So pay attention now to a yesod, an extremely important principle. The Rambam makes the following statement: “Any manifestation of Hashem’s Presence is called His ‘Glory’ because it is Hashem’s Glory when men become more aware of Him.” It means that any kind of demonstration, any kind of phenomenon, any kind of event or object that will make people think about Hashem; that’s called kevod Hashem.
And that’s why when a fire came forth from before Hashem and consumed the korban on the altar, the Torah describes it as ‘the people seeing the Honor of Hashem.’ Because it was a demonstration of Hashem’s Presence – it caused the people to think about Hashem; and if you think about Him, that’s the greatest way of honoring Him.
What He’s Waiting For
You’re hearing something important now. You want to honor Hashem? Think about Him! You’re walking in the street, all around you are goyim or Jews that are amei ha’aretz, and they’re thinking nothing thoughts: the Knicks did this and President Bush said that or my wife said this. And you, on the other hand, are thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu; that’s kevod Hashem! It’s a tremendous achievement! That’s an honor for Him. A half a minute, think about Hashem!
And He’s waiting for that. Hashem looks down from heaven at mankind, to see if there is any thinking man, someone who is thinking about Me (Tehillim 14:2). Hashem is looking down. “Are you thinking about Me?” He looks and looks. He looks on Ocean Parkway. “Is anybody thinking about Me on Ocean Parkway?” Ocean Parkway, that’s a long avenue. A lot of people are walking; a lot of cars driving. A lot of houses on Ocean Parkway too. “Is anybody thinking about Me?”
And here you are. Nobody knows about you. You’re an ordinary man, an ordinary woman, an ordinary child. And you’re walking down the street through a crowd; Russians, Israelis, l’havdil goyim. Who’s thinking about Hashem? Nobody! Nobody! Oh, what a tragedy! Their lives are being wasted! And as you walk through them you say, “I’m thinking about You, Hashem.”
“Oh,” Hashem says. “That’s My man! You’re not ordinary at all. You’re extraordinary!”
Fires of Glory
Now, what’s the best way to think about Hashem? What is the best way to see His Glory? If we had the Beis Hamikdash and we saw a fire come down, very good; we’d appreciate that. We’d also ‘look and sing glad song and fall down on our faces’ (see Vayikra 9:24).
But we have something just as good; and that’s His creations! After all, the sun is also a fire. The sun is a huge orb in heaven, a tremendous body of fire, of nuclear energy. Billions of tons of horsepower energy from the sun are hitting this earth every second; the energy equivalent to thousands of nuclear bombs.
It’s burning with tremendous nuclear fires. And it doesn’t burn out! You know by this time, after almost six thousand years, the sun should have burned out. How long can a fire burn already? It’s burning at a tremendous rate and yet it’s not getting any smaller – the scientists are measuring it and it’s not getting any smaller.
So if a fire came down from Hashem to show His Glory, wonderful! But this is a bigger fire, a more glorious fire! And it was created by Hashem for the same purpose as that little fire in the Mishkan.
Works of Glory
Not only the sun; everything in the world was made for that purpose. Like it says in Ashrei (Tehillim 145:10-12): All Your works praise You, they speak of the Glory of Your Kingdom. And it says, why are they speaking? Why are all the works of Hashem praising You? To make known, to people His greatness. The works of Hashem are for the purpose of making Hashem known to mankind; that’s Kevod Malchuso, the Glory of His Kingdom.
And it says all Your works; not some of maasecha, or a lot of maasecha. All of Your works have that function of making You known to mankind. So it says openly that Hashem made everything for the purpose that people should learn to be aware of Hashem. We say it every day, only we’re sleeping. Every natural object in the world is made to remind you of Hashem!
Flowers of Glory
I was once walking in the street in the springtime, early in the season. No flowers had come up yet but then I saw two dandelions growing. The first flowers of my spring; two dandelions. “Oh,” I said, “two witnesses to the Glory of Hashem!”
Some people think it’s a weed; they want to take it out of the gardens. No; the dandelion has a very important purpose – it’s reminding you about Hashem. Watch it carefully. After a while you’ll notice an interesting thing happens: the yellow dandelion turns into a gray puff ball.
If you’re walking outside take a minute off from whatever you’re busy with and if it’s not somebody's lawn – if it’s hefker – pull out that puff ball and give a puff.
Watch what happens. You'll see nissei nissim. You'll see parachutes take off. You don't have to puff hard. A little puff and parachutes disentangle themselves from the launching pad and they float gracefully in the air; and each parachute has a little passenger floating, a little package of seed. The wind blows them all over the world and they plant new dandelions. When you see that, you see plan and purpose; tremendous plan and purpose!
Riding With the Rav
I once was inside of a car; two yeshiva boys were driving in the car. I said, “Stop the car and go outside. Pick one of these seed pods from the crack in the sidewalk.” They brought it to me and I blew it in their car. They gave me permission to blow it and inside the car was filled immediately with floating parachutes. A beautiful demonstration of the yad Hashem!
And that’s why He created it. The purpose is to remind you of Hashem! To make known! You remember that song we sang on Purim? To make known! To make known! To make known! This is a song too. A better song! To make known! To make known to us the Glory of Hashem!
The entire briyah is testifying to His Glory. All the shotim of the world, all the fools who babble about evolution and accident, they’re meshugoyim; they’re immature babies. It’s only because there’s so many of them that they continue talking their stupidity. Otherwise they’d be ashamed of what they’re saying; there’s plan and purpose everywhere! The world speaks about the Glory of the Borei! And that’s why He made it. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, “Look at the world and think about Me. That’s what I want from you.”
