Tsimtsum Atheism

Tsimtsum, a concept from Jewish mysticism, holds that at the moment of creation God withdrew to make room for the universe. The principle of Tsimtsum has a kind of symmetry that I find appealing, but at first blush it wouldn’t seem to have any relevance for modern liberal Jewish theology. Yet, in my own theological musings, as an atheist, I’ve found not only relevance, but great comfort in Tsimtsum. Of course, it isn’t God that withdraws in my personal system of Tsimtsum, but non-belief itself. Now don’t get me wrong, I continue to be a non-believer. It’s just that by virtue of Tsimtsum, non-belief has become far less important. Should it shrink to the infinitesimal stature of a point, it will withdraw no further. It’s never going to disappear altogether, but what certainly is happening is that it’s ceasing to be in the way. With the shrinkage of atheism in my personal theology, I feel freer to pursue the mitzvot, the legal/ethical obligations, mandated for Jews by the Torah. When atheism was King, rather than a shrinking point, I always felt the need to justify any observance of the mitzvot. The Tsimtsum-ing of atheism in my life has had the effect of alleviating such feelings of guilt. Now, don’t get me wrong again. While Tsimtsum may mean not having to say I’m sorry any more for a life tending towards Jewish observance, it doesn’t mean shedding my critical faculties either, cardinal Jewish values in their own right. Tsimstum atheism doesn’t demand that these values to be relegated to the dust bin of Jewish theology, only that a comfortable intellectual construction consistent with observance and non-belief is available to those modern liberal Jews for whom the concept of God has no meaning, but most everything else about Judaism does.