Lost in Transmission: The Trace of Meaning from Tzimtzum to Différance - Acta Universitatis Sapientiae

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 17, 3 (2025) 30–45

DOI: 10.47745/ausp-2025-0029

Abstract. Derrida’s notion of différance and the concept of tzimtzum in the Lurianic Kabbalah share intriguing overlaps in their perspectives on absence as a precondition for meaning. The concept of tzimtzum in Etz Chaim explains the act of creation through divine contraction, a paradoxical withdrawal of the infinite (the Ein Sof) that creates the space for differentiation, structure, and thereby meaning to emerge. Derrida’s concept of différance involving deferral and difference illustrates how meaning is never fully present but always mediated by traces, gaps, and absences. Derrida’s radical openness in interpretation and the radically fixed framework that builds the mystical premise appear to create a juxtaposing paradigm. What kind of interpretative or traditional reactions generate these foundation-shattering premises in presence-centric systems?

Keywords: tzimtzum, différance, absence, trace, meaning