God's conscience....

One of the spiritual questions that many of us have is why did God create this world. Actually, according to Jewish mystical tradition this is not the first universe created, but the seventh. The ones before this one were imbalanced with too much judgement and not enough mercy. As they were irreparable, they were destroyed and creation began anew. The underlying principle of this universe then is balance and mercy. But why create it in the first place?

The answer the rabbis give is for God to know himself. But what does that mean? Can we really understand the mind of God?

It was Freud who said that a newborn infant doesn't begin to form it's identity until it sees it's mother and realizes that there is something outside of itself. Before then, it sees the entire world as an extension of it's own being. It takes knowing what it is not before it can come to understand what it is.

This is then what the rabbis mean that the universe was created in order that God could know himself. God emanates aspects of himself into the Void (referred to in Genesis) in order to evolve his level of understanding to a higher consciousness of his own attributes. These includes aspects such as goodness and compassion. Can you really understand what is good without a comparison of what is evil? Of course, the mystic also knows that the seemingly many aspects of creation are in reality parts of the whole and that all is really One. It is only our limited perception that makes the illusion of many seem real.

So what is our role in creation? Jewish tradition teaches that we are God's conscience. This is illustrated by Abraham's plea for the sparing of the righteous of Sodom from God's wrath and destruction. Like a lawyer, he questions whether it would be right to destroy the good with the evil. And he wins! God reconsiders his position and agrees to spare the righteous individuals living within the city even if there are only a few.

So who are we to question God? Isn't he all knowing? Of course he is and we must believe that he already knows that we will question seemingly bad decisions and fight for justice. We are the only creatures given free will and so the only ones capable of understanding the difference between right and wrong. We are God's conscience wrestling with itself to do what is right. For we are aspects of Divinity. It is through us that this world will receive mercy and compassion thus being perfected and spared the fate of the previous universes.

Thanks for reading....

Shmuel