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zimzum

zimzum noun: the self-imposed "withdrawal" of a part of God to enable the creation of the universe, as described by Isaac Luria.

Noun

zimzum (uncountable)

  1. The self-imposed "withdrawal" of a part of God to enable the creation of the universe, as described by Isaac Luria.
    • At an early stage in the creative process, En Sof had tried to fill the vacuum it had created by zimzum with divine light, but the "vessels" or "pipes" designed to channel it had broken.2007, Karen Armstrong, The Bible: The Biography, Atlantic, published 2008, page 170
    • Several prominent kabbalists viewed the zimzum as a voluntary divine process intended to make divinity more approachable to the created realms and to the people.2006, Joseph Dan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 81

Forms of zimzum

alternative formtzimtzum

Origin of zimzum

From Hebrew צימצום \ צִמְצוּם (tzimtzúm, “zimzum”, literally “contraction”).

Questions about zimzum

What does zimzum mean?
Zimzum means the self-imposed "withdrawal" of a part of God to enable the creation of the universe, as described by Isaac Luria.
What part of speech is zimzum?
Zimzum is a noun.

Words near zimzum in the dictionary

  1. zimographic
  2. zimography
  3. zimome
  4. zimrah
  5. zimun
  6. zimzum
  7. zin
  8. zina
  9. Zinab
  10. Zinacantan
  11. Zinacantán

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: zimzum (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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