Hell

OUR FATHER, HELL AND HEAVEN : M. M. NINAN
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Tzimtzum - Kenosis
This contraction or kenosis (in Greek) or emptying of himself is known as tzimtzum (in Hebrew). The
word used here is "kenosis", and it is a self-renunciation - a transcendence of ego. At the same time
nothing can exist without God requiring that God be simultaneously transcendent and immanent. On
the one hand, he is absent from the space. On the other hand, God continuously maintains the
existence of, and is thus not absent from, the created universe. 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. Because the tzimtzum results in the "empty space" in which spiritual and physical Worlds and
ultimately, free will can exist, God is often referred to as "Ha-Makom" המקום)‏ lit. "the Place", "the
Omnipresent") in Rabbinic literature 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. While God transcends the creation.
Rabbi Nachman of Breslav discusses this inherent paradox as follows:
Only in the future will it be possible to understand the Tzimtzum that brought the 'Empty Space' into
being, for we have to say of it two contradictory things...
[1] the Empty Space came about through the Tzimtzum, where, as it were, He 'limited' His Godliness
and contracted it from there, and it is as though in that place there is no Godliness...
[2] the absolute truth is that Godliness must nevertheless be present there, for certainly nothing can
exist without His giving it life. (Likkutei Moharan I, 64:1)
Adam, Son of God
Tzimtzum - Creation "Out of Nothing"?
In the beginning there was only God... and nothing else. God, or Ein Sof, was an all-encompassing
Divine Presence, light called "Or Ein Sof" (the Light of Infinity). Since nothing but God existed before
creation, when God decided to create 'yesh' (i.e., "something") from its 'Ein' (i.e., "nothing"), God
needed to "make a space" or to "provide room" for that which was not God (i.e., otherness). God
therefore "emptied himself" by contracting his infinite light to create a conceptual space for the creation
of the universe. In a great cosmic flash, God then "condensed" into a point of infinite density and
infinite energy called 'tzimtzum' ‏,*צִמְצוּם*)‏ "contraction") and "exploded out" in all directions (i.e., the
cosmic "Big Bang"). In a sense, this self-imposed "contraction" of the Infinite Light is a picture of God
"sacrificing" Himself for the sake of creation - the cross. This is the lamb that was slain before the
creation of the world.
There is another paradox in the creation.
The real world created by God is not based on power and
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