Light as the First Expression of the Infinite
In Kabbalistic thought, Ein Sof means “without end” and refers to God’s boundless, unknowable reality. Ohr is Hebrew for “light.” Together, Ein Sof Ohr—“the light of Ein Sof”—names a way of describing how that absolute reality is understood to become expressible within a creation that is not itself infinite.
The word “light” is not meant as ordinary illumination, something that travels through space or can be seen. It is a metaphor for divine presence and the possibility of existence. Calling it the first emanation means that it is the earliest expression of the infinite in a framework where the created world can begin to take shape.
Before Time, Not Just Before the World
Describing this light as prior to reality can sound like a scene that happened long ago. But in this mystical account, time is part of the reality being explained. “Before” therefore points to a relationship of dependence: the world derives from the infinite, rather than the infinite being one object among others inside the world.
The idea also preserves a tension at the heart of the teaching. The divine source is boundless and beyond ordinary understanding, yet creation is described as emerging from it through an expression called light. The light gives language to that connection without reducing the infinite to something physical—or fully knowable.
