BS”D"I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in
spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; rest are details”. – Albert Einstein“…
I would ask, ‘Why was universe created?’ Because then I would know meaning of my own life.” -- Albert Einstein.
G-d is infinite and ungraspable. By definition, more we understand, more there is to understand.
But to know how G-d created this world, His intent and purpose, not only is possible, but part of our mission on this earth.
Kabbalah is key.
Some traditions describe our world as a school; a place where souls come and go in order to learn important lessons. But, even though incarnation in a physical body is vehicle through which soul expresses itself and its potential, this is far from whole story.
Life in a body does more than usher soul through a series of developmental stages. The ultimate aim of life in a body is to provide us with chance to become intimate with G-d, to ‘know His thoughts’.
Kabbalah explains that there are many levels of spiritual beings, such as angels, and that all of these are powerfully aware of their spiritual source. In fact, this experience is most important feature of their existence. It defines who and what they are. To these beings, experience of G-d is all encompassing. They view Him like a humble and insignificant servant views a great and mighty king. The servant’s entire life is devoted to king; king is his whole reality. But two remain separated by an enormous, unbridgeable chasm. The servant will serve king faithfully, but he will never be able to relate to him.
This is not true for us.
Paradoxically, it is precisely through our limiting experience as souls in physical bodies that we can come to know G-d. We will know Him not only from a distance, as servants, but up close and personal. Passionately. Intimately.
Let’s look at why. G-d is ‘above it all’, independent of, all circumstances; Creator and source. He is only reality. Everything else that exists is only a highly limited expression of Him. The beings that inhabit many spiritual worlds all take vast pleasure in His presence, praise and serve Him. But beyond that they are passive recipients. Like rays of sunlight to sun, they experience and express light of their source, but no more than that.
Physical beings are different. By definition, we physical beings, in our untransformed state, cannot sense our spiritual source. Instead of experiencing G-d as center of our existence, as sun, and ourselves as a ray of sunlight, we feel like center. We ourselves, and our own perspective, are more real to us than anything else. It is our nature to feel sourceless, separate, alone, and centered in our own unique and limited experience. Despite fact that G-d is only reality, our experience contradicts this fact. Instead, we inevitably experience ourselves, our circumstances and our perspective as real and G-d as a concept. This is as far as you can get from truth.
In addition, this essential isolation and self-centeredness is root cause of most of conflict and suffering that human beings experience. We are cut off from larger picture. We are disconnected from each other. We feel insubstantial and vulnerable. We compete for resources, like love, attention, success, recognition and money. Much of time we experience life as struggle for physical and emotional survival.
For all of these reasons, Kabbalah calls this physical world “the lowest world”.
But paradoxically, this ‘lowest world’ is where all action is. This is only place where purpose of Creation can be fulfilled. This is true because of our uniquely limited nature, because of fact that we feel sourceless, solid and alone. Only we physical beings have potential to actually ‘relate’ to G-d, who is in fact, sourceless, and ‘alone’ - only reality.
