The Ten Utterances of Creation - Ethics of the Fathers (5:1) - Rabbi Yitzchak Botton

[Music] today we're going to look at a fascinating Mishnah in Pirkei Avot it discusses how hashem created the world very interesting idea the Mishna says that God created the world in 10 statements he made 10 utterances in order to create the world and the mission X you know what Y would be told this idea and furthermore why did it require 10 ordinances to make the world God could have made the world in one other it got the data to speak 10 different times to create the world God is not limited in his ability in in process of creation he could have made the world in one statement and the Mishnah answers why did he do it in 10 instance instead of 1 is in order to punish the wicked that destroy his world that was created with 10 uh turistas as opposed to 1 and in order to reward the righteous that build and maintain his world that was created with the 10 items instead of the 1 and so we want to understand this mission err it's very very fascinating idea that the God had an opportunity to create the world with 1 speech and then instead II did it with 10 speeches this opens up a world of opportunities of ideas you know what the world of change will not have changed what is really going on over here so let us try to appreciate and understand the depth of this idea is that service mission so first of all the let's explain you the cording to the way that the commentators explain now the the muscle really the analogy that's given over here that in order to teach us the lesson is this let's give you an example let's say an artist you know decides to draw a beautiful painting and he spends weeks even even months planning it out designing it waiting for him to be in the right mood you know it's all about feeling also and it creates this masterpiece priceless masterpiece that is unbelievable when people see it they're like wrested breathtaking sight to see the beautiful you know original creation of art activist person made comes along one day here's the child then you know destroys it by mistake will give the child the benefit but of course in ours case we're talking about the wicked people that even wilfully destroy God's work so we wouldn't compare the loss from the in a case where the where the child destroyed this artist painting that he spent you know months on versus let's say he starter a new painting and only spent a day or two on it and it got destroyed when we compared the loss of this one-of-a-kind masterpiece that he spent several months to a baby that he just invested a day until no we want to compare the loss and that's the the message here in the mission of that sort of speak God that invested ten other instances he spoke ten times to make a world that's that much more of an investment into the world and they come and destroy the deserves we punished so much more whereas if it would have been a world created with only one other ins then it would have been as if they're creating something that that had less work involved less intrinsic value so to speak that's the message in our mission according to the commentators now I would like to ask a question on this idea the way we've explained it seemingly this idea doesn't really make 100 percent perfect sense what do I mean let's take the not the example but let's bring it back now and reply to Hashem and how it created the world now we know that Hashem is infinite in its creative ability and in all honesty if God would create the world with one other it's almost ten other inches it's not any more difficult and is there is not any more exertion from God's perspective so really and we we talked about punishing the wicked for destroying the world because they're destroying the world that took much more to create so it's not true one statement or ten statements for God is the same so they're really destroying the same world from God's perspective either way furthermore this in fact the world could have been created in one statement and God just added nine others that it's not fair it's not just to punish it more for some things that didn't really have to have more effort over work you're you're inflating with the punishment when the crime is still the same crime so either way we're a little bit stuck in understand how to properly apply this missioner and it is for that reason I would like to suggest this new exclamation that we're going to present now based on concepts that are discussed in Kabbalah and Hasidic philosophy let us begin with this new approach first of all we have to appreciate that what does it mean that God created the world with ten utterances in the first place this is really an analogy in and of itself I mean really God did not speak in the way that we as humans speak so what is the message was the idea behind God creating the world through speech so what the rabbi's tell us is that this statement of the ten utterances of creation really connects back to the concept in Kabbalah of the Tennessee wrote the ten divine emanations through which God manifests himself in this world how does this work exactly so God is infinite and there would not be any type of descriptive term we can apply to God himself when refers to him in his essence you know God is not one thing and not another God is not this and not that what is that God is kind or God is you know strong we wouldn't apply these type of terms to an infinite God there's no there is no term that can properly represent God so God lowered himself from his level of infinity so to speak and enclosed a limited expression of his divine powers through what we call these ten sphere walls which are really ten channels ten ten ten directions where God you know limits and directs his divine flow in creating a something that we could describe something that we can experience and it is through this process that we call God the God of mercy the God of judgment it is through these ten Sphero that all of our descriptive terms that we apply to God when we praise Him actually apply and with this in mind we will appreciate and understand now what's what what what's the idea here another result of God you know closing himself through the tense filos is a diffusion and the limiting of the intensity of his divine light so as he comes through the tenth year old we can first of all understand a little bit of Hashem you know you know manifestation and also it's less powerful it's less potent so by doing it through ten of these statements we were given enough shielding from God revealed presence and God you know divine light that we exist in a world that seems to run independently of its creator so much so that there are unfortunately some people that have said God who needs you we'll do it on our own just you know leave us alone we'll leave you alone unfortunate that is that people can go so far with their ideologies but we live in a world where we don't see and feel God that has its negative results but it also has a central positive result which is core to our being in this world and that is to have free choice God wanted us as humans in this world to have that challenge to live in this dark confusing world but then to have that opportunity to choose goodness to choose to follow the divine will to do what a sham says to decide that we want to from our own initiative to cling to Hashem to be with Hashem rather than the angels in heaven which are with Hashem praise our Shem but more like the way a robot does what it's programmed to do because they don't have freewill above and this freewill that we have giving us the challenge and opportunity to serve Hashem and gain a reward for it is the direct result of creating the world through these 10 divine manifestations through which God shielded the intensity of his revelation and channeled it in a way that we can have a grasp on him so to speak had God have done the world created the world in one speech then we are taught in Hasidic ideas that the intensity of God's revelation would have been such this world would have resembled the upper world in that we would have been like angels and having no free choice and we would have done everything by routine by the way we were programmed we would be good because in the face of Hashem you can't be anything but good imagine a father tells his children to behave let's say there's a jar of cookies on the table kids don't eat those cookies and the father standing in front of the kids the whole time which kids going to grab a cookie no one but if God goes out of the room for a while the kids get hungry the kids gets anxious and they might grab a cookie when God's not there so to the nature of this world by God not being here so he created this challenge that we can either good or bad and as a result he rewards the righteous for doing good and punishes the wicked for doing that this is the idea that we can appreciate in its deeper sense in the Mishnah that God created the world with Terrance's in order to punish the wicked and really give reward to the righteous because without this process there would be no free choice and no reward and Punishment as we know [Music] you