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{{Short description|Lurianic Kabbalah doctrine}}{{italic title}}{{Kabbalah}}The tzimtzum or tsimtsum (Hebrew: "contraction/constriction/condensation") is a term used in the Lurianic Kabbalah to explain Isaac Luria's doctrine that God began the process of creation by "contracting" his Ohr Ein Sof (infinite light) in order to allow for a "conceptual space" in which (wiktionary:finite|finite) and seemingly independent realms could exist. This primordial initial contraction, forming a ḥalal hapanuy "vacant space" ({{Script/Hebrew|חלל הפנוי}}) 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.Various approaches exist then, within Orthodoxy, as to how the paradox may be resolved, and as to the nature of tzimtzum itself. See, for a survey, Rabbi David Sedley (2008). "The Perception of Reality: contrasting views of the nature of existence", Reshimu Journal

Function

Because the tzimtzum results in the "empty space" in which spiritual and physical Worlds and ultimately, free will can exist, God is often referred to as "Ha-Makom" ({{Script/Hebrew|המקום}} lit. "the Place", "the Omnipresent") in Rabbinic literature ("He is the Place of the World, but the World is not His Place"Parshat Vayeitzei: Yalkut Shimoni on the verse "He arrived..." Also, alternate sages in Midrash Bereishit Rabbah 68:9. HaMakom article {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705213556weblink |date=2010-07-05}}, inner.org). Relatedly, Olam—the Hebrew for "World/Realm"—is derived from the root עלם meaning "concealment". This etymology is (wikt:complementary|complementary) with the concept of Tzimtzum in that the subsequent spiritual realms and the ultimate physical universe conceal to different degrees the infinite spiritual lifeforce of creation. Their progressive diminutions of the divine Ohr (Light) from realm to realm in creation are also referred to in the plural as secondary tzimtzumim (innumerable "condensations/veilings/constrictions" of the lifeforce). However, these subsequent concealments are found in earlier, Medieval Kabbalah. The new doctrine of Luria advanced the notion of the primordial withdrawal (a dilug – radical "leap") in order to reconcile a causal creative chain from the Infinite with finite Existence.}}

Inherent paradox

{{see also|Apophatic theology#Judaism|Torah Study#Kabbalah of action}}A commonly heldsee for example Aryeh Kaplan, "Paradoxes" (in "The Aryeh Kaplan Reader", Artscroll 1983. {{ISBN|0-89906-174-5}}) understanding in Kabbalah is that the concept of tzimtzum contains a built-in paradox, requiring that God be simultaneously transcendent and immanent. Viz.: On the one hand, if the "Infinite" did not restrict itself, then nothing could exist—everything would be overwhelmed by God's totality. Existence thus requires God's transcendence, as above. On the other hand, God continuously maintains the existence of, and is thus not absent from, the created universe.}}God gives their force to all creatures and this force gives them their limits, so that material substance could be finite and with nature for Original providence.Rabbi Nachman of Breslav discusses this inherent paradox as follows:So God is eternal and the infinity in time and space is his nature: we cannot think the infinity of causes about the infinity of Universe or Creation because in the first case the infinity of numbers is only possible in theory but God is the Creator and no one can be like God, “the First Cause”: it is impossible thinking about two God because one of them could have hypothetical superiority and we would admit one God, so the First Cause is God; in the second case, that is the infinity of Creation, it is impossible because, a part the “fantasy of this think without Logical-reason and without research of real study”, we cannot think about infinity of time because eternity is a nature of God and not a quality of material substance:Hasdai Crescas in "Or Hashem"Light of the Lord (Or Hashem). Ḥasdai Crescas Oxford University Press, New York 2018 ISBN 978–0–19–872489–6 explains that over the limits of world of finitude of shape it can be said that God is living forever with eternal attribute of Infinite, i.e. His essence over time and space:This "material-World" is "inside God", with earth and universe: God is infinite but the World and Universe are finites, so the centre of God is not possible, because of His Infinite-essence; God is infinite with the World with nature, humankind, animals, etc. "Inside-Him".Chokhmah, Binah and Daat are like onion skins because the Pardes transcends all literal significance of Torah:Before Creation and before Tzimtzum "God filled all space", that is, God alone existed because Creation had not yet been created. The Torah reflects divine wisdom, so God was with the Torah even before Creation: "I (the Torah) was there"; in other words the Midrash explains that before the Creation "God played with the Torah", his wisdom was therefore his only delight. Maimonide also explains that God is the same entity together with his wisdom, he also states that "the knower, knowledge and the known" refer to the "same thing". This means that God knows about himself, that is, His knowledge of himself is precisely His wisdom, that is, the Torah, as said in Bereshit: "..in our image and likeness", since the human being reflects in all its parts and in its totality the entire divine wisdom, as the Sefirot state, and he is conscious and knowing of this; then, seen and considered that the human being is a microcosm, Creation is also a projection of his wisdom: the cosmos and microcosm are equivalent in correspondence and in relation to God and his wisdom. Thus God is eternal and unknowable only from the point of view of his immense omnipresence, which he knows but which we cannot embrace with our mind for the eternal immensity of him.The Superior World and the material Universe (dailyzohar.com)

