[Avodah] tachlis of creation

[Micha Berger]

This question is too rich for the human mind, and so we each have different
ways of casting shadows of the infinite Truth onto the surface of our
imaginations. Each of us looks at it from a slightly different angle, and
therefore gets a different shadow. Communication causes feedback, forming
groups of people who share very similar such "shadows", and we call those
derakhim.

The split between Chassidus and Litta could be seen as being about how they
model the takhlis, see RYGB's "Forks" essay
<http://www.aishdas.org/rygb/forks.htm>. So I can only answer this question
by prefacing it with the acknowledgment that this is only true of my own
derekh, and nowhere near a universal answer.



"It is the nature of good to have someone to whom to be good." With these
words the Ramchal explains Hashem's purpose for creating man (Derech
Hashem 1:2:1, see also Rav Saadia Ga'on, Emunos veDei'os). The human
being can be defined as a keli for shefa, a receptacle for emanations of
Divine Good and sustenance. Simply and personally put, you and I exist
so that G-d would have a recipient of His Good.

And yet, there is much unhappiness in this world. Hashem could have
insured that receiving shefa would make us happy, but He didn't. While
it is important to note the difference between bestowing good and making
happy, that isn't enough to explain why this would be true. Suffering,
even if it is in some cosmic sense "good", is a lack of goodness in how
that cosmos was created. After all, we are speaking of the Bestower who
defined the emotion of happiness, and created within us the mechanisms
that generate it. He could have chosen to make the two identical,
that true good and only true good would make us happy. Man is therefore
lacking in two ways: we are not receiving His full goodness, and amongst
that Divine Good that we lack is that very union between what we want
and what is good for us.

We are left with a dilemma. We would conclude that Hashem created
imperfect keilim, and that is why we are not receiving the full
shefa. However, we would need to explain why a Perfect Creator would
make beings that don't perfectly fulfill His purpose for them.

In the Torah, Hashem introduces the idea of creating people with the
words "let Us make man in Our Image, like our Semblance" (Bereishis
1:26). The ultimate good the Creator has to share with us is His own
"nature", the gift of being free-willed, having the capacity to make
meaningful decisions, and to create.

This is the root of the ideas in Rav Dessler's Qunterus haChesed (a
section of Michtev meiEliyahu vol. I). Man's higher calling is giving,
not taking -- which is distinguished from receiving. Love is based on
this interplay of giving and receiving.

We therefore find that even gevurah, Divine Restraint, is actually a
manifestation of chessed.... (For the rest of this thought through to
man's dialectical nature and how many of RYBS's dialectics are caused by
this one, see the <http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2007/02/dialectics.shtml>.)

Aside from REED, there is also R' Shimon Shkop, whose introduction
to Shaarei Yosher I often refer to as "the words I aspire
to live by" -- my understanding of that haqdamah lies at the
core of my own personal derekh. I translated the haqdamah at
<http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2007/02/dialectics.shtml>. Its opening
is relevent:

    Yisbarakh Haborei Veyis'alah Hayotzeir -- Blessed shall be the
    Creator, and exalted shall be the Maker, Who created us in His
    "Image" and in the likeness of His "Structure", and planted eternal
    life within us, so that our greatest desire should be to do good to
    others, to individuals and to the masses, now and in the future, in
    imitation of the Creator (as it were). For everything He created and
    formed was according to His Will (may it be blessed), [that is]
    only to be good to the creations. So too His Will is that we walk
    in His ways. As it says "and you shall walk in His Ways" -- that we,
    the select of what He made -- should constantly hold as our purpose
    to sanctify our physical and spiritual powers for the good of the
    many, according to our abilities

Within this derekh, the ultimate tachlis is to (1) be good to others,
which as a prerequisite requires (2) refining oneself into a helping
being, and (3) internalizing Hashem's definition of Good.

Is that not a literal read of Hillel's answer to the ger? "Zil gemor."

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The Maharal of Prague created a golem, and
micha at aishdas.org        this was a great wonder. But it is much more
http://www.aishdas.org   wonderful to transform a corporeal person into a
Fax: (270) 514-1507      "mensch"!     -Rav Yisrael Salanter