If God Didn't NEED to Create, Why Did He?

the real question the intelligent question if you're an intelligent person at this point what is on your mind if god didn't need to create then why did he that's a great question if he didn't need to do it then what did he do it that's a good question it's a great question and if we can start to even talk about that question we can understand a lot of other things because it all goes back to i mean everything in this world goes back to why is it here if we can start to get an inkling of appreciation for what was god thinking what was he after the answer is a whole lot of other questions so let's try to understand the answer to this question is really in the question itself talking about the second question the second question is since god didn't need to create he didn't need to do anything then why did he but that question and it provides its own answer there's a little boy in hater he ran up to his rebbe he says rebbe rebbe schlemey wanted to hit me and the teacher says well that's terrible to cast aspersions upon slaying me how do you even know that he wanted to hit you the little boy was a tamar son of a rabbi he says if schlemi didn't want to hit me then why did slimy hit me talmudic logic there so when you say god didn't need to create he doesn't need anything he doesn't need to do anything so what so what's the answer then why did he create if he didn't need to create why did he do it he was bored i don't think he gets bored he must have really really wanted to and when i say he wanted to i don't mean it was a passing fancy i mean it must have been a burning desire i mean it must have been a passionate desire the best word we can try to use to relate it to human experience would be lust so when the madras says why did god create the world because he lusted get a taiwa the best translation is he lusted to have a dwelling place in the lower realms and that's why when king solomon wanted to write a poem he wanted to write an extended metaphor to explain god's relationship with us he chose the imagery of an erotic love poem by the way that was a that was not a neurotic love poem i should divide my syllables better an erotic love poem not a neurotic love poem a neurotic love poem would be rosy red violets are blue if you leave me i'll kill myself that would be a neurotic love pill no but god's not like that he's not a codependent he deeply desires an intimate relationship but he's not needy he's not needy in the sense of emotionally needy clingy looking for validation you know like some relationships tell me who i am please validate me give me meaning it's not intimacy that's barter you give me validation i'll give you whatever you want no god knows exactly who he is he is who he is absolute existence needs no validation but he has this deep passionate burning desire to have an intimate relationship it's not practical it's not practical it's romantic you know how much easier life would be without romance but it's not practical see practical would be god had a particular need and creation was the way to get that need met very practical business it's a business that's how a lot of people think of god rosh hashanah is coming up a lot of people think about it that way they think about well i'm working for the firm for however many years and every year we get evaluated our performance is judged and i'm just hoping i don't go to get my paycheck and i'll open it up it'll be a pink slip saying thank you for your time with the company you have not been written in the book of life you are no longer needed your services are no longer needed come pick up your gold watch creation isn't the practical need on god's part it's not a business it's a passionate desire it's a romance see when you start to think about life as well god needed something practical so then you start to fixate on the reward and punishment right because if you have a job you need done you hire someone to do it i need this i'll pay you to do it for me it's very practical nothing personal just business but if it's a passionate yearning desire i can't just hire someone to do it it doesn't work it's personal i can't tell god look god stop being so romantic about me just because i'm jewish be practical you want phil and put on in the morning i know 10 non-jews who will do it that would be practical but this isn't practical it's a romance see explain another thing because needs are practical you can defend them like if the husband tells the wife we need a new car and she says i don't think we do and then they have a discussion and they both present their pros and cons and in the end they make a decision and the one who uh says to the other one no we don't need it's not a big insult you know why because a need when i say i need something i'm i'm stating i've made it an intelligent evaluation i'm coming to a conclusion if you disagree with me you're just negating my conclusion you're telling me you don't agree with my uh with my thinking so you don't think i'm so brilliant you think i made a decision that wasn't so necessary okay let's say however i tell you i want something something totally impractical there's no need to it's just a pro it's just it's just a it's a pet peeve it's a personal thing i say please please i'll make up an example like for instance let's say this wife told this husband please don't leave your socks on the floor i just made that up that never happened in our home actually there was this troubled couple and they came to me and they told me about that and i was very shocked but i don't know what became of them it was okay so the wife tells the husband please just don't leave your socks on the floor i just i want you to just put the socks in the hamper i just it bothers me just and he says to her well that's a silly thing to want it's a silly thing to care about you didn't just negate that person's thinking or their intellect you negated that person in their entirety because when a person describes or expresses a desire desire isn't my intellect it's not practical desire is my it's me this is me this is what i want when you reject