Rabbi Isaac Luria explained that the nascent beginnings of created reality occurred in the "center point" of the Infinite Light. But how does Infinity have a "center"?
There are two answers which I have traditionally heard.
It means an apparent center. If an observer could have stood on the spot at the moment of the event and looked all around, it would seem like the center of the Infinite Light.
It does not mean the center of the Infinite Light at all. Rather, it means the future center of the "vacated space" after it has expanded outward ten times.
What's written in works of Torah often has multiple meanings, all simultaneously true. So, while I cherish the two explanations above, I would like to offer a third explanation which I find more personally satisfying. Firstly, it will refer to a real "center", not an apparent one. And secondly, it refers to a "center" actually within the Infinite Light; which fits better with the more straightforward understanding of the Lurianic text.
The Infinite Light seamlessly contains all which will follow. This includes the notion of "center", which also implies the notion of beginning and end; i.e. the basic features of all which bear limitation. To prepare the groundwork for creation, the first stage was to bring forth this notion of limitation, "center", from its nullified state within the seamlessness of the Infinite Light. Once the basis for limitation has been brought forth, the creation could begin.
It seems to me that this is the notion of "center" to which Rabbi Isaac Lurianic was most directly referring to.
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