Where Is Hashem When Life Gets Dark? Rabbi Moshe Chaim Eade

Hashem's presence in the world. God's presence in the world. We said yesterday that the Baltanya said that there were those that mistakenly understood the Arizal's teachings that we were speaking about yesterday, that when Hashem, the infinite one that when Hashem when it was all of it so in a positive, when it went up on Hashem's will to create the world so at that moment there had to be a space in order to allow for finite existence to exist because finite existence within the infinite would be swallowed up. And therefore that space if you understand that it was literally space, it means that Hashem has Hashem departed. And we said yesterday according to the mission of Sodom that here's the words of the Sadiq from the Yosha Levav, somebody who actually cares about the honor of the Lord of his creator he has to have it come upon his heart it has to come on his heart that Hashem actually departed. Cuz otherwise you would put Hashem into very lowly places. So rather what is it? It's like a king. This camp describes it like a king who's watching out of his window what's happening by an unclean place. Maybe by the uh by the garbage whether whether doing certain operations by the garbage and they're they're taking it out and so the king is watching. He's aware. He's supervising, but he doesn't He's not there. That'd be very lowly. And therefore, the mission says in Yosha Leva, if you actually care about your creator, you would see that the tzimtzum has to be kipshutei. But then we send the Baal Tanya absolutely rejects this worldview. And we're going to get into that now. Okay. And we began yesterday to speak about how we would live as human beings in this world if we said that tzimtzum was kipshutei, was that it would mean that in the dark places, Hashem is not actually there. He's aware of what's going on, but he's not with you. Whereas, if you understand that tzimtzum is shalo kipshutei, it means that Hashem is mamish there in the shmutz with you. He's in the trenches. He's going through all of the challenges that you're going through. He's with you through it all. Baruch Hashem. >> And that includes under 10 amos, 10 tefachim. >> Yes. And that's the message of Chanukah. And that Hashem can even come That's a lamdish thing to say, by the way. You have to know a bit of shas to say such a thing. So, thank you for saying that. That usually Hashem does not like what they say, come below 10, so to speak, cuz that's the world of the chitzonim. Except on Chanukah, it reveals that Hashem obviously comes even there. Even to the world of the darkest, darkest places. Chanukah is all about the tzimtzum not being kipshutei, obviously. That's why the world of chassidus explodes on Chanukah. All those that are big chassidim of tzimtzum shalo kipshutei love Chanukah. That's why there's a mamish explosion of Chanukah terrors that's just growing more and more every single year. There's like 50,000 new Hanukkah swarm coming up. Everything is just an explosion of or coming out of Hanukkah. So, listen to the words now the Baltanya explaining why it has to be that the tzimtzum is like pita. That Hashem didn't actually leave. It only seems that he left. Okay, that's an important point. Meaning you might say, "What do you mean? It looks like he left. I don't see that I'm a ray of light on the sun, Rabbi." Uh you are. You're just not aware of it. That's what he did. He He created a perspective that you don't see Hashem, but he never left. That's the powerful message of the tzimtzum being shulchan tuch is he never actually left. He created a situation where it looks like it. But if you can get around that veil, then all of a sudden you're a ray of light on the sun. Famous famous story, we've said it before. Of Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, the heilige heilige Levi Yitzchok ben Sarah Sasha, and his grandchildren were playing hide and go seek. And they were playing hide and go seek and of course, what's the game? One of the children would go and hide and the other ones would seek. You know, ready or not, here I come. And they would go and eventually there was one of the grandchildren that they felt they found the best hiding spot in the world mammoth. Nobody was You've been a kid and you felt like I that nobody's going to find me. You [clears throat] feel so good at that moment. And you're mammoth hiding there and you you can't wait. You're going to like wait and just burst out. You're like, "Oh, we finally get You didn't find me!" So, eventually he waited so long. Like and the longer you wait, like the better that moment is going to be when you just burst out. So, he waited and waited and waited. And who knows? Bless you. An hour later, "Here I am." And they were all playing another game, kickball over there at the other side of the playground. He was like, "Yeah." "What do you mean? We're playing hide-and-go-seek. You can't What do you So, he runs over to "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, what are you playing kickball? We're playing hide-and-go-seek here." He said, "We tried to find you and we couldn't, so we went on to another game." He said, "That's not the game. The The game is you seek until you find. I'm hiding and you seek until you Oh, relax. Like, we we we couldn't find it." "That's not the game. The game is that we that you seek until you find me." And he said, "Well, just relax." He said, "No, we're going to base then. We're going to base then." So, they said, "Who's base?" And we're going to go to the Zayde, the Kadusha's Zayde. So, they came to the Kadusha's Zayde. And and and the the Tever who was being Tever then, who was coming with the claim, he said, "The game is that you that you hide and you seek until you find me." And he said, "Well, we we tried this and they said, "That's not the game." And and the the the And the Kadusha's Zayde started crying. And he said, "Hashem said the same thing. Hashem said I'm hiding. And