The other day, I had to be somewhere at 11:00am. Not being amongst the top ten most punctual people in the world, and wishing I was, I set my alarm for 8 o?clock, leaving myself with what I felt would be plenty of time to get ready. I even planned it all out the night before. I figured that it would take me about half-an-hour to get out of bed, brush my teeth, go to the bathroom etc. etc. One half-hour for exercise, another half-hour or so to take a shower, get dressed, ?groom myself? (hair, makeup etc..), about 45 minutes to daven (say my morning prayers), about fifteen minutes to eat breakfast, and then about an hour of traveling time on the subway to my destination. I even allowed a whole half-hour of leeway for unexpected happenings such as phone-calls, kitchen accidents and the like.
Needless to say, despite all of this, I still arrived about ten minutes late, maintaining my all-too-infamous tardiness label for yet another day. And, for yet another day, I remained frustrated and annoyed that I took so long getting ready in the morning. Indeed, why must we live in such a world, in which it seems sometimes that most of our time is spent not so much in actually engaging in activities for their own sake, but rather preparing for something or other? Wouldn?t it be lovely if I could just wake up at 11:00am sharp and magically be transported to where I needed to go, already clean and satiated and fit ? in mind, body and soul?
Why did G-d choose to create a world specifically like ours, where so much time is seemingly wasted on preparations and so little on actual substance? We take showers to stay clean to go to school to get degrees to get a job to get money to buy food to have energy to go to work to buy more food to have energy to? But where is it all leading to? Is there an ultimate purpose to it all, and if so, why must there be all these silly intermediate steps in between, and how come life just couldn?t be easy and simple?
It is taught that G-d created this world because He desired to have a dwelling place in the lower realms. One day, this desire will become actualized. Our world will no longer serve to conceal, but rather to reveal the inherent Force underlying it all. This is the singular point to which all historical events are leading. All wars, kingdoms, philosophies and inventions are merely preparatory steps in bringing forth this goal, and are not ends in themselves, just as when I take a shower in the morning, I only do so in order that I become clean. If I had no desire to be clean in the morning, I would not take a shower. The soap bar and shampoo bottle in my shower were constructed only so that I may keep myself clean. They serve no other use apart from this. Similarly, our world, in all of its many details and happenings, ultimately serves only to reveal the Essence of G-d down here. In and of themselves, these details serve no inherent purpose.
But now the initial question has become even stronger - now that we have introduced the A-lmighty and Powerful G-d into the picture. Surely our Great Creator could have found a more efficient way of bringing about His Master Plan. Why the necessity for the millennia of historical events which seem to have indeed served the purpose more to conceal G-dliness, than to reveal anything at all?
Well, like many truths, the answer to this quandary is both paradoxical and inherent within the question itself. Indeed there is something purposeful about the process, the preparation, not in its own right, but by virtue of the fact that it is a preparation for something much greater. The shower is a necessary step that I must take in order to be clean. An annoying step, perhaps, but necessary nonetheless, and indeed perhaps less annoying the more I become aware of what this step is accomplishing. The shower only becomes an annoyance when I lose sight of its underlying purpose, just as the events of history seem all the more confusing when one is living through them and thus loses sight of the bigger picture. We can all relate to the experience on both personal and global levels, of looking back in retrospect at seemingly chaotic incidents and only then tapping into the underlying patterns and meanings behind them.
But Rochel, I can hear ya?ll asking me, why can?t we just skip these intermediate steps, get through it already. Take a two-minute shower rather than one which lasts a half-an-hour? Have maybe two competing empires, perhaps one exciting war, and be done with it.
Indeed, there is yet another level to all of this. Going back to the shower example, not only is the shower a necessary step that I must go through in order to be clean, but in fact, the quality of my shower itself will determine my desired outcome of cleanliness ? hence the vast array of types and brands of cleansers on the market. So, too, is this the case in terms of historical events. Not only can we look back on history in retrospect and see the patterns underlying it all, but we can see how it all led up to where we are today and where we are going.
The problem only occurs when we lose focus. If one were to forget the purpose for which one was taking a shower while so engaged, one may forget to wash one?s hair or the like. If we lose sight of why we are ultimately here, G-d forbid, even for a split second, that is when our lives lose focus. That is when the confusion sets in.
One time, a couple of centuries ago, a certain man went to seek advice from his mentor, a rabbi known as the Tzemach Tzedek (lit. ?Righteous Plant?). He complained to the Tzemach Tzedek that he was not feeling spiritually fulfilled at the present, and he was considering perhaps moving to the Land of Israel, where he could immerse himself in study and worship, seeped in the holiness of the land. The Tzemach Tzedek advised the man not to move, but rather to ?Make here the Land of Israel.?
