By Tzvi Freeman, chabad.org
From the time G-d created heaven and earth, He desired to have a dwelling in this lower world. (Midrash Tanchuma, Nasso)
Why didn’t He create a temple for Himself at the very beginning? After all, He designed endless worlds of beings ever-cognizant of Him. But in those worlds, He cannot be at home. Because there is no place or heaven, or heaven beyond the heavens that can contain an infinite G-d.
Rather, for G-d to be at home, a temple must be built from the stuff of a world in which G-d is so hidden that it doesn’t even appear to be a creation. It must be built by creatures who belong in such a world, who struggle with egos that convince them that they themselves are their own creator.
And it must be built by means that belong to such a world alone—through a struggle with the sinister darkness, with the lust and the evil within the hearts of those builders, to tame that beast and tie it down again and again.
And in the excruciating paradox of that battle, of those earthy hands molding a divine life, there is a home for G-d. Beyond infinity.
