Zohar and Nefesh HaChayim

Both texts engage with the relationship between transcendent divine light and the creation/sustenance of worlds. Text 1 (Nefesh HaChaim) emphasizes that human service draws down surrounding lights (מקיפים) in expansion, beyond the measure of the direct line of light (קו אור היושר) extended at creation. Text 2 (Zohar) describes a hidden firmament that illuminates all others while remaining concealed (גניז ונהיר לכלהו), not open to direct perception. While Text 1 focuses on drawing down transcendent light through service, Text 2 emphasizes the hiddenness and unperceivability of the supreme level. These represent different angles on how divine transcendence relates to created reality—one stressing active transmission, the other stressing inaccessible concealment. The concepts of ohr-ein-sof and sovev-kol-almin are implicitly at stake in both, but with distinct emphases.