Kabbalah

Ohr Yashar — The Direct Light Descending

The counterpart to reflected light, ohr yashar is the initial straight-line ray Luria describes flowing down from Ein Sof through the space opened by tzimtzum, filling the sefirot in order from top to bottom.

After tzimtzum, Isaac Luria's account of creation describes Ein Sof sending a single thin line, or kav, of light directly down into the vacated space, chalal, that the initial contraction had opened up. This direct, straight descent is ohr yashar, and it is described as filling the sefirotic vessels in sequence, top to bottom, establishing the basic order and hierarchy of the sefirot before any of the more complicated feedback dynamics of ohr chozer come into play. Ohr yashar represents, in effect, the objective, initiating half of the creative process — bestowal moving in one direction, from source to structure — which is later completed rather than replaced by the responsive upward movement of reflected light. Distinguishing the two currents lets Lurianic Kabbalah describe creation as neither pure divine monologue nor pure human achievement, but as a coordinated two-part process in which an initial direct gift makes possible a later, genuine response.

Etz Chaim