Ovyut (Kabbalah)

Ovyut denotes thickness, materiality, or darkness, as opposed to purity, clarity, and spirituality. In kabbalistic terminology, it expresses the quality of the vessel, which is the will to receive. It is considered thick and dark because it is the antithesis of the eternal divine light, the essence of which is entirely giving. A greater will to receive is regarded as having greater opacity, while a vessel that contains a lesser will to receive is regarded as being more pure. This is because the greater the will to receive that a vessel acquires, the more it is distanced from the Creator and His light and the more material and dark it becomes.