Tzimtzum, Anti-Light, and the Kabbalah of Black Hole Creation
”לחצו כאן לקריאת “צמצום וחורים שחורים
SCIENTIFIC LAYER
The תכלית tachlit “purpose”* of the מקום צמצום makom tzimtzum “place of constriction” was to make כלים kelim “vessels”. It is also the שורש shoresh “root” of every עביות aviut “thickness”. Light itself is not “thick”, but when light undergoes corporification, its aviut grows ̶ it becomes more material.
Accordingly, even our bodies are based on tzimtzum: it is the process of m’gashen “to embody” the light until it becomes the גוף וכלים guf v’kelim “body of the vessel”.
In physics, the early universe was governed by a perfect, unified symmetry of forces. As it cooled, this symmetry broke, and distinct forces, particles, and masses emerged. This process, known as spontaneous symmetry breaking, parallels the emergence of differentiated vessels from the indivisible Divine light. (Physically, this symmetry breaking operates through the Higgs mechanism: interaction with the Higgs field endows originally massless particles with mass — a quantitative analogue of מדת הדין Midat HaDin “strict judgment” that imposes measured weight upon the flux of light). Just as tzimtzum allowed the Infinite to become structured, so too did the universe’s unfolding require constraint and separation to form the reality we know.
From a Torah perspective, cause and effect only begin after the initial concealment. The tzimtzum does not occur in time — it creates the condition for time to exist. Likewise, in modern physics, time is not considered fundamental but emergent from deeper, timeless laws. This alignment reveals that both Torah and science point to a non-causal, non-temporal origin of all being — a hidden state from which structure, sequence, and existence itself unfold**.
Millennia later, secular science glimpsed this Divine dynamic through Einstein’s equation E = mc², bridging energy and matter. This equation demonstrates the energy–mass equivalence, revealing that matter and energy are simply different expressions of the same essence.
Because potential must pre-exist manifestation, the כוח koach “power” of aviut — and thus of the kelim — already resides in the מקום פנוי makom panui “vacant space”***, though that place is described as empty. There is a profound lack of everything. Therefore, it is more accurate to understand the tzimtzum as the כוח המסתיר ומגביל koach ha-mastir u’magbil “power to hide and limit”.
Similarly, quantum field theory holds that even “empty” space is not truly empty. The vacuum itself possesses a residual energy known as the zero-point field — an ever-present, fluctuating background of potential. This mirrors the kabbalistic concept that the makom panui is not null, but concealed — a place saturated with potential for manifestation. The modern recognition that the vacuum is “something” rather than “nothing” aligns with the ancient truth that tzimtzum does not eliminate Divine presence, but veils it in concealed potency.
Thus the makom “disappeared”, as it were. Yet this wording can mislead, for concealment is hidden fullness awaiting revelation.
Footnote:
* תכלית shares root with כלי kli “vessel”. That very word hints at its outcome: ת-כלי-ת “purpose” is then sealed inside “vessel” .
** “Non-causal” here means that the primordial state stands above the whole domain of created cause-and-effect (והאור אין סוף ברוך הוא למעלה מענין סיבה ומסובב אין בו לא עלה ולא עלול “and the Ohr Ein Sof, blessed be He, is above the category of cause and effect; in Him there is neither ‘illah “cause” nor ‘alul “result”, the Ari”zal, Etz Chayim, Heichal A”K §1, after the words הנה הא”ס ב”ה). It does not deny an Author; rather, it affirms Hashem’s absolute primacy prior to, and independent of, every causal chain.
*** Tzimtzum represents the initial withdrawal of the Oh Ein Sof “Divine Light”, creating a makom (or chalal) panui “vacant space/void” where independent existence could emerge. However, even within this space, a reshimu “residual trace of the divine” remained, ensuring the continued presence of divinity within creation.
SOUL DYNAMICS
From the Zohar, we receive a deeper illumination:
בריש הורמנותא דמלכא, גליף גלופי בטהירו עלאה בוצינא דקרדינותא
“With the beginning of the manifestation of the King’s will, a בוצינא דקרדינותא Botzina d’Kardenuta ‘Lamp of Darkness’ made an engraving upon the supernal light” (15a, Bereshit).
The tzimtzum is not merely absence, but the revelation of the root of דין Din “Judgment” so that the מדת הדין Midat HaDin “Strict Justice” could later appear in the olamot “worlds”. That ‘power’ of concealment is the Botzina d’Kardenuta.
In the classical sources din unfolds in four discernible tones. First is דינא קשיא dina kashia “hard judgment”, the primal contraction rooted in the Botzina d’Kardenuta itself (Zohar 136b, Naso; the Ari”zal, Etz Chayim, Heichal A”K §1). From it emerges דינא פשיטא dina peshita “simple judgment”, the measured restriction that structures the worlds (the Ari”zal, Pri Etz Chayim, Sha’ar Pesukei d’Zimra §1). A third degree, דינא מצומצם dina m‘tzumtzam “constrained judgment”, tempers harshness so vessels can hold light (Etz Chayim, Sha’ar HaKlalim §11). Finally, when chesed infuses din, we obtain דינא מתיקא dina m’tika “sweetened judgment”, enabling creative expansion (Zohar 31a, Vae’ra; Ramak, Pardes §23:4). Thus the Botzina marks only the highest intensity; din cascades, each step reducing severity until existence can receive — and ultimately rectify — light.
