Jiva

MIND, MATTER AND GOD : JIVA, JADA AND ISVARA
M.M.NINAN
Here's how Isaac Ben Solomon Luria(the Ari :the holy lion; Ari represents the initials of
“Ashkenazi Rabbi Isaac” ) (1534-1572) describes the doctrine of tzimtzum:
"Prior to Creation, there was only the infinite Or Ein Sof filling all existence. When it
arose in G-d's Will to create worlds and emanate the emanated...He contracted (in
Hebrew "tzimtzum") Himself in the point at the center, in the very center of His light. He
restricted that light, distancing it to the sides surrounding the central point, so that there
remained a void, a hollow empty space, away from the central point... After this
tzimtzum... He drew down from the Or Ein Sof a single straight line [of light] from His
light surrounding [the void] from above to below [into the void], and it chained down
descending into that void.... In the space of that void He emanated, created, formed and
made all the worlds." - Isaac Luria, Etz Chaim
In bringing about the creation as a work outside of Himself, the Eyn Sof, willfully set
aside His limitlessness and adopted a path of limited action. This is called the Tzimztum
("contraction") of Eyn Sof. God has to sacrifice himself to produce the creation. Apart
from that he created Free Will beings to populate this world. It means that God gave up
his omni properties (Omniscience, Omnipotent, Omnipresent) that the creation may
have liberty to grow, evolve and be sons of God rather than machines. This was the
greatest of all sacrifices.
This way we can think of the universe with all the sentient and matter and energy as the
body of God. ,They are not outside of God but as a part of the body and is expected the
function as a body. I have developed this concept in full in my book, “Cosmos, the body
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