Ain Soph (The Infinite) — אין סוף

Ein Sof (literally 'Without End') is the absolutely infinite divine essence that precedes and transcends even the first emanation of Kether. It is not a Sefirah but the ineffable ground from which all Sefirot emerge — the Zohar insists that no thought can grasp it and no name can contain it. The three veils of negative existence — Ain (Nothing), Ain Soph (the Limitless), and Ain Soph Or (the Limitless Light) — describe not stages of being but the progressive inadequacy of language before the divine mystery. As Gershom Scholem observed, Ein Sof is the Kabbalists' solution to the problem of how a God beyond all attributes can give rise to a structured cosmos.

Cross-Tradition Resonances