that Vilna Gaon held the literal view of the tzimzum. Shlomo Elyashiv articulates this view clearly (and claims that not only is it the opinion of the Vilna Gaon, but also is the straightforward and simple reading of Luria and is the only true understanding). He writes: However, the Gaon and Elyashiv held that tzimtzum only took place in God's will (Ratzon), but that it is impossible to say anything at all about God himself (Atzmus). Thus, they did not actually believe in a literal tzimtzum in God's essence. Luria's Etz Chaim itself, however, in the First Shaar, is ambivalent: in one place it speaks of a literal tzimtzum in God's essence and self, then it changes a few lines later to a tzimtzum in the divine light (an emanated, hence created and not part of God's self, energy). History and Hester Panim In the modern era, Shoah has been the subject of discussion about theological thinking: the Hester Panim is a part of modern exegesis. Tzimtzum is a process before Creation but during history the same "structure" is even present, as modern philosophy like to know. The characteristic of Shoah is part of individual life and a part of this structure of history: Application in clinical psychology An Israeli professor, Mordechai Rotenberg, believes the Kabbalistic-Hasidic tzimtzum paradigm has significant implications for clinical therapy. According to this paradigm, God's "self-contraction" to vacate space for the world serves as a model for human behavior and interaction. The tzimtzum model promotes a unique community-centric approach which contrasts starkly with the language of Western psychology. In popular culture Tsimtsum is central to the plot of Aryeh Lev Stollman's 1997 novel The Far Euphrates. Tzimtzum is mentioned as a topic of fascination for Nahman Samuel ben Levi of Busk and his friend Leybko in Olga Tokarczuk's novel The Books of Jacob. "Tsim Tsum" is the title of a collection of vignettes by Sabrina Orah Mark (published 2009). In Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi and its 2012 film adaptation, a cargo ship called the Tsimtsum sinks at a pivotal point of the plot. The story deals with the existence or non-existence of a divine power, and the sinking of the ship marks the creation of the universe in the novel's allegory. See also Acosmism Apeiron (cosmology) Big Bounce Inflation (cosmology) Monism Nondualism Notes References Jacob Immanuel Schochet, Mystical Concepts in Chassidism, especially chapter II,