Daily Teaching #16 for 3 Tammuz 5785 (June 29, 2025)
More on Faith, Dedication, Care, and Responsibility
We have seen that the four character traits we should try to emulate from the Lubavitcher Rebbe are faith, dedication, care, and responsibility, and that they correspond to the four letters of God’s essential Name, Havayah. Let us now examine this model in more detail.
Faith in Four Things
When we speak of faith, we are really speaking of belief in four different things: (1) in the Creator, (2) in the Torah—His word, His teaching to mankind—(3) in the Jewish people, God’s chosen people who are chosen to convey God’s word to humanity, and, (4) we also believe that the core of mankind is good. This fourth element of faith is based on the understanding that because God is good, all that He created is good. In fact, even if we do not see the good, the good is there, but concealed, in a potential state that currently is unable to manifest itself openly.
These four aspects of faith themselves correspond to the four letters of God’s essential Name, Havayah. Let’s explain this correspondence:
God Himself is known as “the true one” and can only be revealed through the sefirah of wisdom of the World of Emanation, which is in a total state of self-nullification. The sefirah of wisdom corresponds to the yud of Havayah.
Torah is the vessel that contains God’s light. In the beginning of Creation, it is stated that God said, “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw the light to be good.” In addition, God saw that the light of Creation was good to sequester or conceal in a state of potential and therefore hid that light within a vessel, within the Torah itself. That hidden light is the one we are all waiting to receive with the redemption and the coming of Mashiach. In other words, the light of God is already here. It is hidden within the Torah, the vessel that contains the Divine light. We are waiting for the light to reveal itself, for the potential to be actualized. This corresponds to the hei of Havayah, which represents the Torah.
We also have faith in the Jewish people. We do not see every Jew presently acting as a conscious messenger of God, aiming to bring God’s light as contained and concealed within the Torah to all of humanity. Still, that is exactly the meaning of the phrase “chosen people.” Every Jew is chosen to be the emissary of God for bringing the light of God that is within the Torah, to all of humanity. Faith in the Jewish people corresponds to the vav of Havayah.
We also believe in the potential of humanity to manifest the core of good in its essence. Belief in humanity corresponds to the sefirah of kingdom and the final hei of Havayah.
Letter of HavayahBelief inYudGod’s goodnessHeiThe goodness concealed in the TorahVavThe goodness of the Jewish peopleHeiThe goodness of humanityBelief Focuses on the Potential
Let us now go deeper into this concept of the good in all four levels by first explaining that there are two types or levels of potential. In general, to have faith, to believe in something, is to believe in its potential. Despite the well-known saying that “seeing is believing,” in truth, the moment I see something, I no longer need to believe in its existence, because I now know for a fact that it exists. Thus, faith goes beyond what can be seen. I believe something exists, even though I do not see it. In other words, I believe in a hidden potential and, by definition, I also believe that the potential will ultimately become actualized and realized in visible reality.
Now, when we speak of potential versus actualization, there are two distinct types of potential, which are referred to as either visible versus invisible potential or close versus far potential.
As said, if I see something, I don't have to believe in it because I have seen it. It is already there, I know it. Faith does not apply to something that I can know directly. But once one has faith, one can draw down one’s belief into a state of conscious recognition. Recognition is the inner essence of the sefirah of knowledge.
So, though I can eventually come to know what I initially only had faith in, I first must have faith in what I cannot perceive directly with my eyes. This principle holds for all four aspects of faith: faith in God, faith in the Torah, faith in Israel, and faith in humanity. The faith that I can know is the faith in the ‘visible’ or ‘close’ potential of God.
When I sense God’s infinite potential to bring His Creation to its culmination, i.e., to bring Mashiach to the world, I also sense that only God can do that and that He will do it. I feel in my heart God’s infinite potential to redeem us and reveal His essential goodness to the world. I believe that this will happen, for I believe that this accords with the ultimate will and desire of God in creating the world. The potential of God to bring the world to its ultimate purpose, already relates to the second attribute we would like to learn from the Lubavitcher Rebbe—dedication. God is also dedicated. He is committed to His ultimate purpose, which is to bring redemption and Mashiach to the world.
Now, before the revelation of Mashiach, redemption and Mashiach are in a state of potential. There is, however, a bridge between seeing and believing. The bridge is contemplating God’s continuous recreation of the world. Because the world we experience is deceitful and does not reveal its inner essence to us, the result is that not everyone sees recreation occurring every split second. But there are those who through contemplation and prayer have refined their vision and can directly experience the recreation and the renewal of the world around us, and renewal of one’s own self, every split second. In such a state, with every breath that a person breathes, he or she experiences God blowing the breath of life into their nostrils, just as He blew the living soul into Adam’s nostrils. So, it is definitely possible to experience God’s Presence and Providence in this very moment. But to believe in God’s not yet realized potential is to believe in His ability to bring redemption and Mashiach to the world.
