Like the Neoplatonists, the Kabbalists held a strongly emanationist position. Thus they teach that the En Sof ("the Infinite"; i.e. the Absolute or Godhead) emanates the first sefirah, Keter, which in turn emanates the next one, Hokmah, and so on, down to the lowest sefirah, Malkhut.
In the Lurianic Tzimtzum scheme each successive sefirah is contained within the preceeding - like layers in an onion, except in reverse (grows from the outside in - (see diagram above).
An alternative version has the emanation of worlds rather than sefirot. So the En Sof emanates the World of Atziluth, Atziluth emanates Briah, and thus through to the lowest world, Asiyah.
In Kabbalah therefore there is no "creation out of nothing" in the conventional Judeo-Christian sense. Moreover, each of the sefirt and worlds stands in a precise relationship to the adjacent worlds.. To quote Rabbi Levi I. Krakovsky, a contemporary Kabbalistic writer:
"...Ain Sof is considered as Spirit to Adam Kadmon and Adam Kadmon is the vessel for that Spirit, symbolising matter....Adam Kadmon in relation to Atzilut is Spirit, and Azilut is matter against Adam Kadmon. Bria is matter to Atzilut and Atzilut is spirit to Bria. Bria is spirit to Yetzira and Yetzira is matter to Bria. Yetzirah is spirit to Assia and Assia is matter to Yetzira."
And because each lower world contains the same sefirotic configoration as the one which preceeded it, each lower level is a lower image of the preceeding World. The ten Sefirot, the ten archetypal attributes of God, are thus repeated in each World or plane of existence, thus producing a fractal cosmology wherin each part mirrors the whole.
