Ayin (; related to ) is an important concept in Kabbalah and Hasidic philosophy. It is contrasted with the term Yesh (, ). According to kabbalistic teachings, before the universe was created there was only Ayin, the first manifest Sephirah (Divine emanation), and second sephirah Chochmah (Wisdom), "comes into being out of Ayin." In this context, the sephirah Keter, the Divine will, is the intermediary between the Divine Infinity (Ein Sof) and Chochmah. Because Keter is a supreme revelation of the Ohr Ein Sof (Infinite Light), transcending the manifest sephirot, it is sometimes excluded from them.
Ayin is closely associated with the Ein Sof (), which is understood as the Deity prior to His self-manifestation in the creation of the spiritual and physical realms, single Infinite unity beyond any description or limitation. From the perspective of the emanated created realms, Creation takes place "Yesh me-Ayin" ("Something from Nothing"). From the Divine perspective, Creation takes place "Ayin me-Yesh" ("Nothing from Something"), as only God has absolute existence; Creation is dependent on the continuous flow of Divine lifeforce, without which it would revert to nothingness. Since the 13th century, Ayin has been one of the most important words used in kabbalistic texts. The symbolism associated with the word Ayin was greatly emphasized by Moses de León ( – 1305), a Spanish rabbi and kabbalist, through the Zohar, the foundational work of Kabbalah. In Hasidism, Ayin relates to the internal psychological experience of Deveikut ("cleaving" to God amidst physicality), and the contemplative perception of paradoxical Yesh-Ayin Divine Panentheism, "There is no place empty of Him".Tikkunei Zohar 57, made into the central doctrine of Hasidic Divine immanence
History of Ayin-Yesh
In his Judeo-Arabic work The Book of Beliefs and Opinions (, ), Saadia Gaon, a prominent 9th-century rabbi and the first great Jewish philosopher, argues that "the world came into existence out of nothingness". This thesis was first translated into Hebrew as "yesh me-Ayin", meaning "something from nothing", in the 11th century.
Jewish philosophers of the 9th and 10th century adopted the concept of "yesh me-Ayin", contradicting Greek philosophers and Aristotelian view that the world was created out of primordial matter and/or was eternal.
Both Maimonides and the centuries earlier author of the kabbalistic related work Sefer Yetzirah "accepted the formulation of Creation, 'yesh me-Ayin. Chapter 2, Mishnah 6 of the latter includes the sentence: "He made His Ayin, Yesh". This statement, like most in Jewish religious texts, can be interpreted in different ways: for example, "He made that which wasn't into that which is", or "He turned His nothingness into something." Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi, who wrote a commentary on Sefer Yetzirah in the 14th century, and Azriel of Gerona, Azriel ben Menahem, one of the most important kabbalists in the Catalan town of Girona (north of Barcelona) during the 13th century, interpreted the Mishnah's "He made His Ayin, Yesh" as "creation of 'yesh me-Ayin.
Maimonides and other Jewish philosophers argued a doctrine of "negative theology", which says there are no words to describe what God is, and we can only describe what "God is not". Kabbalah accepted this in relation to Ayin, becoming one of the philosophical concepts underlying its significance. However, Kabbalah involves itself with the different, more radical proposition that God becomes known through His emanations of Sephirot, and spiritual Realms, Emanator ("Ma'ohr") and emanations ("Ohr") comprising the two aspects of Divinity.
For kabbalists, Ayin became the word to describe the most ancient stage of creation and was therefore somewhat paradoxical, as it was not completely compatible with "creation from nothing". Ayin became for kabbalists a symbol of "supreme existence" and "the mystical secret of being and non-being became united in the profound and powerful symbol of the Ayin". There is also a paradoxical relationship between the meaning of Ayin and Yesh from kabbalistic point of view. Rachel Elior, professor of Jewish philosophy and mysticism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, writes that for kabbalists Ayin (nothingness) "clothes itself" in Yesh (everything there is) as "concealed Torah clothes itself in revealed Torah".
Kabbalists on Ayin-Yesh
David ben Abraham ha-Laban, a 14th-century kabbalist, says:
Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi says:
Ayin-Yesh in Hasidism
Hasidic master Dov Ber of Mezeritch says:
This reflects the orientation of Hasidism to internalise Kabbalistic descriptions to their psychological correspondence in man, making Deveikut (cleaving to God) central to Judaism. The populist aspect of Hasidism revived common folk through the nearness of God, especially reflected in Hasidic storytelling and the public activity of the Baal Shem Tov, Hasidism's founder. Dov Ber, uncompromising esoteric mystic and organiser of the movement's future leaders, developed the elite aspect of Hasidic meditation reflected in Bittul (annihilation of ego) in the Divine Ayin Nothingness.