what i want you reject me so when god gave the torah was he revealing 613 practical stuff chores around the house that he needed done and he said you know what guys uh how much do i got to pay you 20 bucks to rake the leaves was it like that or were these deeply personal desires 613 desires 248 things that he loves that just melt his heart those are the do's and 365 things that make his skin crawl 365 don't do's when god gave the torah he was being pretty vulnerable i mean if there are things that you like and dislike you don't reveal that to someone you don't trust they could use that against you when a jew wants to lash out at god he knows exactly what sandwich to eat he does not have to guess a jew knows how to hurt god because god made himself vulnerable and he told us what he likes and what he doesn't like there was once a teacher a rabbi he was giving a talmud class a bunch of intellectuals were coming to the class there were professors and he invited this one guy to come the guy was secular and he says i'm sorry i can't come to the class i'm very secular he says it's okay not everyone in the class is religious it's great come to the class he says no no but i'm really very very secular this was in israel the rabbi says that's okay come to the class he says look you don't understand i eat pork he says okay on shabbat specifically so the rabbi says okay so i wait i've my way of observing shabbat you have your way of observing shabbat there's no non-jew in the world who's about to bite into a pork sandwich on a wednesday afternoon and he stops says oh hold on let me save this for friday night then it will take on a much greater significance there's no significance why because god never told the non-jew that it bothered him if he ate pork he told the jew it bothers him if you eat the pork so god made himself very very vulnerable in revealing these likes and these dislikes they're not practical needs their deep desires i was one time talking to a group of people i was giving a class and i was talking about this idea that god is uh he desires a relationship with us he desires intimacy he reveals his desires so that we can gratify him fulfill his desires and there was this one lady who was getting really really upset and finally she just no she couldn't contain herself anymore and she says i can't stand that i can't stand the way you're talking about god you make god sound like a wimp i said why what's wimpy about him she said because you're saying he wants me to do this he wants me to like i can't understand you well what do you think why are you saying that he needs these things i said i didn't say he needed it i said he didn't need it it's not a practical thing i said he deeply desires it she says that's even worse i said why can't god deeply desire something she said because it makes him you know weak so you know there's this general principle don't answer the question answer the questioner i knew a little bit about this questioner i knew that this lady was a lawyer high-powered attorney she made a lot of money in fact she made more money than her husband she was more successful than him and uh so i knew this information so i said to her i said um let me ask you a question would you like to get flowers from your husband on your birthday this year she says yeah of course i said let me let me suggest something to you okay your husband he may send you the flowers he may not even if he sends them you may have had to hint so much it's barely worth it this year on your birthday save yourself the agony you want something done right like they say do it yourself you're a very competent woman you take care of a lot of things order the flowers you call ftd and you get exactly the bouquet that you want in fact you can even write the card you will dictate on the phone the exact love poem that you want to be written on your birthday card on your birthday bouquet you could even choose you'll tell them where to deliver it you'll choose where to surprise yourself in your car at home maybe it'll be waiting on your desk when you come to work you'll set it up blow your own mind okay just romance yourself off your feet just go nuts she says that that doesn't work and you know it i said yeah i know it doesn't work and you know it doesn't work what i would like to know is why doesn't it work it doesn't work because it was never about the flowers if it were about the flowers you'd take care of it just like you take care of thousands of much more important and difficult tasks in the course of a day if it were practical you would get it done you you do it better than anyone but it's not practical and it's not a business it's a desire and it's romantic and the fact that you want intimacy means you've made a decision you're going to risk vulnerability you can't have intimacy without taking that risk so god didn't need a practical fixer-up project done around the house come on everybody chip in let's do it i'll take you all out for pizza when we're done god wanted a very personal romantic intimate relationship and in order to get that intimate relationship he had to risk something he had to make himself vulnerable he had to allow us the opportunity to break his heart you know there was an opportunity for god to form that relationship with the angels the angels wanted it they wanted oh boy did they want it god didn't want it because you can't be vulnerable to a robot you push in the numbers you tell what the robot should do and bring me a cup of coffee and he brings you a cup of coffee there's no risk there's no vulnerability that's what an angel does just follows orders let me ask you a question it says in the book of genesis when it talks about creation that when god made adam the adam was male and female as one one organism and then god said it's not good for this adam to be alone we would say it's not good for this man to be alone but it wasn't really a man it was a atom a-d-a-m it was a you know what an means i mean it's an earthling really because adam is the earth like when you make a blessing on a vegetable and you say right so an adam adam is a is an earthling