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''Ayin'' ((ヘブライ語:אַיִן), meaning "nothingness", related to ''Ain''-"not") is an important concept in Kabbalah and Hasidic philosophy. It is contrasted with the term Yesh ("something/existence/being/is"). According to kabbalistic teachings, before the universe was created there was only Ayin, and the first manifest Sephirah (Divine emanation), Chochmah (Wisdom), "comes into being out of Ayin."〔 In this context, the sephirah Keter, the Divine will, is the intermediary between the Divine Infinity (Ein Sof) and Chochmah. Because Keter is a supreme revelation of the Ohr Ein Sof (Infinite Light), transcending the manifest sephirot, it is sometimes excluded from them. Ayin is closely associated with the Ein Sof (Hebrew אין סוף), which is understood as the Deity prior to His self-manifestation in the creation of the spiritual and physical realms, single Infinite unity beyond any description or limitation. From the perspective of the emanated created realms, Creation takes place ''"Yesh me-Ayin"'' ("Something from Nothing"). From the Divine perspective, Creation takes place ''"Ayin me-Yesh"'' ("Nothing from Something"), as only God has absolute existence; Creation is dependent on the continuous flow of Divine lifeforce, without which it would revert to nothingness. Since the 13th century, Ayin has been one of the most important words used in kabbalistic texts. The symbolism associated with the word Ayin was greatly emphasized by Moses de León (c. 1250 – 1305), a Spanish rabbi and kabbalist, through the ''Zohar'', the foundational work of Kabbalah.〔 In Hasidism Ayin relates to the internal psychological experience of Deveikut ("cleaving" to God amidst physicality), and the contemplative perception of paradoxical Yesh-Ayin Divine Panentheism, "There is no place empty of Him".〔Tikkunei Zohar 57, made into the central doctrine of Hasidic Divine immanence〕 == History of ''Ayin-Yesh'' == In his Arabic language work ''Emunoth ve-Deoth'' ("Beliefs and Opinions"), Saadia Gaon, a prominent 9th-century rabbi and the first great Jewish philosopher, argues that "the world came into existence out of nothingness". This thesis was first translated into Hebrew as "yesh me-Ayin", meaning "something from nothing", in the 11th century.〔 Jewish philosophers of the 9th and 10th century adopted the concept of "yesh me-Ayin", contradicting Greek philosophers and Aristotelian view that the world was created out of primordial matter and/or was eternal.〔 Both Maimonides and the centuries earlier author of the kabbalistic related work ''Sefer Yetzirah'' "accepted the formulation of Creation, "yesh me-Ayin.""〔 Chapter 2, Mishnah 6 of the latter includes the sentence: "He made His Ayin, Yesh". This statement, like most in Jewish religious texts, can be interpreted in different ways: for example, "He made that which wasn't into that which is", or "He turned His nothingness into something." Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi, who wrote a commentary on ''Sefer Yetzirah'' in the 14th century, and Azriel of Gerona, Azriel ben Menahem, one of the most important kabbalists in the Catalan town of Girona (north of Barcelona) during the 13th century, interpreted the Mishnah's "He made His Ayin, Yesh" as "creation of "yesh me-Ayin.""〔 Maimonides and other Jewish philosophers argued a doctrine of "negative theology", which says there are no words to describe what God is, and we can only describe what "God is not". Kabbalah accepted this in relation to Ayin, becoming one of the philosophical concepts underlying its significance.〔 However, Kabbalah involves itself with the different, more radical proposition that God becomes known through His emanations of Sephirot, and spiritual Realms, Emanator ("Ma'ohr") and emanations ("Ohr") comprising the two aspects of Divinity. For kabbalists, ''Ayin'' became the word to describe the most ancient stage of creation and was therefore somewhat paradoxical, as it was not completely compatible with "creation from nothing". ''Ayin'' became for kabbalists a symbol of "supreme existence" and "the mystical secret of being and non-being became united in the profound and powerful symbol of the Ayin".〔 There is also a paradoxical relationship between the meaning of ''Ayin'' and ''Yesh'' from kabbalistic point of view. Rachel Elior, professor of Jewish philosophy and mysticism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, writes that for kabbalists ''Ayin'' (nothingness) "clothes itself" in ''Yesh'' (everything there is) as "concealed Torah clothes itself in revealed Torah".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ayin and Yesh」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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