Part 1: Faith, Truth, and Trust
Para. 4: Faith and All of Creation
“Everything that happens in the world and each entity (found there) is meant to remind us that there’s a Creator” Reb Tzadok declares. After all, we’ve been taught that the entire world was only created so that we might fear God [1] and to know and recognize Him [2].
And it’s said that “the earth is full of Your possessions”, G-d (Psalms 104:24), which means to say that everything is here in order to enable us to “possess” Him [3].
In fact, “God prepares all sorts of things and circumstances everyday so that we might remember Him”, he offers. “For (since) man’s not able to keep from forgetting (God)” on his own – the ability to remember Him has to come from God Himself [4]. That’s why the first of the Ten Commandments reads “I am God your Lord” (Exodus 20:2) rather than starting out with an outright command to believe in Him, simply because “it’s impossible to be commanded to (try to) know something” like the ever-presence of God, given that He’s out of sight. So He must help us.
The help we need to remember Him is provided by the very next of the Ten Commandments which reads “you will have no other gods” (Exodus 20:3) [5]. For that statement reminds us of Godliness in general and of Godly ability [6]. Indeed, every power and ability you have – whether it’s to see, to hear, etc. – should have you recall that God exists and that He Himself granted it to you [7].
(from Tzidkut HaTzaddik 232)
Footnotes:
[1] See Berachot 6b.
[2] I.e., to catch sight of Him here and be stunned by His presence – and to thus be reminded of Him.
[3] The Hebrew term used for “Your possession” קנינך can also be translated as “the possession of You”. The implication is that God can be “possessed”, i.e., taken hold of or grasped and remembered by means of everything on earth.
As he often does about other matters, R’ Tzadok says that he “heard” this interpretation, indicating that he learned it from Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Izbica, his teacher.
[4] That is, it’s God’s own responsibility to have us remember Him rather than our own. After all, isn’t He invisible and thus can’t we be forgiven for forgetting His presence?
[5] The term for “other gods”, Elohim, aside for being of God’s own names is also an expression for a כוחות בעל – a being with power and abilities (supernatural or otherwise).
[6] That is, while there are false gods, simply remembering the existence of Godliness and governance in the world will help us remember God Himself. And while this is indeed a “false trigger” it still and all can generate a recollection of God.
[7] In short, everything on earth is and needs to be an allusion to God, given that we’re not inclined to remember Him and that God Himself has to trip our memory of Him if we’re to succeed at it.
(c) 2016 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org
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