that's where he came from he was a clump of dirt so god says it's not good for this this earthling this androgynous hermaphroditic being to be alone let's split them up and so he made adam and eve he splits them up and what does god say cleave to cleave together become one flesh so a little biblical exegesis here just you know simple questions how did god start with the adam who was one being god says this isn't good let's split him up he splits him up he says cleave to cut cleave together become one flesh so make up your mind when it was one you wanted two it was two you wanted one what do you want it was good the way you made it then leave it that way if it wasn't good the way you made it your god don't make it that way in the first place make it the way that you wanted it it's a good question right so obviously there are no mistakes it wasn't an error in judgment it wasn't that god didn't realize until later on that this is you wouldn't like it this way god wanted the process he wanted the process what process did he want he wanted there to be one being he wanted that one being then to have to separate into two dimensions a masculine and a feminine one and then he wanted that masculine effeminate dimension to reunite in other words he didn't want unity he wanted reunion right because even when the man and the woman unite and become one flesh they don't really become one flesh the way they were before they were separated when a man and a woman two halves of one body we often say husband and wife are two halves of assault it's not true two halves of a body when a man and a woman reunite the two halves of the body they don't go back to the way adam and eve were when they were one body they become much more than that they have children that's what the one flesh is so i'm not here to tell you where babies come from that's not my intention the point is this is a metaphor we are the metaphor human sexuality is a metaphor for what for god it's a metaphor for god god wanted us to know and to feel what he feels god wanted us to have that desire that irrational desire that life would be so much easier and more rational without so that we could relate to him and the passion that he feels when he brings creation into existence every second how so very simple before god ever created it was just one just oneness infinitely eternally oneness nothing else kind of like the way that adam started just one and god said about his own oneness this is not good i don't like it and so he split himself up into creator and creation husband and wife two halves of a whole but god didn't really make himself into two halves god forbid you can't say there's two parts of god just like you can't really say that a husband and wife before they get married they were two separate people they're always one person they just hadn't found each other yet god split himself so to speak we have to be very careful when we talk about these things i mean is god creator or creation so if you're jewish you say israel oneness you can't say god is creator or creation he's got to be totality oneness the all there's the creator aspect of god there's the creation aspect of god there's the husband there's the wife but it's one being it's one unit but the way that it existed before it was divided or appeared to be divided wasn't satisfying adam and eve were one body to begin with but they weren't satisfied with that there was no pleasure in that because the pleasure isn't from from from unity the pleasure is from reunion the intense craving the passion the irrational desire that drives people even to do crazy things is the craving for reunion to become whole again with that which you come from to be returned to your essential and true state there's no driving passion like that in the world and that's what god felt when he said you know what i'm oneness pure perfect and complete what i want to do i want to split myself so to speak or create the illusion or the the appearance of separation and then i want the deep satisfaction of reuniting those two and when will be the deep satisfaction of reuniting creator and creation spiritual and physical heavenly and earthly when meshiach comes and that was the purpose all along for which god created the world the engagement was at mountain torah mount sinai when god gave the torah that was the engagement the betrothal but the real wedding night will be when meshiach comes and on that day the omaha mecha his name will be we'll see that he is a god he is one his oneness totality not unity but reunion and that's when the the real fun just begins the courtship is you know courtships the courtship but the real satisfaction begins from the wedding night and on so you ask yourself a question what am i doing here why am i here you want to know the honest answer it's uncomfortable i mean it's like kind of makes us squeamish it's kind of like having to think about the fact that if you were born your parents had to have at least once had some type of an intimate relationship and they don't like to think about it but by definition you know well this is this is deeper than that why am i here how did i get here why is there a world because someone and i'm saying someone you know hint wink wink capital s on that someone because someone had a taiva a lustful desire that he couldn't satiate someone was in the mood for love he was out for romance that someone happens to be absolute existence absolute existence had a taiva you know i was i was explaining this to uh some yeshiva students i was telling them about hashem's taiva god's taiva his lustful desire his uh his his longing so i said you know the difference between me and hashem i mean there are a few differences but one big one i'll tell you in hebrew and then i'll kill it by translating and explaining the difference between between me and hashem all of his taithes are lesheme all of his desires are for the sake of heaven see i have a lot of desires too some are kosher desires for the sake of heaven some are selfish desires but all of god's tithes all of his passions and desires are for the sake of heaven so you say hold honestly