Sefer Etz Chaim and Tanya

Both texts accept tzimtzum as necessary for creating vessels and enabling divine life-force to clothe lower realities. Text 1 (Etz Chaim) emphasizes tzimtzum's mechanical function: contraction enables vessel formation, then light returns via a measured line (קו). Text 2 (Tanya) emphasizes the same mechanism but focuses on how repeated tzimtzumim progressively reduce divine vitality (חיות מועט בימאד מאד) to enable clothing in material reality. Critically, Text 2 explicitly distinguishes between two divine aspects: memalleh (filling all worlds—immanent presence) vs. sovev (surrounding all worlds—transcendent presence), framing tzimtzum as enabling memalleh specifically. Text 1 discusses surrounding light (אור סובב) but does not develop this memalleh/sovev distinction. Text 2's emphasis on progressive contraction creating graduated levels of diminishment contrasts subtly with Text 1's presentation of tzimtzum as a discrete creative moment enabling return of measured light.