A spark of impenetrable darkness flashed within the concealed of the concealed.

This quote comes from the Zohar’s parable “The Creation of God.” Dense and contradictory, the story explains how a “spark of impenetrable darkness” flashed within Ein Sof at the beginning of time. The Zohar’s paradoxical phrase “spark of darkness” has confounded scholars for many centuries. Most now agree that the contradiction of the two terms reflects the contradictions of Ein Sof, a god that exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Like the spark of darkness, Ein Sof’s defining trait is that it cannot be known or understood. Whereas Ein Sof is infinite, the human mind is finite, unable to comprehend the vastness of Ein Sof. The phrase “concealed of the concealed” refers to Ein Sof and underscores the gap of understanding between Ein Sof and the human mind. As Ein Sof withdrew into itself at the moment of creation, it became eternally shrouded in mystery. The goal of all followers of Kabbalah is to free Ein Sof from its state of concealed obscurity, to restore it to wholeness in the hope of making God fathomable and knowable to all.