that's not fair he is heaven so of course all of his desires are for the sake of heaven that's circular logic so he has carte wants he is automatically justified because he's god so he's doing everything for god's sake like you say to god would you cut that out for god's sake okay right it sounds funny but the the truth is there's a very sensible answer to all this of course all of his irrational romantic desires are legitimate are automatically holy and legitimate and need to be fulfilled not so with me i have some deep desires that really don't need to be fulfilled as much as i protest to the contrary they don't need to be fulfilled but with god of course all of his deep irrational desires need to be fulfilled ought to be fulfilled you know why because we're saying before he's absolute existence in other words he doesn't need anything to validate him he's validated he's the essence of validated so when he wants something desires something long for something he really longs for it it's no joke and that desire that passion is sufficient reason to create an entire world in every life of every human who's ever lived all to be part of getting that desire met it's a it's a tough one i'm saying emotionally intellectually it's not tough intellectually it's pretty pretty clear pretty straightforward it makes more sense than any other explanation for why we're here emotionally it's tough why are we here because god had a desire you know why it's emotionally tough because it forces us to admit god's vulnerability and it forces us and please forgive me here for a second to look at god in a little bit of a human way and i don't mean god forbid to look at god as a human i mean to you to be in touch with your own humanity when you look at god we're so impersonal with god like he's this big giant machine it's so not nice all he wants is this romantic intimate relationship with you and you want to turn it into points what do i get for this mitzvot what do i what punishment do i get how many demerits for that one you want to make it all about reward and punishment is there reward and punishment yes obviously there is but that's not the motivation that shouldn't be the motivation for any mature person any adult shouldn't be motivated by the fact you're gonna get paid you have to get paid for it it's not love it's not intimacy if you need the reward and if you fear the punishment just not nice to god you're not being nice to him it's cruel here he is being all vulnerable and you're turning it into a business transaction how about you respond to this vulnerable romantic overture in kind oh you really like when i take leather boxes with the shma inside them written on cowhide and i wrapped them on my arm and between my eyes okay if that's what you like he says yeah it melts my heart okay if that melts your heart it makes you crazy if you take wool and linen and you mix them together into one fiber that just i can't stand it you know okay i don't i don't get it a mitzvah is gratifying a desire a mitzvah is telling the person who has the desire or in this case god who has the desire you matter in other words i don't need you to intellectually defend the thing that you need all i need to know is it's for you so if my wife tells me that a particular dinner is her favorite dinner i don't need her to explain it to me i need to take note of it and i don't have to argue with her and say well actually you know there's much there are many better dishes than that let me educate you let me make you more of an a culinary uh expert let me expose your your palate to new you know what you ruined it you killed it i told you what i like take note of it what what's the appropriate what's the healthy response when somebody who loves you doesn't need you in a clingy neurotic way someone who loves you and wants intimacy with you tells you something that they like or they dislike what's the appropriate response to that a good answer anything you want honey and not that passive aggressive anything you want honey after you say the anything you want honey not just you say it but you do it and the lover knows that the beloved is going to respect his or her likes and dislikes what's the next smart thing to say they told you what you could do they said what they like and you said okay whatever you want honey i'll do it what more the okay that's that's of the same ilk the next question is tell me more about that why do you like that but catch this the order is so essential here if they tell you what they like and your first response is why do you like that that's not good because what does that mean that means and we can understand now why that's such a rejection is because basically they're exposing a desire which has no rational defense and you're treating it like a need and you're putting them on the spot and say argue it for me defend your need tell me why you like it make it make sense to me but that wasn't a rational need it wasn't the practical thing it was a deeply meaningful it was a personal thing i shared with you i like it i like it so what's the appropriate response whatever you want honey yes yes dear once they know that you're doing it then you say you know i would love to know all about why that's meaningful to you that's beautiful you want to do you want to fulfill my desires and you want to know about me wow this is great i feel so accepted i feel so close and connected so when god gives us the torah meaning he reveals his likes and dislikes he reveals his desires the first appropriate response is whatever you want dear and you can call god dear that's absolutely fine desirable good healthy in other words to use language we might be more familiar with is there is performance of mitzvoth and study of torah so mitzvahs and tara whatever you want honey and then after that tell me all about that why is that so important why do you like that so much that would be the appropriate that would be the polite response the the decent response just uh tell you one more thing there's a line in the zohar and talks about the level called hasid what's a closet black hat long coat right i