Schneur Zalman of Liadi, one of Dov Ber's inner circle of followers, developed Hasidic thought into an intellectual philosophical system that related the Kabbalistic scheme to its interpretation in the Hasidic doctrine of Panentheism. The Chabad follower contemplates the Hasidic interpretation of Kabbalistic structures, including the concept of Ayin, during prolonged prayer. Where Kabbalah is concerned with categorising the Heavenly realms using anthropomorphic terminology, these texts of Hasidic philosophy seek to perceive the Divinity within the structures, by relating to their correspondence in man using analogies from man's experience. Rachel Elior termed her academic study of Habad intellectual contemplation "the Paradoxical ascent to God", as it describes the dialectical paradox of Yesh-Ayin of Creation. In the second section of his magnum opus Tanya, Schneur Zalman explains the Monistic illusionary Ayin nullification of Created Existence from the Divine perspective of "Upper Unity". The human perspective in contemplation sees Creation as real Yesh existence, though completely nullified to its continuous vitalising Divine lifeforce, the perception of "Lower Unity". In another text of Schneur Zalman:
Here, the Lower Unity perspective is ultimately false, arising out of illusionary concealment of Divinity. In Schneur Zalman's explanation, Hasidism interprets the Lurianic doctrine of Tzimtzum (apparent "Withdrawal" of God to allow Creation to take place) as only an illusionary concealment of the Ohr Ein Sof. In truth, the Ein Sof and the Ohr Ein Sof still fills all Creation, without any change at all from God's perspective.
Atzmus-Essence resolving the Ayin-Yesh paradox of Creation
In Chabad systemisation of Hasidic thought, the term Ein Sof ("Unlimited" Infinite) itself does not capture the very essence of God. Instead it uses the term Atzmus (the Divine "Essence"). The Ein Sof, while beyond all differentiation or limitation, is restricted to Infinite expression. The true Divine essence is above even Infinite-Finite relationship. God's essence can be equally manifest in finitude as in infinitude, as found in the Talmudic statement that the Ark of the Covenant in the First Temple took up no space. While it measured its own normal width and length, the measurements from each side to the walls of the Holy of Holies together totalled the full width and length of the sanctuary. Atzmus represents the core Divine essence itself, as it relates to the ultimate purpose of Creation in Hasidic thought that "God desired a dwelling place in the lower Realms",Schneur Zalman of Liadi: Tanya I:36, further explained in later Chabad thought (see Atzmut), defines this as the ultimate reason for Creation, taking the statement from Rabbinic Midrash Tanhuma: Nasso 16 which will be fulfilled in this physical, finite, lowest world, through performance of the Jewish observances.
This gives the Hasidic explanation why Nachmanides and the Kabbalists ruled that the final eschatological era will be in this World, against Maimonides's view that it will be in Heaven, in accordance with his philosophical view of the elevation of intellect over materiality in relating to God. In Kabbalah, the superiority of this world is to enable the revelation of the complete Divine emanations, for the benefit of Creation, as God Himself lacks no perfection. For example, the ultimate expression of the sephirah of Kindness (Chesed) is most fully revealed when it relates to our lowest, physical World. However, the Hasidic interpretation sees the Kabbalistic explanations as not the ultimate reason, as, like Kabbalah in general, it relates to the Heavenly realms, which are not the ultimate purpose of Creation. The revelation of Divinity in the Heavenly realms is supreme, and superior to the present concealment of God in this World. However, it is still only a limited manifestation of Divinity, the revelation of the Sefirot attributes of God's Wisdom, Understanding, Kindness, Might, Harmony, Glory and so forth, while God's Infinite Ein Sof and Ohr Ein Sof transcend all Worlds beyond reach. In contrast, the physical performance of the Mitzvot in this world, instead relate to, and ultimately will reveal, the Divine essence.
In Hasidic terminology, the separate realms of physicality and spirituality are united through their higher source in the Divine essence. In the Biblical account, God descended on Mount Sinai to speak to the Israelites "Anochi Hashem Elokecha" ("I am God your Lord").Exodus 20:2. In this verse the names of God are translated opposite to their usual form ("I am the Lord thy God"), as in Kabbalah the Tetragrammaton describes Divine Infinitude ("God", the Ein Sof power of Creation through the Sephirah Keter-Supreme Will, combining the words "was","is" and "will be" in one name), while Elokim describes God's concealing limitation to allow His lifeforce to immanently form the finite Worlds (becoming "Lord", the master relating to this world through the last sephirah Malkuth-Kingship, numerically equivalent to "HaTevah"-"Nature") This is explained in Hasidic thought to describe Atzmus, the Divine essence (Anochi-"I"), uniting the separate Kabbalistic manifestation realms of spirituality (Hashem-The Tetragrammaton name of Infinite transcendent emanation) and physicality (Elokecha-The name of God relating to finite immanent lifeforce of Creation). Before the Torah was given, physical objects could not become sanctified. The commandments of Jewish observance, stemmining from the ultimate Divine purpose of Creation in Atzmus, enabled physical objects to be used for spiritual purposes, uniting the two realms and embodying Atzmus. In this ultimate theology, through Jewish observance, man converts the illusionary Ayin-nothingness "Upper Unity" nullification of Creation into revealing its ultimate expression as the ultimate true Divine Yesh-existence of Atzmus. Indeed, this gives the inner reason in Hasidic thought why this world falsely perceives itself to exist, independent of Divinity, due to the concealment of the vitalising Divine lifeforce in this world. As this world is the ultimate purpose and realm of Atzmus, the true Divine Yesh-existence, so externally it perceives its own Created material Yesh-existence ego.