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Tzimtzum

צמצום

Tzimtzum (contraction)

Contraction: Or Ein Sof (not Ein Sof Himself) hidden in its source so finite worlds can exist, leaving a “vacated space” for the kav; also each later narrowing of light, as in Chochmah.

The word צמצום also means any narrowing or restraint: a person contracting his desires, “He contracted His Shechinah between the poles of the Ark,” or Gevurah measuring a flow. The first contraction is the one written with מקום פנוי / חלל or “the tzimtzum in the beginning of Etz Chaim”; the plural צמצומים usually means the successive contractions down the chain of worlds.

Where it’s explained

  1. Torah Ohr, Vayeira 1, ¶15Since the worlds could not receive Or Ein Sof as it is and would be nullified, the light was contracted into the luminary, there only in potential and hidden. In the luminary, Ein Sof itself, there is no tzimtzum or concealment; the vacated space is empty of the light, like the soul’s power to give life before it enters the body.והנה הצמצום היה באור א״ס דהיינו שהאור נכלל במאור
  2. Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 5, ¶9The tzimtzum and vacated space are in the light and flow that issue from Him, not in Ein Sof Himself. The radiance was contracted to be revealed only through the kav; what is not revealed is called sovev, present below but hidden. So too the Tikkunim’s “when You withdraw from them” is not literal, for He is not in space: the light is hidden and not revealed in the vessels.הצמצום ומקום פנוי וחלל הוא באור א״ס ב״ה דהיינו באור ושפע הנשפע ממנו להיות בחי׳ גילוי
  3. Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 33, ¶2An effect has a relation to its cause, but the worlds have none to the Infinite, so they could not come about by cause and effect; there had to be a tzimtzum and vacated space, then a kav from Malchus of Or Ein Sof, for a revelation of His essence would leave no worlds.כדי שיהיה התהוות עולמות אבי״ע מאור א״ס ב״ה לא היה יכול להיות על ידי השתלשלות עילה ועלול
  4. Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 5, ¶4Chochmah, the yud of Havayah, comes from Or Ein Sof only through many contractions, a tiny glow like hair from the skull; without this the worlds would be nullified. In a person it is mirrored by contracting and subduing every desire not for G‑d.ובלתי צמצום אור א״ס ב״ה והתלבשותו בבחינת חכמה לא היה יכול להיות התפשטות בחי׳ ממכ״ע וסוכ״ע
  5. Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 12, ¶5The tzimtzum is not in His essence. Its purpose is that afterward, through man’s service in this world, which exists through it, Malchus of Ein Sof be revealed below as before creation, so that the tzimtzum conceals nothing at all.והכוונה בצמצום זה הוא כדי שאח״כ ע״י עבודת האדם בעוה״ז

Stated differently

Whether anything of the light remains in the vacated space

Torah Ohr, Vayeira 1, ¶17וה״ז נק׳ מקום פנוי וחלל לגבי האור שלא נשאר אור וגילוי

The light remains only in potential within the luminary, which itself fills the whole space; relative to the light the space is empty, with no light or revelation left, and this concealment is an absence of light, not recognizable even as potential Chochmah.

Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 33, ¶2צמצם אורו לגמרי שנסתלק ונכלל האור במקורו במאור ונעשה חלל ומקום פנוי

He contracted His light entirely: it withdrew into its source, the luminary, and a void, a vacated space, was made; afterward the kav was revealed from Malchus of Or Ein Sof.

Likkutei Torah, Behar 3, ¶1דמ״ש מקום פנוי וחלל הוא לאו דוקא כי נשאר שם רשימו מהאור

Citing Otzros Chaim: “vacated space” is not meant precisely, since a reshimu of the light remained there. The light did not depart (He is not in space and fills heaven and earth) but is hidden, no longer revealed through the letters, which remain as the reshimu.

Discussed by

  • The Tzemach Tzedek · Derech Mitzvosecha, p. 102 (page unconfirmed)

    The Tzemach Tzedek holds that the withdrawn light was gathered entirely into its source, yet a tiny contracted glow stayed behind, called reshimu because, like erased writing, it holds nothing of the light itself, only a trace.

    ולכן נק׳ רשימו כמו הכותב דבר ומוחקו שנשאר רשימו ואין ברשימו כלל מגוף הדבר הנכתב שנטלו כולו רק זכר ורשימו בעלמא

  • The Rebbe · Likkutei Sichos vol. 15 (addenda, letter of Chanukah 5731), p. 468 (page unconfirmed)

    The Rebbe frames the dispute among kabbalists after the Arizal: whether the tzimtzum was literal, a removal of the light, or only its concealment (the light still there, hidden), and whether in the light alone or in its source. He holds it is not literal, is in the light only, and is only in that light’s lowest level.

    אם הצמצום הוא כפשוטו א״ל, סילוק או העלם, אם הצמצום הוא רק באור או גם במאור

Further in Chassidus

  1. The Tzemach Tzedek · Derech Mitzvosecha, p. 101 (page unconfirmed)

    After quoting the Arizal’s account of the tzimtzum, the vacated space and the kav, the Tzemach Tzedek asks how a withdrawal fits ‘I have not changed’ and answers that it took place in the radiance (Or Ein Sof), not in His essence, so that limited beings could come about.ובבחי׳ האור הזה הוא שהי׳ הצמצום האמור ולא בעצמותו ח״ו, ופי׳ וענין הצמצום היינו להיות כי יכולת התפשטות ההארה הנ״ל הנק׳ א״ס

  2. The Rebbe Rayatz · Sefer HaMaamarim 5704, p. 230 (page unconfirmed)

    The Rebbe Rayatz explains, from a teacher narrowing his mind for a student, that tzimtzum exists for revelation: giving outside oneself is only possible through it, and through it even the giver’s essence comes through.אך הענין הוא דהצמצום גופא הוא בשביל הגילוי שהרי אין הכוונה בהצמצום להיות בחי׳ חשך והעלם רק להיות בחי׳ הגילוי דוקא

  3. The Rebbe · Likkutei Sichos vol. 15 (addenda, letter of Chanukah 5731), p. 468 (page unconfirmed)

    The Rebbe lays out four possible views and states the Chabad one: the tzimtzum is not literal, it is in the light and not its source, and only in the lowest level of that light.אבל אנו אין לנו, אלא כשיטה ד׳ הנ״ל, שאין הצמצום כפשוטו, וג״ז לא במאור אלא באור, ורק בבחי׳ התחתונה שבאור

Short quotes, © their publishers; each page opened by a second AI reader.

Main sources

Torah Ohr, Vayeira 1, ¶15Torah Ohr, Vayeira 1, ¶17Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 5, ¶9Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 33, ¶2Likkutei Torah, Behar 3, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 5, ¶4

Where it appears

In 466 paragraphs of 211 maamarim.

Written with AI from the paragraphs of Torah Ohr and Likkutei Torah, each entry checked by a second AI reader and every Hebrew quote checked by code; not yet reviewed by a person. Our English: CC BY-NC 4.0.

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