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Tzimtzum

The word Tzimtzum has at least two meanings. The first is an ontological meaning connoting “contraction”, “withdrawal”, or “condensation.” The second is an epistemological meaning, which connotes  "concealment" or “occultation”. Both the ontological and epistemological senses of the term are necessary to a full understanding of the Lurianic theory of creation.

The doctrine of Tzimtzim gives expression to a series of paradoxical ideas, amongst which is the notion that the universe as we know it is the result of a cosmic negation.  The world, according to Lurianic Kabbalah, is not so much a something which has been created from nothing, but rather a genre of nothingness resulting from a contraction or concealment of the only true reality, which is God. Like a film image that has been projected on a screen, the world exists in all its details and particualrs only as a result of a partial occultation of what would otherwise be a pure and homogenous light.

It is also part of the notion of Tzimtzum that the very unfathomability and unknowability of God and His ways is the sine qua non of creation itself.  Creation, the doctrine of Tzimtzum implies, is, in its very essence, “that which does not know.” God’s contraction, concealment, and ultimate unknowability are thus the greatest blessings he could bestow on the world and mankind.

Although a controversy raged for some time between those Kabbalist’s who interpreted Tzimtzum naturalistically and their opponents,  a physical interpretation of the “contraction” involved in Tzimtzum is really impossible.  This is because the Kabbalistic tradition is clear that God or “Ein-sof” does not originally exist within space and time.  Indeed, it is only through the original Tzimtzum that space, time, matter and light come into being at all.

Our understanding of Tzimtzum can be clarified through an analogy from the world of mathematics.  An infinite perfect mind sees immediately that the arithmetical expressions 21/3, 126/18, 6.72 + .28, etc., etc., are all equivalents of the number 7: it is only from the point of view of a limited intellect that these expressions appear to represent different mathematical ideas.  Indeed, as the mathematical philosophers Russell and Whitehead painstakingly demonstrated, all of mathematics is predicated on a very small number of logical principles, and an infinite mind would in an instant intuit the entire world of higher mathematics as an elaboration of the simplest of ideas.  So it is with the world.

From the point of view of God, the whole world is subsumable under the simplest concept of the One; it is only from our limited point of view that there appears to be a plurality of virtues, concepts and instantial things.  Creation does not involve a limitation in the divine being, which remains completely intact, but rather a limitation in knowledge of the Divine:  an estrangement of certain points within the “world” from the knowledge that all is One.  God does not change in His being, it is rather that His presence is obscured.  He is not completely known in a certain region of Being, and that region of Being becomes our world.

Space, time and matter as well as individual personal existence are the logical consequence of Tzimtzum as concealment or epistemic limitation.  For each of these “categories” serve as a vehicle through which knowledge is limited.  That which is remote in space or time, that which is concealed in or by material objects, and that which belongs to another person or self is in principle, unknown or only partially known.  Space, time, matter and personality are the logical prerequisites for creation, because they are the very principles through which an undifferentiated divine “All” is concealed and hence, paradoxically, manifest as finite, particular things.  

Schneur Zalman, the first Lubavitcher rebbe, regards the very act of God revealing himself in letters and words as an act of Tzimtzum, a radical contraction of the divine essence.  Each substitution and transposition of words and letters indicates a further contraction of the divine light and life, degree by degree. The sefirotic vessels, which, according to Luria, are the products of the Tzimtzum, are regarded by Schneur Zalman as “letters” whose “roots” are the five letters in Hebrew which always terminate a word, and which no letter can follow.   Letters, by structuring and limiting divine thought serve to carry out the function of the divine contraction and are thereby held to be equivalent to the sefirotic vessels.

The Hiroshima Shadows 

On August 6th 1945 the world changed forever within a blink of an eye. Japan had no idea what was about to happen to them and the world looked on in horror. August 6th was the day that ‘Little Boy’ was detonated 1,900 feet above the city of Hiroshima. 

Residents who were going about their daily business saw a bright flash of light, followed by the heat that was 10,000F destroying anything in its path. The U.S had just released Little Boy over Hiroshima and had similar plans for Nagasaki. The U.S hoped that by weakening Japan they would force them to surrender and the war would finally be over. 

The U.S also wanted to show off to the world their new technology and used Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a warning to any other country who believed that they could take them on. When Little Boy was dropped, residents had little time to run for safety as the heat and clouds engulfed them. The most affected site was the Sumitomo Bank as it was closest to where the Little Boy was. 

The heat from Little Boy had been so intense that it had bleached everything in the immediate area, leaving shadows of anything that stood in its way. Perhaps the scariest and most famous photograph from this time is the photo of the Hiroshima Shadow Man. 

This photo shows the shadow of an elderly man who was sitting on the steps of the Sumitomo Bank, complete with the shadow of his walking stick. Hiroshima is dotted with shadows just like it, displaying people’s final moments before their lives were taken. It wasn’t just people that left shadows behind either, bikes, water tanks and structures all left their mark. 

These shadows are well documented but the photo of the man on the steps is the one that we all associate with Hiroshima. The shadows remained there for decades until the wind and rain took their toll. 

However, the infamous shadow of the man sitting on the steps was removed and placed in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum where visitors are able to see the shadow up close and personal.

The Evil 100, my brother had this book and never told me but it includes people such as Adolf Hitler, Albert Fish, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffery Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, and The Zodiac Killer.

CHICO BUENOS DIAS - Rafael Márquez Lugo (México)

RAFAEL MARQUEZ LUGO - FUTBOL

Este futbolista nació en la Ciudad de México. Debutó en la primera división del fútbol mexicano con Pumas en la jornada 7 del Invierno 2000 en un partido ante Monterrey. Pasó por Chiapas, Monarcas (en dos ocasiones) Pachuca, Tecos, América, Atlante hasta llegar a Chivas, su club actual.

Con el Atlante, ganó la Liga de Campeones de la CONCACAF con lo que consiguió el pase al Mundial de Clubes de la FIFA de 2009, certamen en el que quedó en el cuarto puesto.

Con la selección mexicana ha disputado los olímpicos de Atenas en 2004 en donde sólo llegó a la fase de grupos, en la Confederaciones de 2005 quedando en 4to lugar, dos Copa Oro y en la Copa América de 2011.

Behemoth and Leviathan, William Blake, 1825, Tate

Purchased with the assistance of a special grant from the National Gallery and donations from the Art Fund, Lord Duveen and others, and presented through the the Art Fund 1919 Size: image: 200 x 151 mm Medium: Line engraving on paper

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-behemoth-and-leviathan-a00026

Una vez

y por breve tiempo

hace mucho tiempo

tú y yo

fuimos de pronto hasta muy adentro

nosotros.

“Nosotros dos” podía yo decir

en las horas voraces que fueron nuestras.

Desde hace tiempo

si hablo de ti

sólo puedo emplear

la tercera persona: Ella.

El yo empobrecido se hunde

entre las concordancias de la Nada.

Como si nada

Ya pasó todo

y ahora

nos vemos y nos hablamos como si nada.

Como si la nada hubiera devorado lo que ocurrió entre nosotros.

José Emilio Pacheco

“Don´t be afraid of when conflict arises. You don´t have to submit in order to make peace but you also, don´t have to let yourself get involved in the drama. You don´t need to prove your point to win and you don´t have to shut your voice to be in peace. Find a balance between these two possibilities.”

— Five of Swords (The Tarot Insight)