The same is true of the Torah. When one clings to the Torah, its light and its truth, one comes to sense the inner potential of the Torah—its latent potential to enlighten all of humanity, and thereby to bring peace and blessing to the world. To believe in the Torah is to believe in its potential.
These were two examples of potential that are visible or ‘near’ potential. The term in Hebrew for this type of potential is “potential that exists within reality.” The potential is there, but it remains concealed. But it can be found and revealed. How? If we work hard. If we toil, we will find it. We will “help” God (and the Torah), as it were, to reveal His potential! This is potential that can be found and revealed. It exists but is not yet visible to our physical eyes. Still, my mind and my heart can experience this potential right now.
But there is another type of potential which is absolutely invisible potential, or as we said before, it is ‘distant’ potential, unlike the visible, or close potential. The potential Torah has to bring light to all of humanity, to all minds and all hearts drawing us close to God, to the Creator, is visible or close potential. It can be found and revealed. However, this second type of potential does not exist, so to speak. It is not there to be found at all. It is therefore known as “potential that does not exist within reality.”
Examples of Close or Visible Potential
One example of the close potential is those things that a scientist can discover. But there are certainly things about nature that are impossible for a scientist to discover. Though they certainly exist in the ‘mind of God,’ we cannot find them, at least not right now, for us they are non-existent.
When we turn to the next two levels of faith—belief in the Jewish people and belief in all of humanity—we find that relative to one another the first is close potential and the second is far, or distant potential. The chosen people are meant to bring God’s light to the world. They are God's emissaries for this task, His messengers. Not every Jew realizes this potential within.
Humanity also has concealed potential, even the most wicked people. In fact, even our enemies have potential for good. We are taught for instance that even an enemy has something to teach us; there is some good lesson that we can learn from even our worst enemies, as the verse says, “teach me from my enemies.” That good thing that I can learn from my enemy, even from my archenemy, Amalek, is the holy spark concealed within him, without which he could not exist.
Since even the worst part of humanity has a Divine spark in it, how much the more so a Jew, even one who seems to be distant. The sages relate that even those of Israel who are empty of good deeds, at least visibly, and appear on the surface to have no manifest good, even they are full of goodness, just like a pomegranate is full of seeds. This is learned from a verse in the Song of Songs, “Like a pomegranate full of seeds, so your brow is behind your veil.” A pomegranate full of seeds is an illustration of visible or close potential. We merely need to open the pomegranate and see that there are (traditionally) 613 seeds within—like the number of commandments in the Torah. So, it is with every Jew. So, a Jew’s potential is much closer than that of at least some of the non-Jewish world. The potential of those that hate and harm is so far away and so invisible that only God, as it were, can reveal their concealed spark of good. But it is there.
Three Types of Faith
Instead of using the model of the four aspects of faith—in God, the Torah, in Israel, and in humanity—we can limit our model to only God, Israel, and the nations, because the Torah is one with God, and Torah is the essential vessel that contains the light of God. Israel is distinct, because the people of Israel have free choice, thus they are not identical with God in our present world order. The non-Jewish world is even further away and more distinct from God and Israel.
Each of these three aspects of faith—God, Israel, and the nations—has three levels. First is its present state of being. Second is its close or visible potential. And third is its distant or invisible potential.
God, as He reveals His “present” state, consists of His continual recreation of all reality at every moment and His Providence over all that he creates. His near potential is to bring the Mashiach and redemption to the world. His distant potential is to bring the world to a state known as the Resurrection of the Dead, where a physical body can totally and absolutely defy entropy and therefore live forever. A similar state was the actual “present” state of God before the primordial sin of Adam. But the Resurrection is far more, because before the primordial sin, there was still the possibility of death as a result of sin, as God said to Adam, “For on the day that you eat from it [the Tree of Knowledge], you will certainly die.” Adam did in fact sin, and that is why death came to the world. The Resurrection of the Dead represents a distant potential state that is infinitely greater than the state of Adam before the sin as it allows for a physical body in our realm to merit obtaining eternal existence without the need for death as a cleanser or exhumer of sin. This is a concept that the Rebbe discussed frequently with great enthusiasm, and it is considered the ultimate manifestation of God’s distant or invisible potential.
Another way of thinking about the difference between close potential and far potential is that close potential is like God working a miracle. Nature is the state of actuality or realized potential of God since God creates nature anew every split second. Nature is God’s actualization, here and now, His revelation. But the fact that God can work miracles which negate or transcend the laws of nature, that is His close potential. Still, a miracle, even the miracle of the Splitting of the Red Sea as well as all the other miracles recorded in the Torah, are miraculous only when compared to Nature. Taken by themselves, they are not intrinsically illogical.