Lurianic thought

File:Lonzano diagram.jpg|thumb|alt=A diagram of the worlds created after the first Tzimtzum, found in a manuscript written by Lonzano|A diagram of the worlds created after the first Tzimtzum, found in a manuscript written by Menahem Lonzano, a version of a diagram found in the writings of Hayyim ben Joseph VitalHayyim ben Joseph VitalIsaac Luria introduced four central themes into kabbalistic thought, tzimtzum, Shevirat HaKelim (the shattering of the vessels), Tikkun (repair), and Partzufim. These four are a group of interrelated, and continuing, processes. Tzimtzum describes the first step in the process by which God began the process of creation by withdrawing his own essence from an area, creating an area in which creation could begin and where he could exist as reshimu (residue) in all empty spaces in the world.BOOK, Falcon, Ted,weblink Judaism for Dummies, Blatner, David, Wiley (publisher), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2019, 978-1-119-64307-4, 2nd, Hoboken, New Jersey, 76, 1120116712, David Blatner, Shevirat HaKelim describes how, after the tzimtzum, God created the vessels (HaKelim) in the empty space, and how when God began to pour his Light into the vessels they were not strong enough to hold the power of God's Light and shattered (Shevirat). 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.James David Dunn, Windows of the Soul, p.21-24Since tzimtzum is connected to the concept of exile, and Tikkun is connected to the need to repair the problems of the world of human existence, Luria unites the cosmology of Kabbalah with the practice of Jewish ethics, and makes ethics and traditional Jewish religious observance the means by which God allows humans to complete and perfect the material world through living the precepts of a traditional Jewish life.J.H. Laenen, Jewish Mysticism, p.168-169Thus, in contrast to earlier, Medieval Kabbalah, this made the first creative act a concealment/divine exile rather than unfolding revelation. This dynamic crisis-catharsis in the divine flow is repeated throughout the Lurianic scheme.

Chabad view

In Chabad Hassidism the concept of tzimtzum is understood as not meant to be interpreted literally, but rather to refer to the manner in which God impresses his presence upon the consciousness of finite reality:WEB,weblink Tzimtzum: Contraction, Inner.org, 2013-12-08, thus tzimtzum is not only seen as being a real process but is also seen as a doctrine that every person is able, and indeed required, to understand and meditate upon.In the Chabad view, the function of the tzimtzum was "to conceal from created beings the activating force within them, enabling them to exist as tangible entities, instead of being utterly nullified within their source".Tanya, Shaar Hayichud veHaEmunah, ch.4 The tzimtzum produced the required "vacated space" (chalal panui {{Script/Hebrew|חלל פנוי}}, chalal {{Script/Hebrew|חלל}}), devoid of direct awareness of God's presence.

