The Contraction

Know that before the emanated were emanated and the created created, a simple supernal light filled the whole of existence. There was no vacant place at all, in the aspect of empty air and void; rather, all was filled with that simple light of the Infinite. It had no aspect of beginning and no aspect of end; rather, all was one simple light, equal in a single equipoise, and this is what is called the light of the Infinite (Ein Sof).

And when it arose in His simple will to create the worlds and to emanate the emanated, so as to bring to light the completeness of His acts, His names, and His appellations -- which was the cause of the creation of the worlds, as we explained in the first branch, in the first inquiry --

Now this contraction was in a single equipoise around that empty central point, in such a way that the place of that void was round on all its sides in complete equipoise, and was not in the figure of a square with upright angles, because the Infinite too contracted Himself in the aspect of a circle, in a single equipoise from all sides. And the reason was that, since the light of the Infinite is equal in complete equipoise, it was likewise necessary that He contract Himself in a single equipoise from all the sides, and not from one side more than the others.

And it is known in the science of measure (geometry) that there is no figure so equal as the figure of the circle, unlike the figure of the square with its protruding upright angles, and likewise the triangle and the rest of the figures; therefore the contraction of the Infinite must be in the aspect of a circle, the reason being that He is equal in all His measures. So too in Parashat Bo (Zohar, folio 42) it is stated, "a vessel in a circle, which is [the letter] yod"; and see Parashat Pekudei (folio 258), that the palaces and what is within them are circles. There is yet another reason, on account of the emanated beings He would afterward emanate within that empty and vacated place: when the emanated are in the figure of circles, they are all near to and cleaving to the Infinite that surrounds them in a single complete equipoise, and receive the light and influx they require from the Infinite on all their sides in a single measure -- which would not be so were they a square or a triangle, for then their protruding angles would be nearer the Infinite than their other sides, and they would not receive the light in a single equipoise. And at the end of the third branch it will be explained why this contraction was necessary, and what it means.