A POEM FOR THE SEFIROT AS A WHEEL OF LIGHT
Medieval Jewish poesis plays off the image of ten sefirot (emanations) as the resonance of Ein-Sof (the limitless) into the world of our possible perception. Unified within God — goes one telling — or identical with him, they appear to the human mind as differentiated stages, mapped in a sacred language game by words descriptive of their source.
In the present instance the "wheel of light" is not a fixed or static image (from which the "limitless" could as well be excluded) but an image in motion & tied finally to the mystery of creation as worked through by the 16th-century kabbalist & poet Isaac Luria. Here the limitless that fills all space contracts itself to leave a point or vacuum behind in which the universe originates. The act of withdrawal is called tsimtsum ("contraction") & the point is called tehiru, the primordial space. A ray of light moving across this circular space fills it with the ten sefirot, which surround it like a wheel of light. Only a residue of Ein-Sof stays within it — like little drops of oil.
Image, translation, and commentary from Jerome Rothenberg, Exiled in the Word (a.k.a. A Big Jewish Book.)
ethnopoetics visuals