Close to the Light

The highest and most perfected level of Tikun is called the world of Atzilut, the world of Emanation. The word Atzilut in Hebrew derives from the word etzel, meaning "close to" or "near". The world of Atzilut is "close to" the Infinite Light, even though it is not united and identified with it to the same degree as the world of Adam Kadmon.

The word Atzilut also means "to set aside", "take from", or "draw down", for the light of the world of Atzilut is, so to speak, "taken from" and "drawn down" from the world above it, the world of Adam Kadmon.

At every stage of devolution of the Infinite Light, an additional factor of limitation is added. The dimension and limitation that is added in the world of Atzilut is the aspect of inner structure. Adam Kadmon is unstructured and so tightly bound together that it is impossible to distinguish top and bottom, inside and outside, beginning and end; in Atzilut, however, the dimension of internal structure is added. In fact, the entire concept of internalization, of immanence - as opposed to transcendence - is first evident in the world of Atzilut.

Atzilut is thus the first plane, or world of immanence, of structure. In the world of Atzilut there is a distinction between "lights" and "vessels" —called orot and kelim, respectively. This is not a separation between the lights and vessels, for the lights and vessels of Atzilut are integrally bound up with each other. Nevertheless, there is a distinction between them. One aspect is recognizable as light and another is recognizable as the vessels which contain and limit the light.

A simple analogy: in an initial flash of insight, the "eureka" of sudden inspiration, one has not yet had the time to analyze and interpret the original insight and sort it into the appropriate categories of understanding. The inspirational idea is felt. It is present. However, the potential to analyze, interpret and understand the inspiration, hasn't been conceptualized yet. In our analogy, the world of Atzilut corresponds to the structuring of the idea and the process of understanding it. In more technical language, this is the forming of vessels for containing the original unformed light.

Obviously, the amount of light revealed depends on the capability of the vessels to receive that light, just as the degree to which a person understands an idea is dependent on his intellectual capabilities. The original idea (an analogy for the light) and the understanding of it (an analogy for the vessels) are integrally connected — for the idea is grasped only according to the level of understanding. They are, nevertheless, two distinct things. It could be, in our analogy, that the person doesn't understand the original idea; accordingly, what he doesn't understand remains in a transcendent state, beyond his intellectual capabilities. Light is grasped (i.e. internalized or made immanent) according to the ability of the vessels to receive it, just as an idea is grasped (i.e., internalized or made immanent) only according to the ability of the person to understand. In other words, the quality of light drawn down corresponds to, and is dependent on, the receptivity of the vessels. In the world of Atzilut the correlation between lights and vessels is about as perfect as it can be without the vessels actually disappearing, as they do in Adam Kadmon. The vessels in Atzilut exist, but they are nullified to the light.

This is how we would define the world of Atzilut — there is internal structure, and the light becomes immanent; i.e. the light drawn down from above becomes structured and ordered. In our analogy — the idea becomes understood perfectly.

The World of Tikun

This is why the world of Atzilut is called the world of Tikun, which means "rectification" and order. This is because in Atzilut the light becomes ordered and structured, according to the capability of the vessels to receive it. The vessels of Atzilut are as capable of receiving light as vessels can be before disappearing into oblivion. Thus it follows that structure in the world of Atzilut is neither a hindrance to, nor an obscuring of, the light, as it is in the lower worlds. In this sense, the world of Atzilut is still a world of non-being, a world of thought, since the vessels are nullified to the light.

Note: the concept of structure will be explained where we discuss the sefirot, the emanated lights and vessels below. There it is explained how actual existence comes about through the vessels, not through the lights.

To view the previous article in the Worlds series, Chaos and the Primordial, click here.

The next article in the Worlds series: The World of Creation.