Why There’s Lack in the World
To understand the answer to this question, let us take a step back: Why were lack and deficiency created in the first place?
From the very creation of the world, along with all the other creatures in the world, the Ribbono shel Olam also created darkness, concealment, lack, and deficiency. They have been part of creation from the very beginning. The precise type of lack and darkness varies for every person. Sometimes, new problems make us forget about other things that used to irk us... but this begs the question: What is the purpose of all this lack in the world?
Finding the Ribbono shel Olam
The answer to this is an important yesod in Yiddishkeit. Our entire purpose for being on this earth is to seek out and find the Ribbono shel Olam. If a Yid were to spend 100 years here but not find Hashem, he has not fulfilled the purpose for which he has come here, and his neshamah will not have attained its tikkun. This is no easy feat. The yetzer hara does everything he can to ensure that we don’t discover Hashem. Additionally, it’s not enough to find Hashem; knowledge of Him must penetrate down to our bones! It must permeate and overtake our every move and utterance; it must transform us. This is a life’s work.
So, how do we go about finding Hashem, and how can we know that we’ll indeed be successful in finding Him? Maybe we’ll only think that we’ve found Him, but we’ll continue to go about our Yiddishkeit as a matter of rote—going to shul, learning, giving tzedakah, and doing everything we need to do, but never internalizing that there’s a G-d on This World.
Mission Accomplished
For this reason, the Ribbono shel Olam has designed the world in such a way that there will be lack—a phenomenon that will push us to seek out Hashem. Everyone experiences lack and need. This goes back to the earliest days of creation, as we learn: עשב וכל על אלוקים ’ה המטיר לא כי יצמח טרם השדה הארץ, And every shrub of the field had not yet grown, for Hashem Elokim had not caused it to rain upon the earth (Bereishis 2:5). The grasses remained beneath the surface, waiting for Adam’s tefillos to help them come forth—for without tefillah, he would not have discovered the Ribbono shel Olam.
One person lacks one thing, and another person needs another. Each person is led and pushed, through his lack, to discover Hashem. Once he discovers Hashem, once he turns to Hashem, there’s no longer a need for the lack; the mission of the lack has already been accomplished.
Perfection in Privation
Thus, the seeming imperfection and paucity and lack in the world are in fact the perfection of creation! The lack brings about the entire purpose for which the world was created. A “perfect world” without any lack would truly be the furthest thing from perfect—because people would not be motivated to seek out Hashem. Only a world with lack can be considered perfect!
Imagine an only child of extremely wealthy parents... how do we think this child will turn out? A child who grows up alongside other siblings and must navigate relationships and other people’s needs, grows up far healthier. Children learn to share, and their circumstances force them to grow.... Through challenges, they grow. A child who always has what he wants is wholly unprepared for the first “no” of his life! No one wants to be around him when that happens.... He has never built himself, because he has never had lack in his life.
We would all look like that child if the world were “perfect.” And thus, perfection is when there’s lack, which causes us to turn to Hashem, bringing us closer to actual perfection.
Strength in Suffering
The pasuk tells us, כל את אלקים וירא מאד טוב והנה עשה אשר, Hashem saw all that He made and that it is very good. Says the Midrash (Bereishis 9:8), “very good” refers to the measure of suffering. But how can we call suffering “very good?” asks the Midrash. הבריות ידיה שעל אלא הבא העולם לחיי באים, only because through it, the creations attain Olam Habah.
The Midrash goes on to enumerate other seemingly negative things that are considered “very good,” such as the yetzer hara and the measure of calamity. The sefarim hakedoshim explain regarding this that judgments emanate from a very high place, and our world simply doesn’t possess the vessels to express them as revealed good. This is why they seem to be dark. But in the future, their light will be revealed, and we will all see that they were actually light and good.
Perhaps we can say that the words מאוד טוב is used regarding this. Had the world been created “perfect,” it would be “good.” Very good is when there are elements that push us to recognize and seek out Hashem amid the darkness. This is the perfection in creation: when a Yid acknowledges how little he has without the Ribbono shel Olam, and this brings him closer to the Ribbono shel Olam. The lack straightens him out and refines him. He becomes humble and submissive. This is מאוד טוב, very good!
The purpose of every lack is that through it we turn to Hashem. It’s the greatest chessed from Hashem that throughout our lives we will always have things that irk us and bother us. Nothing is ever 100 percent resolved. There’s always some matter on our mind for which we must daven to Hashem. There’s no perfection on This World—and this is indeed the greatest perfection.