and he's right. You have to seek until you find. You can't give up and someplace I'm kickball or something. He's here. And you know what the secret is? If you know somebody's hiding in the closet, you don't see them, but you know they're there. Are they really hiding? You [snorts] know they're there. They're not hiding anymore. You remove all of the distance. In one moment, they're not hiding anymore. Hashem is right here. So, once you know that he's here, the game is over. It's like, I know you're in there. Okay, here I am. In 1 second, they're not hiding anymore. So, the world of tzimtzum shall I shoot I it's only from our perspective, but Hashem says I'm right here. So, now the Bal Hatanya is going to bring two Rambams to show how it has to be that Hashem did not actually leave. >> [snorts] >> Okay? So, listen carefully. So, says the Bal Hatanya. >> [clears throat] >> Al kol hayetzurim kol ma she ba shamayim ma'al ve'al ha'aretz mitocham vihinei. Milvad she'ee efshar klal, it's impossible at all lomah inyan hatzimtzum kipshuto. It's impossible to say that Hashem actually left. Why? Shehu mikreh haguf. If you say that Hashem actually left, then you're [snorts] ascribing to God has v'shalom a body. Al hakadosh baruch hu hanivdal mehem ribui revavot havdelot ad ein ketz. Hashem is separate from any concept of a body whatsoever. Why does by virtue of saying that Hashem actually left make Hashem God forbid as having a body? Because if you say that Hashem is here but not there, well, bodies are things that are in a certain place. This body of mine is here, it's not over there. By saying that Hashem is here, i.e. outside of the creation that he left, that he's outside the chalal hapanoi, that the tzimtzum is kipshuto, that he managed left, you're turning Hashem into having a body cuz bodies are in a certain place and not others. You hear? Says the Rambam, going through this in detail. And this is like the Hashem having a body is like it doesn't get much worse than that. In in the key philosophical awareness of the infiniteness of Hashem, you cannot put any body on Hashem or limitation on Hashem. So says the Rambam. This is in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah, the first perek, halacha ches. Harim mefurash baTorah uvinvi'im, it's clear in the Torah and the prophets she'ein Hakadosh Baruch Hu guf u'gviya, he has no body or any physical form. She'ne'emar, ki Hashem Elokeichem Hu Elokim bashamayim in shamayim mimmal ve'al ha'aretz mitachas, he's there and here, he's everywhere. Well, if he's in shamayim, he shouldn't be in the aretz. If he's in the aretz, he shouldn't be in the shamayim. No, he's everywhere. Hashem fills everything. Everything. There's no place to void of Hashem. Veha'guf lo yihiye bishnei mekomos, and a body is not in two places simultaneously. Ven'emar, ki lo ra'isa kol temunah, and the Torah says, you did not see any image. No image. Cuz an image is this image and not something else. Hashem is not limited to any image. And anytime that you think that something is describing, but what do you mean? Doesn't it talk about yad chazakah, a strong hand and an outstretched arm? That's allegorical. It's referring to the way that Hashem is interacting with the world. Doesn't mean that there's this huge hand in the sky. Means just like a hand is a way of showing and displaying action and interaction. It's the way that I interface, like a handshake. So when we say that Hashem took us out with a strong hand, we do you that Hashem is interacting with us in a certain way, which is a creation. He created interaction with humanity, with the creation. So, there's no images of Hashem. Is there anything that's similar? Meaning, if Hashem has some image, then God forbid, then you could liken Hashem to something else. If there's anything, then there could be what to compare. There's some image. Now, we can compare it. And if Hashem, God forbid, would have a body, then you could stand out, "Oh, his body's like this body or it's like this." There's zero body. And look at the Rambam in Yud Aleph. The Kav Hanakiya says Bar She'eina Guf Velo Gufaniya. Says the Rambam, "And now that it's clear that there's no body, there's no physical form. And therefore, if there's no body, then Hashem is not affected by anything which affects body and physical form. There's no such thing as him being dependent or attached to creation. I.e., attached in a way of he's affected by creation. Or period, he's somehow separate. He's not affected or separate. He's everything. There's no say that Hashem is in this place, cuz it would imply that he's in this place and not that place. When it comes to Hashem, there's not the higher part of Hashem, the lower part of Hashem. Remember, this is all still the code. There's no right or left. What What's the right side of infinity. Where exactly is that in infinity? The right side. >> Tricky question. >> The answer is there's none. Got it. Right and left apply to when there's limitation, physical limitation. The right side of my body. The top of my body, the bottom of my body. Like when we lay on the earth, there's no front and back of infinity. Lo yishiva, lo amida. Sitting, standing. But then the Rambam says something very interesting. The ainam atzmi b'zman. Hashem is not in time, i.e. He's not bound by time. He's above time. Time happened with creation. Says the Vilna Gaon, Bereshit, in the beginning. The Vilna Gaon says, Bereshit means the creation of time. Because creation only starts when there's now time to start to measure a progress and a sequence within a created world. Yeah. >> What was created before? Because why is all time >> The Vilna Gaon implies that time is the beginning. Because time allows anything [laughter] to happen in a created world. Is now there's a sequence, things are happening. But before that, there's just Hashem. And by the way, what we're talking about now is even after creation is just Hashem. All the creation did was give a perspective of the creation of