Children of the Universe

Children of the Universe | Chabad.org > Magazine > Inner Dimensions http://www.chabad.org/magazine/article.asp?print=true&AID=400840
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Inner Dimensions
Children of the Universe
By Tzvi Freeman
It's easy to feel like orphans to this cold universe­­to the elements, the
forces and empty space that shrug indifferently at the drama of being
human; to a universe that answers our aspirations with a chilling
silence, our failures with a blank stare. We steer our own path wildly
through the stars as the planets continue in their set orbits, the laws of
electromagnetism endure and the sun rises and sets at just the time
printed in the newspaper­­as though the things that matter to us most
simply do not exist.
But could it be? Could the womb from We believe in that
which human intelligence emerged truly be essence. Sometimes
so dumb? Are we not also a child of this
we call it "G­d"
place? If we have a heart, a mind, a soul,
must not the core of the universe also have the capacity for such?
"The One who formed the ear, does He not hear?"
Or could it be that submerged beneath this awesome show of might
hides a transcendent essence that resonates with the stirring of our hearts; that if we could find the true fabric
of reality we would find our own face reflected in its waters, our cries echoed in its depths, our joy dancing in
its caverns? That we would find a universe made not of blind chance and physical law, but of conscious
wisdom and the freedom that is beyond wisdom?
We believe in that essence. Sometimes we call it "G­d."
Which leaves us now with the opposite side of wonder: Does G­d then laugh? Is the Infinite Light so
vulnerable as to cry over failure and rejoice in success? Does that which brings heaven and earth into
existence truly love with the passion of a visceral human being or feel remorse just as a creature trapped
within the tunnel of time?
But we are here, with all our inner turmoil and struggle, and that could only mean that G­d desired us to be
here. And when G­d desired this frail creature, He looked down from His lofty realm beyond love and
laughter and passion and remorse, down into this thought of a human being, and He said, "Shall he then be
alone in his place and I in mine? Is this oneness?"
So He arranged a meeting place, reflecting within the bowels of the Infinite Light the boundless emotions that
are the fabric of Man's soul. Like a father who stoops to play with his toddler, laughing with the child, excited
over those silly things that excite a small child, yet always remaining an adult who is beyond all these
games­­so, too, He creates within Himself a place where in love and laughter, in compassion and awe and
beauty, Man and G­d could find one another, and neither would be alone.
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Children of the Universe | Chabad.org > Magazine > Inner Dimensions http://www.chabad.org/magazine/article.asp?print=true&AID=400840
In truth, it is from that very place that human emotions emerge, as a child emerges from its mother's womb.
And, too, in that same place, is woven the fabric from which our universe is formed.
This meeting place, the Kabbalah explains, is the place of the ten sefirot­­ten modalities by which to run a
universe: Conception, Understanding, Knowing, Giving, Withholding, Beauty, Victory, Glory, Bonding and
Dominion. It is a place that is neither Creator nor creation, neither being nor not­being, neither infinite nor
finite, but where heaven and earth merge as one­­because within this place hides an Essence that is beyond all
opposites, beyond all bounds.
By Tzvi Freeman More articles... |
Tzvi Freeman is the author of a number of highly original renditions of Kabbalah and
Chassidic teaching, including the universally acclaimed "Bringing Heaven Down to
Earth." To order Tzvi's books click here.
About the artist: Sarah Kranz has been illustrating magazines, webzines and books
(including five children's books) since graduating from the Istituto Europeo di Design,
Milan, in 1996. Her clients have included The New York Times and Money Marketing
Magazine of London
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