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First Question.

How and to what extent do the Kabbalists teach an emanation or descent of all things from God?

The spirit of the entire Kabbalistic system is directed toward the idea that everything that exists has sprouted from the universal source of an infinite light, spirit, and life.

To this system, the creation of worlds is a revelation of the divinity which is hidden within itself; it is a progression of the light and life forces of the Infinite, communicating itself through gradual stages in infinite degrees.

Above all and before all, the Kabbalists place a Primordial One as the Sole First original Latin: PRIMVS SOLVS, whom the oldest known monuments of their secret doctrine call the "Ancient of Days" (as in the Book of Daniel), or the "Ancient of Ancients," the "Most Holy Ancient," the "Primordial Light-King," the "venerable Primordial Light" with an infinite glory, and so forth ^1).

1. Since I am deriving everything stated here regarding the emanation system of the Kabbalists not from later sources, but from the oldest sources of the Kabbalah known to us—particularly from the three Zoharic books: the Book of Mystery original Latin: Lib. Mysterii, the Great Assembly original Latin/Aramaic: Idra magna, and the Lesser Assembly original Latin/Aramaic: Idra parva, which—