atzilut

Atzilut, Hebrew for emanation or radiance, is a central concept in Jewish mysticism, especially Kabbalah. It is the highest of the four cosmological worlds—Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Assiah—through which divine reality is conceived to unfold. In Atzilut the divine light flows from the Infinite (Ein Sof) in a state of unity, and the sefirot are regarded not as separate agents but as aspects of the single divine source. The world is described as the realm of pure emanation, where distinctions between divine attributes are minimal and differentiation into created forms begins only as secondary channels of the divine will.

In traditional schemata, Atzilut corresponds to the higher, more spiritual dimensions of the sefirot, often associated with Keter, Chochmah, and Binah. The next worlds, Beriah (creation), Yetzirah (formation), and Assiah (action), gradually disclose more concrete distinctions, leading from unified divine presence to the ordered multilevel cosmos, including the human and material realms. The concept of divine contraction, or tzimtzum, in later Kabbalah is linked to how the infinite light could be constrained to permit creation while remaining united with the level of Atzilut.

Historically, the four-world schema appears in medieval Kabbalah and was systematized in Lurianic Kabbalah by Isaac Luria and his disciples. In Jewish mysticism, Atzilut serves as a framework for contemplating divine unity, the emanation of spiritual realities, and the relationship between the infinite God and the created order.