  There are ten sefirot or stages in God’s self-manifestation. A brief discussion of the first three will be sufficient for our purposes. The first is, perhaps surprisingly, characterized as Nothing or the Abyss. (We are said to catch glimpses of it when things alter their form or disappear; when things change or are destroyed, Nothingness or the Abyss becomes “visible” for “a fleeting … moment.”) This mystical no-thing-ness is God’s Supreme Crown.