In light of all that we have learned above, we can understand this story on a deeper level. What this man was really saying was that he was feeling frustrated being in this preliminary stage of exile, and assumed that by running away to the Land of Israel, he would be miraculously redeemed. What the Tzemach Tzedek was saying is that it doesn?t work like that. Redemption is not just a superficial thing involving being in a certain place. True, it is taught that when the Messiah comes all Jews will move to Israel, but there is more to the Messianic age than moving to a different country. Just as there is more to being clean than just jumping under and out of a stream of running water and calling it a shower. In fact, at present, there are many Jews who are living in Israel now, and unfortunately, as we all know too well, the reality of what they are experiencing on a daily basis, in the horrors and bloodshed of terrorism and hate, can hardly be called a revelation of G-d?s Presence in the full sense.
The only solution, the Tzemach Tzedek was telling this man, was to turn inwards. To live in the here and now. And to make here - whatever place/time/opportunity that Divine Providence has granted that you be in - into a revelation of the Will of G-d. (The Hebrew word for Land is eretz, related to the word ratzon - will. The Land of Israel can thus be understood also to mean the ?will of Israel?, which essentially, at its core, is synonymous with the Will of G-d.) By truly making here the Land of Israel, that causes us to really be in the Land in Israel in actuality. By seeing the Purpose inherent within everything, this brings this Purpose to light, and makes it real. By opening our eyes to the Geulah within everything, this makes the Geulah for real.
All too often, we get caught up in the trap of time, stuck in the past, or daydreaming about the future, too scattered to realize that where it?s really at is in the here and now, because that is the one thing that we have control over.
In the Torah, we learn about how each tribe was allotted a certain portion of the Land of Israel. More specifically, every individual has their own unique part that she or he plays in the Grand Purpose of Creation. And just as it was understood that, though the Land was divided into many portions, in a way, each part contained within it the whole entirety of the Land, and that no portion of the Land was greater in quality than any other, and that in reality, the whole Land belongs to each and every Jew equally, so too, each of our individual purposes contain within them the ultimate global Purpose of the whole world. By fulfilling whatever opportunities our unique situation grants us, we affect the entire universe and all of its inhabitants.
May we all be empowered to always stay focused on living fully in the present, and may G-d A-lmighty grant that we not have to suffer through any of this preliminary business anymore, that we can get to the real stuff, that we may finally see the fruit of our millennia of labor, that the shield which conceals our eyes from seeing the inherent reality behind it all be lifted? Immediately. Now!
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Rochel Levi is a young freelance Jewish writer. Her thoughts have appeared in a variety of Jewish publications both online and off. Rochel?s inspiration is nourished by the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Needless to say, despite all of this, I still arrived about ten minutes late, maintaining my all-too-infamous tardiness label for yet another day. And, for yet another day, I remained frustrated and annoyed that I took so long getting ready in the morning. Indeed, why must we live in such a world, in which it seems sometimes that most of our time is spent not so much in actually engaging in activities for their own sake, but rather preparing for something or other? Wouldn?t it be lovely if I could just wake up at 11:00am sharp and magically be transported to where I needed to go, already clean and satiated and fit ? in mind, body and soul?
Why did G-d choose to create a world specifically like ours, where so much time is seemingly wasted on preparations and so little on actual substance? We take showers to stay clean to go to school to get degrees to get a job to get money to buy food to have energy to go to work to buy more food to have energy to? But where is it all leading to? Is there an ultimate purpose to it all, and if so, why must there be all these silly intermediate steps in between, and how come life just couldn?t be easy and simple?
It is taught that G-d created this world because He desired to have a dwelling place in the lower realms. One day, this desire will become actualized. Our world will no longer serve to conceal, but rather to reveal the inherent Force underlying it all. This is the singular point to which all historical events are leading. All wars, kingdoms, philosophies and inventions are merely preparatory steps in bringing forth this goal, and are not ends in themselves, just as when I take a shower in the morning, I only do so in order that I become clean. If I had no desire to be clean in the morning, I would not take a shower. The soap bar and shampoo bottle in my shower were constructed only so that I may keep myself clean. They serve no other use apart from this. Similarly, our world, in all of its many details and happenings, ultimately serves only to reveal the Essence of G-d down here. In and of themselves, these details serve no inherent purpose.
But now the initial question has become even stronger - now that we have introduced the A-lmighty and Powerful G-d into the picture. Surely our Great Creator could have found a more efficient way of bringing about His Master Plan. Why the necessity for the millennia of historical events which seem to have indeed served the purpose more to conceal G-dliness, than to reveal anything at all?
