. And read.