Love Creates “Something from Nothing”
At the beginning of the account of Creation, the Torah states, “These are the chronicles of the heavens and the earth when they were created, on the day that Havayah Elokim made earth and heaven.” The sages interpret the word “when they were created” (בהבראם) as a permutation of “with Abraham” (באברהם).
One way of understanding this teaching by the sages is that God created the heavens and the earth with Abraham, i.e., with loving-kindness and love, the attributes of which Abraham is an archetype. Many verses link Abraham to the attributes of loving-kindness and love, such as: “loving-kindness to Abraham,” “Abraham, who loves Me.” In addition, God uses “one” to describe Abraham and the numerical value of “one” (אחד) is 13, the same as “love” (אהבה), for instance, “Abraham was one” and “As ‘one,’ I have called him.” This means that Abraham is the one, the first to reveal the concept of love in the world and it is with his attribute of love that God creates.
It is not only the Creator that creates with the attribute of love. Every Jew is supposed to be a partner with the Almighty in the act of creation, and to truly create, thereby performing the commandment to resemble God: “Just as He is merciful, so too you be merciful, etc... Just as He creates worlds, so too you create worlds.”
What does it mean to create? It means to bring forth something from nothing (יש מאין)—creating something that is not in reality, or creatio ex nihilo. In Chassidic terminology, this is known as extracting something that is a state of “concealment in non-reality” (בהעלם שאינו במציאות). In contrast, there are also things that are in a state of “concealment within reality” (בהעלם שישנו במציאות), which means that the object or concept already exists in reality and only needs to be given form or developed. This is known in general Jewish philosophy as “something from something” (יש מיש).
Within the human soul, there are forces so deeply hidden that they are considered to be in a state of “nothingness” (אין), meaning they cannot be identified at all. If you were to try and identify these forces in a particular individual, you could not. No psychometric examination or talent-scouting assessment can reveal such a talent or potential that is considered “nothingness.” If an examination uncovers a specific talent in a person, it is because that talent is in a state of “concealment within reality.”
Even though they cannot be identified, it is certainly possible to reveal such forces and talents that are in a state of “concealment in non-reality.” To do so, you need to find enough love in the soul. With that love, it is possible to create and invent new things within the soul, even things that are in a state of “concealment in non-reality.” All of this depends, as mentioned, on the strength of love. Love (אהבה), as taught by Rebbe Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, is the acronym for “the light of the Holy, Blessed One” (אור ה׳ ברוך הוא), the attribute of Abraham through which the world was created ex nihilo.
Love’s Purpose: Cleaving
Love has two natural qualities: attraction and lowliness. First and foremost, love is an attraction, a desire to cleave to one’s beloved. Love’s lowliness (שפלות) is illustrated by the willingness of the lover to descend to the place of the beloved to get closer to them. The goal of these two qualities is to create a state of cleaving and unity between the lover and the beloved.
These two qualities are found in water, which is why love is likened to water in Kabbalah. Water, like love, has a quality of adhesion, attraction—water molecules stick like glue one to another. In the soul, the quality of adhesion is expressed, as mentioned, in the ability to be attracted to another. But this nature of love also requires the second quality of love—lowliness.
In other words, for the quality of adhesion to operate in a person, one must diminish make oneself lowly. This second quality is seen in water’s nature to flow from a high place to a low one. Thus, is the psyche, “waters of love” (מי אהבה) refers to the love that flows and can connect even those who are at different levels (for instance a parent and a child, a teacher and his students, a rebbe and his chasidim, etc.), love easily flows from the lover, who might be higher, to the lower state of the beloved. Even the Almighty, for some reason, desires the lower. Moreover, out of His great love for the lower, He created the entire world, as the sages say, “The Holy Blessed One craved having a dwelling place below.” God yearns to descend and unite with the lowest place—the lowest of the low.
In summary, initially, love brings forth from potential to actual all the forces of the soul and ultimately binds everything together, making it one. Love is what brings the components of the Tabernacle together. It is love that, “connects the Tabernacle, making it one” (לחבר את האהל להיות אחד). The Tabernacle symbolizes, on a small scale, all of Creation, all the systems in the soul and in the world in general. Love builds each and every component—for without love, none of the components of the Tabernacle would have been made and without love, no latent talent of the soul could be revealed—nothing would have come from potential to actual. And ultimately, all the parts connect into a single unified whole, just like water; the Tabernacle becomes one and all of reality becomes one.
