On Tzimtzum, Sefirot and Cardinal Numbers

Today is Yud Tes Kislev — Rosh HaShanah of Chasidut.

Today I received two gifts, which I’d like to share.

Lately, while learning Samach Vov, I’ve been struggling to understand the meaning of Sefirot Ein Keitz. Today, during shacharis shemone esreh, it donned upon me that the literal meaning of Sefirot Ein Keitz is infinite numbers. I suddenly realized that while Sefirot after the Tzimtzum are ordinary numbers, Sefirot before Tzimtzum—Sefirot Ein Keitz—are cardinal numbers developed by the mathematician Georg Cantor at the end of the 19 c.

Later during the day, I got the second epiphany that Tzimtzum is the collapse of the universal wavefunction describing the creation. Before Tzimtzum, all creations were in the state of “yecholot” — potentialities. After the Tzimtzum, i.e., after the collapse of the wavefuction, these potentialities actualized in specific forms of creation. That is why Patach Eliyahu says, there ten sefiros, not nine and not eleven. That which was in a state of superposition of all possible states actualized in a single state. Even the word “tzimtzum,” which means infinite contraction, can be literally translated as a collapse.

More on both topics later. Gut yom tov!