NOTEThe Hebrew noun Tzimtzum (צמצום) denotes the act of contraction, pressing, squeezing or forcing into close confinement.In bringing about the creation as a work outside of Himself, the Eyn Sof, blessed be He, willfully set aside His limitlessness and adopted a path of limited action. This is called the Tzimztum (contraction) of Eyn Sof, blessed be He.
Having discussed how to understand the Sefirot, we know that they were an innovation. We must now learn how they developed thereafter. You have already heard that in viewing the Chariot, there are two factors: the vision and the explanation – seeing and understanding. I will now proceed to explain the vision. Since I have already set forth elsewhere the details of what is seen in the vision (see Pitchey Chochmah VaDaat and Klalut HaIlan), you should now be able to understand them, for what follows is the explanation of the details. In order to make things easier, from this point onwards I will indicate how the various aspects appear in the vision.