Well, like many truths, the answer to this quandary is both paradoxical and inherent within the question itself. Indeed there is something purposeful about the process, the preparation, not in its own right, but by virtue of the fact that it is a preparation for something much greater. The shower is a necessary step that I must take in order to be clean. An annoying step, perhaps, but necessary nonetheless, and indeed perhaps less annoying the more I become aware of what this step is accomplishing. The shower only becomes an annoyance when I lose sight of its underlying purpose, just as the events of history seem all the more confusing when one is living through them and thus loses sight of the bigger picture. We can all relate to the experience on both personal and global levels, of looking back in retrospect at seemingly chaotic incidents and only then tapping into the underlying patterns and meanings behind them.
But Rochel, I can hear ya?ll asking me, why can?t we just skip these intermediate steps, get through it already. Take a two-minute shower rather than one which lasts a half-an-hour? Have maybe two competing empires, perhaps one exciting war, and be done with it.
Indeed, there is yet another level to all of this. Going back to the shower example, not only is the shower a necessary step that I must go through in order to be clean, but in fact, the quality of my shower itself will determine my desired outcome of cleanliness ? hence the vast array of types and brands of cleansers on the market. So, too, is this the case in terms of historical events. Not only can we look back on history in retrospect and see the patterns underlying it all, but we can see how it all led up to where we are today and where we are going.
The problem only occurs when we lose focus. If one were to forget the purpose for which one was taking a shower while so engaged, one may forget to wash one?s hair or the like. If we lose sight of why we are ultimately here, G-d forbid, even for a split second, that is when our lives lose focus. That is when the confusion sets in.
One time, a couple of centuries ago, a certain man went to seek advice from his mentor, a rabbi known as the Tzemach Tzedek (lit. ?Righteous Plant?). He complained to the Tzemach Tzedek that he was not feeling spiritually fulfilled at the present, and he was considering perhaps moving to the Land of Israel, where he could immerse himself in study and worship, seeped in the holiness of the land. The Tzemach Tzedek advised the man not to move, but rather to ?Make here the Land of Israel.?
In light of all that we have learned above, we can understand this story on a deeper level. What this man was really saying was that he was feeling frustrated being in this preliminary stage of exile, and assumed that by running away to the Land of Israel, he would be miraculously redeemed. What the Tzemach Tzedek was saying is that it doesn?t work like that. Redemption is not just a superficial thing involving being in a certain place. True, it is taught that when the Messiah comes all Jews will move to Israel, but there is more to the Messianic age than moving to a different country. Just as there is more to being clean than just jumping under and out of a stream of running water and calling it a shower. In fact, at present, there are many Jews who are living in Israel now, and unfortunately, as we all know too well, the reality of what they are experiencing on a daily basis, in the horrors and bloodshed of terrorism and hate, can hardly be called a revelation of G-d?s Presence in the full sense.
The only solution, the Tzemach Tzedek was telling this man, was to turn inwards. To live in the here and now. And to make here - whatever place/time/opportunity that Divine Providence has granted that you be in - into a revelation of the Will of G-d. (The Hebrew word for Land is eretz, related to the word ratzon - will. The Land of Israel can thus be understood also to mean the ?will of Israel?, which essentially, at its core, is synonymous with the Will of G-d.) By truly making here the Land of Israel, that causes us to really be in the Land in Israel in actuality. By seeing the Purpose inherent within everything, this brings this Purpose to light, and makes it real. By opening our eyes to the Geulah within everything, this makes the Geulah for real.
All too often, we get caught up in the trap of time, stuck in the past, or daydreaming about the future, too scattered to realize that where it?s really at is in the here and now, because that is the one thing that we have control over.
In the Torah, we learn about how each tribe was allotted a certain portion of the Land of Israel. More specifically, every individual has their own unique part that she or he plays in the Grand Purpose of Creation. And just as it was understood that, though the Land was divided into many portions, in a way, each part contained within it the whole entirety of the Land, and that no portion of the Land was greater in quality than any other, and that in reality, the whole Land belongs to each and every Jew equally, so too, each of our individual purposes contain within them the ultimate global Purpose of the whole world. By fulfilling whatever opportunities our unique situation grants us, we affect the entire universe and all of its inhabitants.
May we all be empowered to always stay focused on living fully in the present, and may G-d A-lmighty grant that we not have to suffer through any of this preliminary business anymore, that we can get to the real stuff, that we may finally see the fruit of our millennia of labor, that the shield which conceals our eyes from seeing the inherent reality behind it all be lifted? Immediately. Now!
--------------------------------------------------------
Rochel Levi is a young freelance Jewish writer. Her thoughts have appeared in a variety of Jewish publications both online and off. Rochel?s inspiration is nourished by the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.