Divine Restrictions and Garments

Hashem's essence is beyond what a human being can grasp. In His wisdom He restricted His Divinity so that a person could glimpse a tiny part of the splendor of His light, and He did so by taking on ten garments, the ten sefiros, through which His light reaches man. This tzimtzum (Divine restriction) makes it possible for a person to know Hashem, rising step by step as he sets aside one garment after another until he reaches attachment to the great light of the Ein Sof, the Infinite. Hashem created the physical world after thousands of such restrictions, placing man in it and rewarding him for breaking through these barriers with all his strength to draw near to Him. The greater the restriction, the greater the reward for the one who searches for the truth of Hashem until he removes the last barrier. This is the intent of the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos (5:1), which says that the world was created with ten utterances to give a good reward to the righteous who sustain it.