Note this striking gematria: the gematria katan of בוצינא דקרדינותא and the mispar siduri of חשך choshech “darkness” are both 52. This numeric value is also the value of the Divine Name בן BeN, the milui/expansion holy Name יהו”ה associated with din and corporeality (יוד הה וו הה, gematria 52).
Thus, G-d’s own light is restricted by G-d’s own “anti-light” — a lamp that radiates utter darkness (cf. Iyov 38:19) in order to counter utter brightness. They are both one and the same. Hence, paradoxically, while everything is blocked in the makom panui, nothing is truly blocked at all.
Secular science again mirrors this truth. In particle physics every particle has an antiparticle of identical mass and opposite charge: the electron’s antiparticle is the positron. For the photon (light), the antiparticle is the photon itself.
PROPHETIC ARCHITECTURE
Imagine a theoretical physicist and cosmologist contemplating these exalted matters; such a mind might begin to glimpse how the universe was born. He could conceive that the מקום פנוי makom panui “vacated space” was an unfathomable, incommensurable region of spacetime where gravity was so strong that nothing — not even light — could escape. In other words, this was a black hole. And the residue of Divine light (“positive infinity”) that surrounded and influenced it became what we now identify as the thermal radiation emitted by black holes, arising from the steady conversion of quantum vacuum fluctuations into particle ̶ antiparticle pairs — a process tied to the Bekenstein–Hawking entropy bound (entropy scaling with horizon area) and to the Unruh temperature* perceived by accelerating observers**.
As a proponent of black hole cosmology, he could then surmise that all universes, including ours, were formed and exist inside this vast makom panui***.
Creation did not begin with matter. It began with non-physical structures unfolding in precise order, only later corporifying into energy and matter.
And due to the awesome light drawn inward from the outer limits of the makom panui — the immense and indescribable black hole — the internal pressure of radiance, even after countless contractions, passed through myriads of degrees, screenings, and levels of aviut “thickness”. Then, at the precise moment of transition between energy and matter, it erupted in the most astonishing explosion ever: the “Big Bang”. Kabbalistically, this moment corresponds to the shattering shock שבירה shevirah “shattering”, completing the first cycle of constriction and release.
This moment marked the unfolding of our universe from an initial state of infinite density and heat. But it was not a blast in space; it was the expansion of space itself. Over time, as the universe cooled, subatomic particles formed, and later atoms. Massive clouds of these primordial elements — mainly hydrogen, some helium, and lithium — coalesced under gravity into the earliest stars and galaxies. These became the ancestors of all celestial forms we witness today, still powered by the first concealed influx of אור אין סוף Ohr Ein Sof “Infinite Light”†.
Footnotes:
* The very low “heat” an observer would detect simply by accelerating through empty space: an accelerating detector perceives the quantum vacuum as a warm bath of particle – antiparticle pairs, with temperature proportional to its acceleration. Mentioning it links Hawking radiation to the same underlying mechanism—both arise from horizon-related quantum fluctuations. The clause signals that the black-hole process is part of a larger, still-unresolved framework connecting acceleration, entropy, and information, without adding a full technical digression.
** Black holes are not perfectly black. Quantum theory says the “vacuum” seethes with virtual particle – antiparticle pairs (brief fluctuations that normally annihilate each other). At the event horizon — the boundary where light itself cannot escape — gravity can split each pair: one partner falls in while the other escapes as faint heat. This is Hawking radiation. Jacob Bekenstein and Stephen Hawking showed that a black hole’s total information, or entropy (a count of possible internal states), is proportional to the surface area of its horizon, not its volume. This relationship is the Bekenstein ̶ Hawking entropy bound, hinting at a “holographic” universe. The same equations imply that any observer who accelerates fast enough through empty space will feel a slight warmth called the Unruh temperature (apparent heat proportional to acceleration). These results link horizon physics, acceleration, and quantum fluctuations into one underlying effect.
*** In fact, recently in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, March 2025, Shamir L, it was suggested that we might live inside a gigantic black hole. But most cosmologist are not accepting this idea. This is because the big bang singularity is not a location in space, unlike the singularities of black holes. It’s a point in our past. And inside a black hole everything is crushing toward that singularity, whereas our universe is of course expanding.
† Topics beyond the present scope – such as cosmic inflation, the cosmological-constant (Λ) tension, and the psychological correspondence of the four din tones – merit separate treatment and will be addressed in future essays.
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Rabbi Avraham Chachamovits
Version 1.0 • Sivan 5785 / June 2025
© 2025 Avraham Chachamovits. Licensed under CC BY 4.0
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