What would constitute something that is inherently illogical. The example in the Torah of something of this sort is the Holy Ark in the Holy of Holies in the Temple—it was at one and the same time, both located in the Holy of Holies, yet illogically, did not take up any space. How so? Measure from one wall of the Holy of Holies to the Ark and then measure from the ark to the wall facing the first. Then measure the distance between the two walls without the Ark. You would discover that the distance from wall to wall would be the same in both instances, impossible since in the first series of measurements, the ark was also there. This is a true logical impossibility, which is far more than a physical or natural impossibility would be. A logical impossibility represents God’s distant (or far) potential. We have no way to describe it or draw it in our minds. Picturing a scenario where the Red Sea could be split is possible. Meaning that it is findable in our consciousness. But that miracle of the Ark in the Holy of Holies—with the Ark there and not there simultaneously—that represents a logically impossible reality. And yet, we believe that God can do it because God is above logic; He can create a reality based on a completely different logic than the one we know.
We believe in God as He creates reality right now. But we also must believe in His near potential to bring Mashiach to the world. And we must further believe in the distant potential of logical opposites, whereby God can make something, and its opposite exist simultaneously. In point of fact, that is the state of the Resurrection of the Dead, which is the distant potential state that will be after the coming of Mashiach.
The same is true of the Torah. Just as God has a near and distant potential, even more so regarding the Torah, and how much the more so regarding Israel. The same goes regarding all of humanity.
Regarding Torah the present state compared to the Torah’s near potential is described by the sages’ statement that, “the Torah one learns in our present reality is like vapor relative to the Torah of Mashiach.” This is because in the time of Mashiach, the secrets of the Torah will be revealed; these future secrets are not included in the concealed dimension of Torah that has been revealed even now. Yet, despite all that will be revealed in the Messianic era, the Torah of the Resurrection of the Dead, is distant potential, as it will be based on paradox, just as the Resurrection of the Dead is a paradoxical state. We can connote these three states of Torah as: 1) Torah of this World, 2) Torah of the Mashiach, and 3) Torah of Havayah.
Regarding the Jewish people, in our present state, we are not able to positively influence the nations of the world with Torah. As a result, the Torah itself describes us as, “a people that dwells apart, not reckoned among the nations.” In the (near) future, when the animosity against the Jewish people disappears, we will be able to actualize our close potential and illuminate all of humanity. We will become what the prophet describes as, “a covenant nation, a light unto the nations.” Finally, our distant potential will be revealed with the Resurrection of the Dead, when the “eternal of Israel” is revealed and the Zohar’s statement that “Israel and the Almighty are one” will be obvious to all.
Turning to humanity, the present revelation of goodness can be found in individuals and groups who support the Jewish people and Torah. They are known as “righteous gentiles” “righteous non-Jews.” In the time of Mashiach the close potential of humanity will be revealed as spoken by the prophet, “For then I will transform the language of the nations into a clear speech so that they all invoke Havayah’s Name and serve Him shoulder to shoulder.” Finally, humanity’s latent and distant potential will be revealed in the time of the Resurrection of the Dead, when all of reality is elevated, including the World of Chaos and its shattered vessels. The inherently pure and perfect state of existence, known as the bone of the Luz will form the backbone of all reality, revealing a pristine state of Godliness throughout.
So now we see the complexity of faith. Faith is simple. We call it simple faith. But it has many, many dimensions to it.
Dedication
We now turn to the second attribute, dedication. Dedication also has two levels. Let us use the example of a doctor. A doctor is dedicated to his profession, which is to heal. He is dedicated to waking up early, coming to his clinic or to the hospital, and to treating, to the best of his ability, every patient that comes to his door. But there is a second level to the doctor’s dedication. A doctor wants to heal. Everyone! Not just those particular patients that come to him in the present moment.
A doctor who clings to the ultimate purpose of his profession, which is to heal humanity, in general, such a doctor will invest his mind and his soul in discovering new medical innovations that will help heal not just tens and hundreds of his patients, but thousands, millions, and even billions of people on earth. This is the difference between being dedicated to one’s work, which is one’s personal mission, and clinging to the purpose and the end of one’s mission.
The first type of dedication—dedication to one’s personal mission—comes from within. It does not involve taking upon oneself a yoke. It is a self-motivation involving what one wants to become and accomplish in life. This type of dedication to one’s profession—getting up every morning and going to work and doing it to the best of one’s ability—that corresponds to the sefirah of understanding (binah). It entails understanding one’s purpose. Everyone has an individual purpose. This is the source for doing what one is supposed to do, what one is meant to do in life, not just because one is told to, but because that is what one feels. Every person needs to choose a profession that suits him. Being devoted and dedicated to doing it properly comes from understanding oneself.
But clinging to the end, i.e., to the purpose of one’s profession, that stems from the sefirah of knowledge (da’at), which we have termed, “focusing on the goal.” The person that clings to the purpose, the ultimate purpose of his own profession, may very well be blessed by God to make new discoveries that advance his entire profession and thereby all of humanity.
The first person to make this kind of discovery was the Biblical Noah. Before he was commanded by God to build the ark that saved him, his family, and life during the flood, he invented the plow. This was an invention that totally changed humanity. A discovery of this magnitude
