The Stages of the Creative Process
from God's Infinite Light to Our Physical World
 Introduction Or Ein Sof ("God's Infinite Light") Sod Ha'Tzimtzum ("The Secret of 'Contraction'") Adam Kadmon ("Primordial Man") Akudim, Nekudim, Brudim ("Binding, Points, Connection") Keter D'Atzilut ("The 'Crown' of Emanation") Olam Ha'Atzilut ("The World of Emanation") ABiYA (The Four Worlds: Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, Asiyah) |
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Or Ein Sof ("God's Infinite Light") |
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| Atzmut | Yachid | Echad | Sha'ashuim Atzmi'im |
Aliyat Haratzon |
| Ana Emloch |
Ein Sof |
Kadmon | Avir Kadmon |
Adam Kadma'ah Stima'ah |
Aliyat Haratzon
The "ascent" of God's will to create the world
Just as a king takes counsel with his closest advisors, so did God, as it were, before deciding to create the world, take counsel with the souls of His children (who are an actual part of Himself), the righteous souls of Israel.
The power which motivates God's will to create is His sense of identity with the souls of Israel as they will become "separate," in appearance, upon descending into this world and entering physical bodies.
God's very essence is referred to as "the essence of good." As it is "the nature of good is to do good [to others]," God is motivated to create others in order to bestow upon them His Divine good. His own sha'ashuim atzmi'im"demand," as it were, to be shared with others.
Just as it is said that "Israel 'ascended' in [God's] thought" so is the revelation of God's will to create expressed by the idiom "to ascend" (in the words of the Zohar: kad salik bereutai limivrei alma, "when it ascended in His will to create the world"). God's innate sense of the other-to-be (before its actual creation) "ascends" in His will. This is the original "arousal from below" (itorriuta d'letata) as present within God's own "arousal from above" (itorriuta d'leeila).
God's will to create is the expression of His essential chesed at the level of echad, before the initial contraction of His infinite light which began the creative process.
This level is identified with the soul-root of Abraham, the first Jew and the archetypal soul of chesed. The letters of Abraham's name permute to spell hebaram (Genesis 2:4), "when they [all] were created." The origin of the Jewish soul is God's will to create in order to bestow upon creation His infinite good.
