The Outside

## Ein Sof

**The Outside** (外部, *Gaibu*), or **Ein Sof** is the utmost divine realm that ever exists, locating outside of Creation and emcompassing it in its totality. It is beyond the Four Worlds and is often described as the crown of the Adam Kadmon.

## Overview

**Ein Sof**, or **Eyn Sof**, in Kabbalah, is understood as God prior to any self-manifestation in the production of any spiritual realm, probably derived from the term, "the Endless One" (*she-en lo tiklah*). *Ein Sof* may be translated as "unending", "(there is) no end", or infinity.

It was first used to share the Neoplatonic belief that God can have no desire, thought, word, or action, emphasized by it the negation of any attribute. Of the Ein Sof, nothing ("Ein") can be grasped ("Sof"-limitation). It is the origin of the Ohr Ein Sof, the "Infinite Light" of paradoxical divine self-knowledge, nullified within the Ein Sof prior to creation.

In Lurianic Kabbalah, the first act of creation, the Tzimtzum self "withdrawal" of God to create an "empty space", takes place from there. In Hasidic Judaism, the Tzimtzum is only the illusionary concealment of the Ohr Ein Sof, giving rise to monistic panentheism.

Consequently, Hasidism focuses on the Atzmus divine essence, rooted higher within the Godhead than the Ein Sof, which is limited to infinitude, and reflected in the essence (*etzem*) of the Torah and the soul.

## Summary

Ein Sof is the utmost divine and most primordial world that was formed when the Celestial Princes were created by God, as the celestial power they radiated accidentally given form to it amidst the primordial void of Tehom. Despite this, Ein Sof neither is or isn't an **Olam** (עוֹלָם‎; "world" or "eon"), as such a term cannot be applied to it.

In this world, concepts such as duality, space, time, finite, infinite, life, death, existence, or nonexistence are absolutely meaningless, nullified by the very presence of God and can only a "maybe" or "perhaps" as dictated by either God or the Princes themselves.

It is a world beyond time, space, void, fate, and death, freed from all restrictions and constraints that are within the core of Creation, even in the Four Worlds and Adam Kadmon. It is the collective unity in the background, lying beyond Creation which is merely an infinitesimal blip within its entirety. It is also known as "The Outside" and "The Realm of Everything and Nothing", as it was in this world that the concept of nothingness manifests.

And yet, despite all of its titles, Ein Sof cannot be described as a world or a realm, for it exists on a level of existence greater than such simple definitions.

## Realms

* **Shamayim**: The first realm of the Ein Sof, created by God to be the home-realm for Him and His angels. This is also where the souls of those who have died the utmost righteous and virtuous deaths will ascend to, living in absolute happiness and bliss for the rest of eternity as rewards for their fruitful life.
* **Sheol**: The second realm of the Ein Sof and the new home-realm for Lucifer and his demons following their banishment from Shamayim as punishment for the Heavenly War. This is also where the souls of those who have committed the utmost despecable sins and crimes in their life shall be dammed to, living in endless pain and subjugated to punitive sufferings and torture for the rest of eternity as punishment for their sinful life.
* **Purgatorium**: The third realm of the Ein Sof, created by Samael to serve as his and the Grigori's main base of operation, as well as the new home-realm for the fallen angels who were banished from Shamayim. This realm also serves as an intermediate state after one's physical death for expiatory purification, where a soul who dies virtuously but still imperfect will be purified to achieve the holiness necessary to achieve Shamayim.

## Trivia

* The realm is implied to possibly be older than the Princes themselves.
	+ Gabriel stated that it was God's gift to them, being created in celebration of their creation.
	+ Uriel once said it was for more older than them, with possibly the exceptions of Michael and Lucifer, and might be as ancient as God Himself.
* The realm is implied to possess some form of consciousness.
* The Ein Sof could be likened to the library of which the shelves of Adam Kadmon are contained.
* Ein Sof in Kabbalah is the state God was in prior to self-manifestation. The term was first used by Azriel of Gerona, one of the most important Kabbalists at that time, who held Neoplatonic beliefs and thought that God can have no thought, no desire, or action as all of these are negated by it. It is the origin of the Ohr Ein Sof (The Divine Infinite Light).
	+ In Lurianic Kabbalah, the Tzimtzum (Self-Withdrawal), which is the first act of Creation, takes place within the Ein Sof to create an empty void from which all of Creation springs from.
	+ Ein Sof springs from the concept of Ayin, which is the Nonexistence beyond Nonexistence and Existence and cannot be defined. In the Tzimtzum's order of de-evolution into our physical creation, Ein Sof is defined as 00.