Nine years ago, when the Chomesh Yeshivah was struggling to survive day by day, HaRav Ginsburgh gave a class on Likkutei Moharan in preparation for Rosh HaShanah. We brought part of that class in our previous issue of Wonders. This week, we focus on another part that ties our faith in Creation with the call to change our situation in the Holyland and bring the Redemption closer.
The following is an excerpt from the class as it appeared in this year’s Rosh HaShanah edition of Nifla’ot.
One of the cornerstones of Jewish faith is that God created the world with Ten Sayings as described in Genesis. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov speaks about faith in Creation in one of his three teachings dedicated to Rosh HaShanah and based on the verse, “Blow the shofar on the [first of the] month” (רָפוּשׁ שׁשֶדֹחַּ בּעוְקִּת). There he stresses that the apex of faith is to believe in Creation because of prophecy.
We know that the ancient Greeks rejected that God had created the physical universe. They placed God (as the Prime Mover, the “soul” of the world as it were) and the physical universe on the same footing, claiming that the physical universe is just as primordial as God. Famously, Maimonides writes that logically, it is not possible to prove that the world was created or that it is primordial. Therefore, Maimonides concludes that given that there is no proof either way, he accepts our prophetic faith in Creation. Maimonides too believes that God created reality only because of prophecy, not because of some logical proof.
It is surprising that Rebbe Nachman (and apparently Maimonides as well) place faith in Creation as the highest level of faith. Chabad teachings state that one does not need faith to believe in Creation, since it is clearly verifiable. Still, by Rebbe Nachman, faith in Creation is a very big thing. He asks: Where does one obtain this faith? And his answer is: from a tzaddik. Indeed, for a tzaddik, the world’s Creation is palpable.
This exemplifies how what is considered the domain of the tzaddik in other branches of Chasidut, in Chabad is considered the responsibility of every chasid. Each of us should strive to reach a state in which the world’s Creation is palpable to us. In Chabad this is described as an experience that reality is constantly being created anew at every moment. Of course, if this experience is taken seriously, then a person should also feel that they themselves are being recreated at every moment anew.
According to Rebbe Nachman the importance of believing in Creation is that one who has acquired this faith fully will also merit to see the renewal of the world in the future, when God creates a new world, a miraculous world, entirely above the limitations of our present natural reality. It will no longer be a world following natural laws; it will be a world in which all the supernatural prophecies about the future will be realized, all the signs and wonders will become reality, literally; “a wolf will live with a lamb,” literally. One merits seeing the renewal of the world in this manner in merit of having faith in its Creation. This is a very straightforward teaching from Rebbe Nachman.
This certainly has relevance for us today. We too are waiting for the renewal of our own reality today, so we too are waiting for the renewal of the world. One must continue to hope for change. Do not be a fool that falls into despair. We continue to hope for pivotal and fundamental changes to happen in our Holyland, especially regarding the leadership and we are called upon to act to achieve this change. We refer to this responsibility that we act to change things with the question, “Who holds the key to Redemption?” Some would say that it is entirely in God’s hands, but we argue that the responsibility is entirely ours.
One should meditate on this before praying every morning. You put on your tefillin, what should you think of in the few seconds before praying? According to this teaching from Rebbe Nachman, the most important thing to think about is Creation and the future renewal of reality. One should picture this in the mind’s eye: How reality is recreated at every moment and how it will be renewed. The stronger your image and faith in God’s recreation of reality at every moment, the more you are empowered to act and to ultimately experience the renewal of reality—particularly, the state of our existence here in the Land of Israel.