Vilna Gaon's view

The Vilna Gaon held that tzimtzum was not literal, however, the "upper unity", the fact that the universe is only illusory, and that tzimtzum was only figurative, was not perceptible, or even really understandable, to those not fully initiated in the mysteries of Kabbalah.E. J. Schochet, The Hasidic Movement and the Gaon of VilnaOthers say that Vilna Gaon held the literal view of the tzimtzum.Allan Nadler, The Faith of the MithnagdimShlomo 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).He writes:However, the Gaon and Elyashiv held that tzimtzum only took place in God's will (Ratzon), but that it is impossible to say anything at all about God himself (Atzmus). Thus, they did not actually believe in a literal tzimtzum in God's essence.{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}} Luria's Etz Chaim itself, however, in the First Shaar, is ambivalent: in one place it speaks of a literal tzimtzum in God's essence and self, then it changes a few lines later to a tzimtzum in the divine light (an emanated, hence created and not part of God's self, energy).{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}}

History and Hester Panim

In the modern era, Shoah has been the subject of discussion about theological thinking: the Hester Panim{{what|date=November 2021}} is a part of modern exegesis. Tzimtzum is a process before Creation but during history the same "structure" is even present, as modern philosophy like to know. The characteristic of Shoah is part of individual life and a part of this structure of history:On the contrary one who would study Torah but he lost himself in vanity of the world is like a person without Nefesh, a soul, i.e. without true faith:During the Shoah much persons had not power and "energy" to study Torah and to do Mitzvot, so Chazal suggest to have "Torah study" all time, day and night… because the time of "bad-decrees" over them could have been very danger by "a Govern … as dog-face".Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Zohar)Chazal teaches 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. Chokhmah 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.In Chassidism of Chabad God could destroy the entire World in a instant, so in Judaism the "Torah Study" is the life and the holy salvation … even by one Jew alone … who studies the Sages of Torah:

Application in clinical psychology

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.WEB,weblink Rotenberg Center for Jewish Psychology, Jewishpsychology.org, 2013-12-08, {{not in reference|date=January 2020}}

The truth of Kabbalah and "a common study"…

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. 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".

In popular culture

Tsimtsum is central to the plot of Aryeh Lev Stollman's 1997 novel The Far Euphrates.Tzimtzum is mentioned as a topic of fascination for Nahman Samuel ben Levi of Busk and his friend Leybko in Olga Tokarczuk's novel The Books of Jacob.Tsim Tsum is the title of a collection of vignettes by Sabrina Orah Mark (published 2009). In Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi and its 2012 film adaptation, a cargo ship called the Tsimtsum sinks at a pivotal point of the plot. The story deals with the existence or non-existence of a divine power, and the sinking of the ship marks the creation of the universe in the novel's allegory.

See also

• Acosmism
• Apeiron (cosmology)
• Big Bounce
• Hylomorphism
• Inflation (cosmology)
• Monism
• Nondualism

Notes

{{Reflist}}

References

• Jacob Immanuel Schochet, Mystical Concepts in Chassidism, especially chapter II, Kehot 1979,3rd revised edition 1988. {{ISBN|0-8266-0412-9}}
• Aryeh Kaplan, "Paradoxes", in "The Aryeh Kaplan Reader", Artscroll 1983. {{ISBN|0-89906-174-5}}
• Aryeh Kaplan, "Innerspace", Moznaim Pub. Corp. 1990. {{ISBN|0-940118-56-4}}
• Aryeh Kaplan Understanding God {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222062300weblink |date=2008-12-22 }}, Ch2. in "The Handbook of Jewish Thought", Moznaim 1979. {{ISBN|0-940118-49-1}}

External links

• Tzimtzum: A Primer, chabad.org
• Tanya, Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah Shneur Zalman of Liadi—see Lessons in Tanya, chabad.org
• Shaar HaYichud - The Gate of Unity {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010042512weblink |date=2018-10-10 }}, Dovber Schneuri — a detailed explanation of the concept of Tzimtzum.
• Veyadaata - To Know G-d, Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, a Hasidic discourse on the paradox of Tzimtzum
• inner.org, "Basics in Kabbalah and Chassidut"
• Tanya: Tzimtzum and armony of economy in the world with Tzedakah (www.chabad.org)