The Nature of the Creative Process
We are now in a position to understand how the Lurianic theosophy is both a theory of human as well as divine creativity. I will later argue, after presenting some more material from the history of Jewish mystical thought, that one can understand the basic metaphors of the Lurianic Kabbalah as outlining the essential form of linguistic creativity and exchange, and, more specifically, providing a model for the significance of each and every linguistic proposition and act. However, I will first examine how the Lurianic system as a whole, in its progression from
Ayin (Nothing), to
Ein-sof (the Infinite),
tzimtzum (Contraction),
Sefirot (Archetypes/Values),
shevirah (Breakage),
Kellipot (Encapsulating “Shells”
,
Birur (extraction) and
tikkun (Restoration) can be understood as a metaphor for the structure of all creativity, thought and inquiry.
To begin with just as
Ayin, nothingness, expresses the character of
Ein-sof prior to creation, nothingness characterizes the human subject in the initial moment of creativity. In this moment, the creating or inquiring intellect is
Ayin, empty or ignorant, experiencing a
lack prior to its initiating a creative work or inquiry. In the initial moment when one seeks to create or inquire, one stands before infinite plenum of possibility, which at the same time is an emptiness, lack or void, one that is analogous to, if not identical with the nothingness,
Ayin which the Kabbalists equate with
Ein-sof, the infinite God. We should here note that the Zohar equates
Ayin not only with
Ein-sof, but also with the highest
Sefirah, Keter, which it also refers to as desire or will. Prior to creating, one experiences a lack (an
Ayin or void) and a desire which engenders a will to generate or fulfill.
Paradoxically, however, the first
act in the creative (or investigative process) is to restrict one’s field, i.e. to limit one’s creative aspiration or range of inquiry, to narrow the possibilities, and focus on a limited area, in much the same way that, in creating and revealing itself to a world,
Ein-sof performs an act of
tzimtzum, contraction, limitation and concealment of its own infinite potential. Having constricted one’s field in a human act of
tzimtzum, one has an initial flash of insight (analogous to the
Or Ein-sof—the infinite light—bursting forth from the Primordial Man) and selects the values or tools for one’s inquiry. In expressing one’s initial insight and then creating a “draft” or positing an initial assumption or hypothesis to contain it, one enters a positive moment in the creative process, just as
Ein-sof enters a positive moment in creation by emanating the value archetypes or
Sefirot. The
Sefirot, which are initially rather fragile and disjoint serve as the vessels for containing the divine light, and serve as the elements of creation, which must, however, go through a processes of rupture and emendation before they can fulfill their role. Like these
Sefirot, which are unable to contain the full emanation of divine energy, one’s initial assumptions, insights or ideas are inevitably inadequate to comprehend, express or contain the subject matter of one’s creation or inquiry. There is thus a shattering of one’s hypothesis, idea, or creation, in much the same manner as the original
Sefirot were shattered with the “Breaking of the Vessels” (
Shevirat ha-Kelim). The result of this shattering is that the energy or notions produced by one’s initial efforts are partially obscured and lost to one’s endeavor or inquiry, in a manner analogous to the entrapment of the sparks (
netzotzim) by the shards of the broken vessels which form the “husks” or
Kellipot that obscure the divine creative light.
Just as the Kabbalists held that humanity is enjoined to extract (
Birur) sparks of divine light from their “husks,” the individual faced with the failure of his initial efforts must proceed to both recover what remains of his initial creative insight and reorganize his work or inquiry in a manner that is more suitable to the subject at hand. This latter process is perfectly analogous to the Lurianic act of
tikkun, in which the lights recovered from the husks are emended and reorganized as the restored
Sefirot and
Partzufim (divine visages) of the World of
Tikkun, and the process of creation is finally perfected and brought to a close. In Kabbalistic terms, the completed work becomes one piece in the overall re-creation and restoration of the world. However, there is no real end, as the entire process repeats itself
ad infinitum. Along the way there is a dialectical progression in which an initial lack or creative urge (
Ayin) surveys a field of infinite possibility (
Ein-sof), constricts and focuses itself (
tzimtzum), posits an initial hypothesis or creative effort (
Sefirot), which proves inadequate to its subject matter and breaks apart (
shevirah), only to be recovered and revised (
tikkun). In the process ideas that are initially clearly defined, are torn asunder, and come to include what was originally thought to contradict them or lie outside their scope, thus becoming open to that which they were initially meant to exclude.