Tzimtzum: Contraction to Creation

In our last post, we began to explore the Jewish mystical concept of creation and the human role as God's conscience and co-creator. Many of these concepts are from the teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria, also known as the Ari (Lion). I'd like to go into a little more detail on the Lurianic interpretation of creation here.

Many scholars consider the Ari to be the greatest medieval Kabbalist. His teachings would not only have the largest impact on later Jewish mystics, but also inspire many who would have otherwise found Judaism too unenlightened and restrictive. One Kabbalist stated in the 1400's that without the Zohar (Kabbalah's most popular book), Judaism would be incomprehensible. Many credit Rabbi Luria with making the Zohar comprehensible. So what did he say about the process of creation and it's purpose?

The Ari taught that creation began with tzimtzum, or the contraction of the Divine from a portion of itself to form a void where creation could occur. He then emanated a single light into the void to form Adam Kadmon, the spiritual archetype for humanity. Light then streamed out of Adam Kadmon's eyes, nose and mouth as ten aspects of God, or Sefirot. These are the 10 times God spoke in Genesis, or the creative forces of the universe. But the light was too strong to be contained and the vessels carrying it broke. The upper vessels cracked and the lower vessels shattered completely. Our physical world is made up of this mixture of broken vessels and sparks of light. This is the source of evil, which is seen simply as the concealment of light within the shards of broken Sefirot. It is the role of humanity to find and restore the light to it's source.

Luria goes on to explain that the Adam in the Garden of Eden was originally intended to be the only human created. Within him were contained all of the souls of future humanity. Had he been able to stay spiritually pure, creation would have been restored to the oneness of God. But due to his fall in consciousness, it is now up to each individual soul to complete it's assigned tasks and to return the light to its Divine Source. When the last spark has been returned, evil will cease to exist and the Messianic age will be ushered in.

Rabbi Luria saw this gathering of the sparks as the spiritual reason and cause of the Diaspora, or scattering of the Jewish people throughout the countries of the world. Only by this dispersal could all of these sparks be found and returned. This thought has inspired and sustained the Jewish people throughout many persecutions and hardships. For they had a divine mission to repair and return the universe to it's spiritual origin.

Again we find that humanity's role is to repair the world and return it to its original divine status as God's conscience and co-creator. It is through us that goodness is introduced into the universe through the individual choices we make. The secret is that the world is continually divine and it is only our limited perception that prevents us from seeing this "heaven on earth." By seeking and practicing goodness in our life, we will restore these buried sparks one by one to God and return the world to it's idyllic spiritual state of Gan Eden. Then all will be known to be aspects of the Divine without a separate existence of their own. This is another secret of Judaism that we will explore later...the act of finding the divine and holy within the mundane of everyday life.

Until next time....

Shmuel