Ein Sof

In classical Kabbalistic exposition (as found in the Zohar and medieval kabbalists such as Isaac the Blind and Azriel of Gerona) Ein Sof is not a created being but the utterly transcendent source that precedes any self‑manifestation. Medieval commentators and later mystics place the emanative process "from there": the Infinite Light (Ohr Ein Sof) proceeds and is invested into vessels that become the ten sefirot. Lurianic Kabbalah frames the initial metaphysical move as tzimtzum (self‑withdrawal or contraction) originating with reference to this infinite source, while Hasidic thinkers further reflect on the relation between Ein Sof/Atzmus and human religious sincerity. These positions are doctrinal developments rather than narrative tales of encounter.

Kabbalistic sources explicitly deny any anthropomorphic or sensory description of Ein Sof. The Zohar insists that prior to shaping the world the divine was "alone, without form and without resemblance," and therefore forbidden to be represented or named; visual language in the tradition instead refers to the Ohr Ein Sof (Infinite Light), an emanation or metaphorical illumination rather than a depiction of Ein Sof itself.

Described apophatically, Ein Sof possesses no attributes or characteristics in human terms; nevertheless Kabbalists treat it as the metaphysical origin of the emanative dynamics that produce the sefirot. Sources summarize this role as the emanator of the ten sefirot (Gershom Scholem summary), and doctrinal exegesis (e.g., Moses Cordovero) frames the sefirot as "lights invested in vessels," the lights ultimately deriving from the undifferentiated light of Ein Sof. Lurianic accounts introduce dynamics such as tzimtzum—self‑contraction or concealment—and subsequent processes of emanation and repair, but such terms are theological metaphors rather than literal anthropomorphic actions; medieval rationalist kabbalists (e.g., Azriel of Gerona) emphasize negation of any attributed desire, thought, word, or action.