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

The beginning and essence of all creation, the firstborn and universal form of all beings, the light of all lights, and the life of all lives.

This Firstborn of God, who emerged from the Most High simultaneously with something they call the Spirit of Anointing likely referring to the Ruach ha-Mashiach or the Messianic spirit, often associated with the first light of creation, yet remained most intimately connected with the Infinite through that primordial ray or first ray Latin: primus radius, became—as the all-encompassing archetype—the most true creator of all things.

Therefore, the Kabbalists speak of him partly as a perfect image and reflection of the unnamable Eternal, and partly as the sum of all beings and the creator of all things, whose God, sustainer, and all-enlivener he is ⁵).

The highest and immediate action of the Infinite, according to their principles, does not concern individual, countable, and nameable things or individuals; rather, it concerns only the most perfect and all-encompassing: its first radiation is a complete, perfect image of the Infinite itself, according to all possible modes of transition into life and existence.

⁵) On all of this and the manner of the emergence of the Deity’s Firstborn, see These citations likely refer to the Kabbala Denudata (The Kabbalah Unveiled), a massive 17th-century collection of Latin translations of Zoharic texts. I, 2, 31—38. II, 27, 536—542. III, 7, 209. 3, 103 and following. 5, 56. II, 5, 56. I, 5, 10. II, 7, 185 and following. 38, 920 and following. 44, 1059—1090. 10, 174—199. 22, 453—459. I, 5, 42.