PART SEVEN

 MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION OF TZITZIT

In the mystic tradition of Jewish Kabballah which is claimed to be handed down from Moses to the present day through the oral tration, the cosmos is essentionly generated as an extension of God’s creative energy.   The main stages in the creative process resulting from the progressive self-screening of the Divine light known as tzimtzum.  This concept arise out of the fact that since there is nothing other than God to start with, the question arises, “Where did God create?”  Hence it is inevitable that even the cosmos must be within him.  Before creation only God existed. Upon desiring to create independent reality and consciousness, He first revealed, to Himself, as it were, His Infinite Light.  Tzimtzum  צמצום ṣimṣūm "contraction" or "constriction" is a term used in the Kabbalalistic teaching of Isaac Luria, explaining his concept that God began the process of creation by "contracting" his infinite light in order to allow for a "conceptual space" in which a finite and seemingly independent worldcould exist. This contraction, forming an "empty space" (חלל הפנוי) in which creation could begin, is known as the Tzimtzum. the first creative act was this voluntary humbling of God as He made room for the other forms of life He was to create.

Because the Tzimtzum results in the conceptual "space" in which the physical universe and free will can exist, God is often referred to as "Ha-Makom" (המקום lit. "the place", "the omnipresent") in Rabbinic literature. The four worlds of the universe is nothing but the extension of God within this space. The Hebrew world for “World” or Universe is olam which is derived from the root word עלם meaning "concealment". It is the covering of God .  God is concealed in universe and is immanent and yet transcends it. 

Chassidic Explanation of the extension is given in analogy  of a person and his speech. The source of this analogy is essentially Genesis Chapter 1, where God "spoke" to create heaven and earth. “God said” and it came into existence.  This concealment is necessary in order to maintain free will of the Sons of God who exist in all the four worlds. The various stages of creation are often called "worlds"--a term which is used to denote various developments in the creative process, as well as levels of consciousness and spiritual phases

 The four worlds are: Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah and Asiyah, often referred to by their acronym Abiya corresponding to the worlds of Divine, Spiritual, Mental and Material realm of existence.   These are all interpenetrating worlds or dimensions.  A corner is a point where two edges no longer can continue on their own separate paths, but rather each limits the other, thereby forming a corner.  

  "Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord, my God, You are very great; You have clothed Yourself with majesty and glory. You cover with light like a garment, stretch out the heavens like a hanging." The garment of the tallit, then, is compared to a garment of light, and the tzitzit are compared to the heavens stretching and hanging downward.   Again the Garment is like the Logos and the tzitzit is the realization of the concept in Logos.  After all all creation is word becoming flesh.  So reality that we experience is the reflection of the more real realms of the higher dimensions.

Thus, from a mystical perspective, the cloth of the tallit, the prayer shawl represents true reality; therefore it is substantial. Physical reality is less real, so it is represented by the area of non-cloth., by a void. From the perspective of the tallit, the created reality would be non-reality and nonexistence except for the tzitzit that stretch forth from real reality, extending reality also to the created realms.

Since God is Reality, the extension however concealed are also real and not illusion.  The Ilusionary theorists has to rely on the idea that the universe is just a thought in Ayn Sof’s mind and there are no real contractions or extension.   

If the "Infinite" did not restrict itself, then nothing could exist—everything would be overwhelmed by God's totality. Thus existence requires God's transcendence.  The concealment provides for the free will and the possibility of evil in creation.  This in turn will require repair through provisions of commandments and law to guide till redemption through the mesia’s broken body.

"The Divine life-force which brings all creatures into existence must constantly be present within them... were this life-force to forsake any created being for even one brief moment, it would revert to a state of utter nothingness, as before the creation..."  This understanding is supported by various biblical teachings: "You have made the heaven... the earth and all that is on it... and You give life to them all" (Nehemiah 9:6); "All the earth is filled with God's Glory" (Numbers 14:21); "God's Glory fills the world" (Isaiah 6:3). Creation therefore requires God's immanence

 "You cover with light like a garment."  This is the Tallit of God which is light itself as the starting of creation.  Just as there is a woven fabric, the cosmos is woven and intermixed. But then this is not just one dimension.  It has several dimensions forming the corners.  It does not end there.  From each corner is further extensions which we call Physical Realities.

 Yechezkel Gold in his article provides a mnemonics: 

“The letters of God's name provide the answer. Besides constituting a unity, as the verse states: "The Lord is One", each letter has its own individual signification.

The yud reflects intrinsic, eternal reality most purely. Analogous to what was described earlier, it does not extend down to the line, to the created reality of this world, but is separate from it, hovering above.

The hai at the beginning of a word means "the". Whereas without "the", a noun is indefinite, the word "the" renders it definite and denoted. The hai makes the separateness and ungraspable character, itself, of the yud definite, and thereby, somewhat closer to the line, to created reality. Nevertheless, it represents the resolution of pure spirituality, and does not really extend to created being.

The vov means "and". It adds something to what was previously there. It is the true source of created reality in the Ayn Sof, denoting that the intrinsic reality of yud and hai can not contain the Infinite Light, which extends outward to create a new, non-intrinsic reality, too. Thus, unlike the yud, it extends down to the line, extending its souce in intrinsic reality even to created reality.

Like the first hai, the second one renders the previous letter definite. Thus, just as the first hai represents the King, the yud, being on His throne, in the court and presence of His spiritual subjects, so the second hai represents the actual creation of a new reality through the extension of the Ayn Sof toward creation, represented by the vov.

That is, the vov links the intrinsic and created realities. How is it possible to connect a reality whose very nature is to be intrinsic and therefore separate, immutable and spiritual to a realm whose character is definite, new, and tends toward physicality and thus to transience?

The tallit provides us with the answer. The tallit represents a reality whose very nature is to be intrinsic and therefore separate, eternal, immutable and spiritual, and the edges represent the separateness of that reality. From that perspective, no new, created realm could ever exist. Moreover, it would seem impossible for two edges to come together, let alone to limit each other. After all, each edge is separate, eternal, immutable and spiritual in character. If, nevertheless, they do come together and do limit each other, it represents a domain well above and not contained by the intrinsic, eternal and immutable reality. This is the origin of the vov: the dimension of the Ayn Sof so infinite that it is not even contained by the intrinsic and eternal.”

Isaac Luria introduced three central themes into kabbalistic thought, Tzimtzum, Shevirat HaKelim (the shattering of the vessels), and Tikkun (repair). These three are a group of interrelated, and continuing, processes. Tzimzum 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. Shevirat HaKelim describes how, after the Tzimtzun, 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.

The redemption of the fallen creation is done by the incarnation of God within the creation.  This is represented in the tzitzit  by the blue (teklet) thread. The teklet speak of the heavens, the abode of the Ayn.   The function of the blue thread – the incarnation - is to bind the white thread – the scattered disunited mankind - to form a unity so that they may not fall apart or shredded.  This represents Mesia the Servant, who so loved the world that he gave himself.