Is God knowable, accessible, immanent? Or is He removed, transcendent, hidden? This is where the kabbalist begins and ends, striving always to reconcile these divergent theological concepts. Fortunately, the abstract becomes more tangible when God is examined in relation to His Creation.
Remembering that the subject of Kabbalah has been examined in various philosophies extant throughout history, it is possible to posit the following: the kabbalists of Provence and Spain, influenced by the doctrine of neoplatonism, defined their removed and hidden God through the mystical term Ein-Sof ("infinite”). Ein-Sof is a concept of God in which there are no distinctions and no differentiations, and even no volition. It does not reveal its true nature through acquisition of knowledge, nor is it accessible through contemplation. The only method of apprehending the existence of Ein-Sof is the recognition that all creation is finite. This makes the Ein-Sof the first infinite cause. This is consonant with the theology of Aristotle--that there was an "unmoved Mover” of the universe whose "superfluity” brought forth the world and all that is therein.
This is not the warmest perspective available. In the Zohar the term Ein-Sof is employed to designate the nine lights of thought that emanate from the Divine Thought. This brings Ein-Sof out of its Greek cave of concealment to a brighter, more attainable level of revelation. However, do not become too enlightened. Although Ein-Sof was considered absolute reality by the kabbalists, its nature was spiritual and transcendent.
If God is completely hidden, how is He made manifest? That is, how does Ein-Sof become the Creator of Heaven and Earth? The answer may be compared to explaining the appearance of Elijah at the Passover seder. It is a mystery, suggest the kabbalists, all theories of God’s "goodness” coming to earth through a series of heavenly emanations notwithstanding. Whoever God is and whatever God creates is a product of the processes and inner life known only to God Himself. But this has been a source of contention among kabbalists for centuries. Does God manifest Himself outwardly or inwardly? Can the theory of emanation do justice to the mystery of Creation? Or should we view even that outward act as a "regression”--that is, a return of God into the depths of Himself preceding Creation?
The debate has never been resolved. What is sought, then, is more evidence of God’s relation to His mysterious Creation.