קו אחד ישרThe Single Line

kav eḥad yasharIn Gamatria ↗

One thin channel, and suddenly there is above and below.

Into the vacated space Ein Sof draws one straight line (kav) down from its encircling light. Its upper end touches Ein Sof. Its lower end does not reach the light on the far side. The text likens it to a thin pipe carrying the waters of the upper light to every world inside the space. Because light enters only along this line, there is now an above and a below, a head and an end. Light pouring in from all sides would leave no direction. The thinness of the line also gives measure, so the sefirot are called middot ('measures'), unlike the measureless Infinite.

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