Who is ‘Leading the Way’?
Although Hashem is Really the All-inclusive, All-powerful Creator and Sustainer of the world, when it comes to the realm of life in this concealed world, Hashem expects that it be specifically man who be the one to build the relationship with him and to reveal his Presence in a tangible way.
Since man is supposed to be the one who is “giving” to Hashem, the ‘job’ cannot be accomplished By Hashem himself. Although Hashem is All-powerful on every level, and he could very easily just as well reveal his Presence even in this world in a way which is tangible to every being, were he to do so, it would defeat the entire purpose of the world’s creation.
In order for the world’s creation to reach its purpose and for man to “give” to Hashem, it is imperative that only man be the one to bring the world to its corrected state and to completeness – and not Hashem.
Therefore, once man was created, he is now the one who is in “the driver’s seat” of the world. This is so axiomatic to life in this world that even Hashem ‘depends on man’ to reveal his Presence in a tangible way and to validate the respect that is rightfully due to him in his position in the world as its Creator and Sustainer.
Hashem is Depending on Us
This is a difficult axiom to relate to practically. We tend to feel that Hashem can and will help us with ‘our job’. We generally do not get too over-concerned about whether the task which Hashem has given us in the world will succeed or not, because we tend to feel that if we ever get into a ‘bind’ – whether because of our mistakes or whether because we didn’t really exert ourselves fully in the first place – then we can always cry out to Hashem and just ask Him for help to ‘finish up the job’.
But for some reason Hashem never just ‘finishes up the job’ for us. Yes, Hashem has saved us throughout history in order that we be able to survive – sometimes even through miracles that did show the whole world clearly that he is in charge – but never in a way where he, through his All-encompassing control of events in the world, made sure to maintain the cognizance of the world on the level it had reached when things were revealed – thus ‘finishing up the job’ that we are expected to do.
His ‘saving’ of us has always been more of a salvation ‘in the moment’; the maintaining and follow-through of the message from the revelation – which is the “completion of the job” that we are expected to do – was always up to us afterwards as part of our assignment in the world.
In a certain way, once the creation of man transpired and man was placed in this world, Hashem has consistently been asking of us, almost ‘begging’ us, to please do him this favor and to reveal to the world his Presence and his true Sovereignty. Since we have learned that the whole purpose for man’s coming to this world is to “do something” for Hashem, it follows that man must be the one to do it.
Excerpt from “It’s All for the Good” by Rabbi Nachum Chaimowitz. Available at Israel Book Shop Publications
