Chassidus teaches us that a more subtle form of avoda zara is seeing the world as an independent entity. Chazal teach us יושבי ל"חו עובדי עבודה זרה בטהרה הם, - those who reside outside of Eretz Yisroel, where they don’t see constant hashgacha protis and are inclined to attribute value and importance to the natural sources of their livelihood, are committing a subtle form of avoda zara. Because avoiding avoda zara completely is only through the realization that אין עוד מלבדו, that only Hashem exists, and all else is naught.
Here, too, what is most important is not what we do to and with the world. We don’t have to do anything with the world, because there is no world (OK, of course, there is a world, as the Rebbe Maharash proves from the obligation of Torah and mitzvos, and as it says in the Likutei Torah of this week אלא שהוא כלא ף"בכ הדמיון ולא לא ממש ואף גם זאת אינו אלא 'קמי ולא לגבי הנבראים. But the world is not a metzius amitis). What is necessary is the הסכימה דעתו לדעת התורה, - that we in our minds should understand and realize and acknowledge this truth, -that the world is nothing, that it has no inherent significance, that 'ה הוא האלקים בשמים ממעל ועל הארץ ...מתחת אין עוד מלבדו!
The problem is not the world, the problem is the way we look at the world. The problem is our being nispoel from the world, and turning it into a metzius in our own minds. Biul is for us to realize in our minds that “Emess Havaya le’olam”!
Once, during a farbrengen, a chosid said to the Rebbe “L’Chaim far Lubavitch”. The Rebbe responded: “Lubavitch ken zich alein an eitzah gebben, zog L’Chaim far zich alein!”
Lubavitch, the reality of Lubavitch and what it represents, - that Elokus is the only true reality and worldliness has no significance – is a fact and a truth with or without us. What we have to work on is to ensure that we see and understand this, that we live with the reality of Lubavitch.
