Making Space: The chassidic concept of tzimtzum and its applications in our service of G-d
A discussion of the notion of reciprocal love to G-d as developed in Tanya, chapters 46-49, and the centrality of the non-literal interpretation of tzimtzum (“contraction”), as discussed in chapter 48. To create space for the other is not to absent yourself and abandon them, but to be present in the right kind of way: to cultivate an environment in which the other can develop their individuality and ultimately enter into a fully reciprocal relationship.
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Making Space - Source Sheet |
| Audio: | Listen to Audio | Download this MP3 |
| Topics: | Tanya, Chassidism, Love of G-d, Tzimtzum |
Eli Rubin, a contributing editor at Chabad.org, is the author of Kabbalah and the Rupture of Modernity: An Existential History of Chabad Hasidism (forthcoming from Stanford University Press). He was a co-author of Social Vision: The Lubavitcher Rebbe's Transformative Paradigm for the World (Herder and Herder, 2019). He studied Chassidic literature and Jewish Law at the Rabbinical College of America and at Yeshivot in the UK, the US and Australia, and received his PhD from the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London.
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