Vesper No. 8 | Vesper | Spring-Summer 2023
Ettore Rocca
Zimzum
Keywords
Zimzum, withdrawal, self-limitation, freedom, impotence
צמצום, Zimzum
(maintaining the Latin transcription, even if it is commonly transcribed in
English as Tsimtsum), is a theological
concept that could be of great relevance to architectural thought. Its author
was the 16th-century kabbalist and mystic Isaak Luria. According to Luria, for
creation to take place, the Infinite, God, must first make space for the world.
It does so with a double movement, first of contraction to a point, then of
retraction, moving away from its centre. This empty and dark centre (called tehiru) will be the place for the
universe. If the account of creation is the account of the architectural
composition of the universe, it should be possible to secularize the mystical
concept of zimzum and see its potential for architectural thought. I suggest
four lines of thought: withdrawal, self-limitation, giving freedom, impotence.
Architecture must begin with retraction; the architectural act is all the more
powerful when it is an act of self-limitation; architecture works to establish
free relationships; the power of the architectural act is a confession of
impotence.
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