Tuesday, September 19, 2006

God is One...so is everything else




A few weeks ago I took my kids to the Liberty Science Center.

There was an interesting exhibit there. It was basically a large screen with a short film.

It begins with a wide angle shot of our entire universe then zooms in again and again through the cosmos to the milky way...to our solar system ...to earth...North America...to a park on the shores of Lake Michigan..to a napping sun bather...zooming into his body through his skin..into his organs....cells...further and further through the maze of DNA, chromosomes...until all you see are atoms (and quarks..but we’ll stop at the atom) dancing around. Right there at the closest you can possibly zoom ..just thousands of atoms.
What struck me is that if you were to pan the camera over a little to the grass and zoomed in that much, you’d see the same thing. Everything in this universe can be broken down to it’s common denominator the atom. If the atom would suddenly disappear everything would just cease to exist. What an amazing concept!

Jewish literature is full of the idea that the physical world mirrors the meta-physical/spiritual. Now take this concept and we can appreciate the idea that everything in this world is a manifestation of Godliness. Rabbenu Bechaya says Hashem Echad..God is One... Everything is god and god is hidden in everything. Take the number one and expand it, no matter how large and complex the number will become, in reality it’s just a bunch of ones. If one were to eliminate the number one, every number in the world would cease to exist!
At the moment of creation there was Yesh M’eyin “something from nothing”..pure godliness and the purest act of love.
Everything that was to be formed and created until the end of time was compacted into that first one.. As it unfolded it became more difficult to see the love and godliness with our limited vision and perception, but the number one is there hidden.
Hashem Echad

Rosh Hashana is the anniversary of that first idea..that first thought of creation..which was pure love....the Kesser...the first of the 10 sefirot (R'ma MiPano).

What I have to do is mirror that.
In the world of action it's oftentimes very difficult to be pure and good and I find myself trapped in a web of deeds and misdeeds, rationalization and procrastination.
Rosh Hashana is a time to get in touch with our inner inner core..the world of thought...that so wants to be pure and good. To acknowledge that we are far from perfect and need to get better...to let go of rationalizing and submit to that world..that world of thought..where his desire is also pure good...

That's precisely why it's a Yom haDin a Judgement Day..because what excuse do we have not to want to be good? Sure it might be difficult to implement but where's the desire..?

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9 Comments:

Blogger FrumGirl said...

I am sure first time around I made mention of Rabbi Tatz's "Worldmask", can you just retrieve my original comment and paste for me here, lol... great post!

September 19, 2006 4:17 PM  
Blogger Sara with NO H said...

Doesn't everyone "want" to be good? I think some just want it more than others and some just strive for it more than others.

September 19, 2006 4:46 PM  
Blogger socialworker/frustrated mom said...

Beautiful post love the thoughts.

September 19, 2006 6:53 PM  
Blogger anonym00kie said...

interesting thought.. i never thougth of it this way. one of the hardest thing i find is not feeling like a hypocrite when you make promises and beg hashem to forgive you .. knowing full well youre going to repeat a lot of it. but this puts a whole new perspective.. even the right intentions have a place, have value. if you dont even have those, ull never get to the action. very nice..

September 19, 2006 8:40 PM  
Blogger kasamba said...

Great post and just what I needed to hear before the Big Day!

September 20, 2006 5:14 AM  
Blogger Pragmatician said...

Important idea.
It's wonderful to make efforts to stop a sinful or detrimental habit but first we should work on us so that this habit will appear as disgusting to us as eating something treif.
We must WANT to make Teshuvah.

September 20, 2006 11:01 AM  
Blogger David_on_the_Lake said...

FG...
Hmm actually you did not mention Rabbi Tatz in your comment...lol

sara...
i think...and looking around blogville I see it..people..when faced with a relentless struggle...will start rationalizing their actions..

swfm..
thank u

anoym00kie...
dont get me wrong..
Your desire to change has to be sincere..and sincere in a way that you really really want to be better..and will implement things to that end..
It's not enough to sit back and say..oh god u know i want to be good..
The Detroit Tigers..havent won anything for years and years and yet every year first day of the season they think they can win it this year...if not they wouldnt be in first place right now.

prag...
thats very difficult to achieve..but true

September 20, 2006 10:45 PM  
Blogger David_on_the_Lake said...

kasamba...
anytime...big day ..little day..

September 20, 2006 10:45 PM  
Blogger David_on_the_Lake said...

mpiy..
at least ur honest...
:-)

September 21, 2006 9:37 PM  

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