לשכך את האזןOnly to Soothe the Ear

le-shakekh et ha-ozenIn Gamatria ↗

The circle and the line were drawn for the ear.

Yehoyada finishes his proofs that the tzimtzum cannot be literal, even if read as a contraction of God's will rather than of God. The Ari writes that the Infinite admits no grasp in thought; a literal withdrawal would give it a shape. Shaltiel asks whether anyone else holds this. Yehoyada cites a gloss in Otzrot Ḥayyim in the name of the Ari's students calling the tzimtzum a parable, the Rema of Fano (Yonat Elem 2) calling it human language, Novelot Ḥokhmah, and Sha'ar ha-Shamayim. Then why did the Ari not say so? He did, in the discourse on 'reaching and not reaching': above the ten sefirot there is no form at all, and we speak in images only 'to soothe the ear.' He says the same of Adam Kadmon's head and eyes. How much more of the Infinite.

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