On the Nature and Origin of the Doctrine of Emanation among the Kabbalists

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To this Incomparable, Incomprehensible, and Unnameable Being—as they simply call Him—they attribute the qualities of an absolute infinity in time and space, of hiddenness, and of a universal bliss original German: Allgenuss that no thought can reach.

And in particular, they teach that within the Infinite, even in His state of hiddenness, everything—absolutely everything—is contained, though only in the most perfect and highest sense. His eternal understanding or His wisdom is the ideal of everything possible and real, just as His spirit is the life of all lives. Both remain eternally hidden within the Infinite; however, they contain the essential ground of all radiations Eradiationen: The process of light or spirit flowing outward from the divine source; a synonym for emanation of light, spirit, and life.

Up to this point, all is pure, absolute, eternal Divinity, without beginning or end, nothing of anything that has a name or concept, nothing that one might address as "Thou"

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—one finds together in the second volume of the Unveiled Kabbalah Cabbala Denudata: A major 17th-century collection of Kabbalistic texts translated into Latin by Knorr von Rosenroth, which served as the primary source for European scholars; thus, for the sake of brevity, allow me to cite these three books only as I, II, and III, while adding the sections and paragraphs. For the Book of Formation Jezirah: The Sefer Yetzirah, an ancient and foundational text of Jewish mysticism focused on the creation of the world through letters and numbers, I make use of the edition by Rittangel in quarto, Amsterdam 1642. Regarding the above, see also I, 1, § 3. 2, § 2. II, 5, § 83. 24, § 5. 495.