assure you if you have a few hundred dollars left on your credit card you can buy this get up it's not a one who is nice to his maker one who is kind to his maker are you kind to god what does god need my kindness for he created a whole world for it he wanted your love he wanted intimacy with you he created the whole world just to get it so that he could be in a relationship with you to reveal how his true self is really only when he's one with you but not one with you the way he was before you even existed because you were one with him before you existed right when you when you were non-existent and you were one with the all you were also one with him that's not what he wanted that was him being alone he didn't like it he wanted to be one with you in a way after you already exist and you're one again the reunification there are a lot of different metaphors for this relationship so we talked about king solomon's metaphor was the marriage metaphor but mother and child is another metaphor father and child mother and child each one is a distinct metaphor so bottom line like this did god need to create he didn't need anything was it a practical thing but it was a deep desire deeper than any other desire the deepest desire and the funny thing about it is in order for him to get it you have to participate it's like that high-powered attorney who can't get flowers because if she'll order them from for herself it doesn't work he's god and he can't even do it for himself he wants it from you when you think about it like that it's uh it's a whole different relationship i'll tell you just one more story and i'll get out of here because with time considerations i have a friend who uh he's my age but when he was a baker in yeshiva he went on the summer they call it mercures shiva boys they go off and they go to far-flung communities where they don't yet have a chabad house so this is about 20 years ago maybe a little less 20 years ago and uh he and his friend were sent to alaska and on their last day in alaska they had a flight back to seattle and to new york there was one more town that was on their list where there was a jew a jew and they had to visit it still so on their last day they got in the car and they drove out to this far-flung little town where there was one jew and she was a school teacher so they went to the school and they they asked the principal can we see this teacher and the teacher came down to the office she was the one jew in the town and she told them her whole story she was from new york from a jewish family she went to alaska she met an eskimo she married the eskimo she completely assimilated and they had a daughter she and the eskimo had a daughter so these two yeshiva boys they say you have a daughter you know what they're thinking right mother's jewish the daughter's jewish so they say where's the daughter she says well she goes to this school there are not too many other schools around i mean this is the school they said can we see her she said okay we'll have her come down so the teacher the mother goes back to her class and the the daughter the six-year-old girl comes down to the office so my friend avremy is thinking to himself i got a couple minutes with this girl here i'm the first person maybe the last person who's gonna tell her what it means to be jewish and then i'm out of town i'm leaving i'm leaving the state she's in the middle of nowhere talk about high pressure so he thinks to himself he says god you put me in this situation i'm going to start talking hopefully make some sensible words come out so the little six-year-old girl comes down to the office and uh he does what any good laboratory boy does when you're on mithsalium when you meet a jewish woman or girl you take out the shabbos candles he says do you know what these are she had no idea he says well these are shabbos candles what's shabbos okay every friday night the sun goes down and it's a day of rest but before that happens before the sun goes down jewish women and girls they light candles they add light to the world to welcome in the holy day so what happens is you know like in israel let's say the sun is going down and so all the jewish women and girls millions of jewish women and girls in israel are lighting the shabbos candles on it friday before evening and then you know how it works the sun is setting in the west so a few hours later it's right before shabbos in england and in france and millions more jewish girls are lighting shabbos candles a few hours after that the sun gets over the atlantic ocean and in new york on the east coast they're lighting shabbos candles hour after that they're lighting shabbos kendall's in chicago a couple hours after that they're lighting shoppers candles in la and god is watching all of this and he's loving it because each one of these jewish women and jewish girl girls are each one of them with their flame is adding light into the world it's just an incredible thing for god he's really enjoying it he's watching all of it and he keeps watching until the sun goes down in the furthest west place until the last jewish girl lights the last shabbos flame he turns to the six-year-old girl he says and that last jewish girl in the whole world is you this isn't a business it's not an assembly line it's not a factory this is a deep and beautiful romance and each and every one of us when we say for my sake was the world created that's a very romantic statement because of god's desire to have an intimate relationship with me all of this was created he's got the entire universe and he's looking and he's watching he's waiting for the moment when i'll fulfill his desire i'll take something that i know that he likes and i'll do it just because i know he likes it thanks for watching click subscribe and hit the notification bell below for daily pearls of jewish wisdom

Channel: Jewish Learning Institute

Views: 20,712

Keywords: jli, Jewish Learning Institute, creation, desire, mitzvah, National Jewish Retreat 2013, psychology, reunion

Id: RQZjujIsIFY

Length: 49min 52sec (2992 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 10 2022