there being such a thing called finite existence. And more so, independent existence. Which as we've been learning in Shaar Yichud v'Emunah, is uh a a very challenging uh problem that many people face is that they think they're actually independent, but they're like a ray of light coming off the sun, absolutely dependent on the source, but they feel because they're far from the sun, they feel independent. But the joke's on them. You're one with the sun. Okay? As you lay races for afris and minions shonen, Hashem is not found in time that it would have a beginning, an end or age. The anus is shana Hashem does not change. Shame like double shake your own my shonen nothing can change God. Nothing can affect Hashem. Those are only things that are subject to the world of a body to a goof, to finite existence. Okay, now this is important. The ain loy, Hashem does not have loy movis, Hashem cannot die. The loy chaim and not life. We hear these words. As you're noticing, we're saying everything here in the lotion shleely, what it's not, in the negative. It's not this and it's not that and it's not this. Cuz how do you ascribe something positive to the infinite? We could say it's not finite, even the or ain so. The light that does not end. Cuz to put something positive onto it's like, oh, but that's what it is. It's beyond all that. But here we're going to see a couple of anomalies where we're actually saying stuff that Hashem is something. Which is So, pay attention. Hashem does not die and is not alive like the way physical bodies live. Like soul, like like our own soul. Like the way that your body is animated. So, the Rambam is saying, is Hashem alive? Can we actually say positively about Hashem that Hashem is alive? Yes. Just not the life of a physical body. But God is life. Whatever our life is is like an analogy for Hashem's life. Hashem is alive. He doesn't live and die the way that bodies do. You got that? The way that bodies do. Doesn't say that Hashem is He doesn't have right or left the way you do. He doesn't have above and below like you do. The Ram says He doesn't have life and death like you do. There he does say like you do, which means he has it. So, we can actually positively say about Hashem that Hashem is alive. Hashem is a living God. Which is one of the most powerful things that Rabbi Noah Weinberg, a blessed memory, would speak about. That how do you know and where do you see God's aliveness? Go into a a university campus into the library and try to talk loudly. It's not a good idea. They'll probably kick you out. There's big signs that say quiet, you're in a library. But when you come to a base medrish, is it quiet or is everybody screaming at each other and jumping up and down with excitement? Yeah, it's loud. It's so loud you can barely hear yourself. And by the way, our base medrish is relatively quiet. We need to pump up the volume in there. But you come to the mirror, it is booming. It [clears throat] is so loud. Manish. So, Rabbi Nachman said, when you learn the words of the living God, you you're alive. When you come in into into a a library and everyone's studying calculus, nobody's like yelling in the library. Nobody's screaming about p'shat in, you know, in an equation in calculus. Nobody's screaming about It's all quiet. So, Rabbi Nachman said, you see here that it's not so alive. But those that are learning the word of Hashem, it's alive. It's an amazing thing. Do you remember coming to a base medrash the first time in your entire life? And you're like, why is everyone so like loud? Anybody feel that and were affected by that when they came? I was very much affected by that. Last week? It's like it's like loud in here. It affected me a lot when I first came to base medrash. I just heard that it's so loud. Especially when I went to the mirror, it was like mamish booming. Like booming. Going to BMG in Lakewood, it's like It's amazing. It's so alive. It's mamish alive. Cuz we're learning Hashem's Torah. Hashem is alive. It's divrei Elokim chaim, the words of the living God. And the Rambam goes on, lo sicheles v'lo chachma, Hashem this is not a fool and he's not wise. Ke chachmas ish chacham, he's not wise the way that humans are wise. See the same thing repeating. That's another thing we could say about Hashem. Hashem is wise but not your wisdom. It's not like if you just became the wisest man in the world, so Hashem would just be like a bit above that. No, it's another category entirely. But we do say about Hashem that there's something about Hashem that we can say that Hashem is alive, not our life but alive, and Hashem is wise, not our wisdom but ultimate wisdom, another category of wisdom. Lo sheina v'lo kitza, he doesn't sleep, he doesn't he's not awake, v'lo ka'as v'lo s'chok, he doesn't get angry, he doesn't laugh, lo simcha v'lo atzvus, he doesn't have simcha, he doesn't have depression, lo shtika v'lo dibur, he doesn't he's not silent and he doesn't speak. Here it is again, ke dibur bnei adam. We spoke about earlier in the Tanya that dibur does not mean like this giant mouth in the sky speaking. I am the Lord your God, None of that. At all. It does completely remove all that. Speech is what we call revelation of that which is known to you to share with another. That's only speak about Hashem creates the world through speech. In the same way that speech is I know something myself and then as I speak I'm revealing my inner world to another, that's what creation is. Creation is the process of that which is inside Hashem revealing to the creation. There's no standing, sitting, separation, connection. It's Hashem is the everythingness, but there's three things that we say about Hashem that the Rambam is willing to say in the positive, even though he still said it in the negative. Hashem is alive, but not like humans. I mean, Hashem has no life and no goof like humans. Hashem has no foolishness or wisdom like humans. And Hashem has no speech like humans. Which means he has it, but not like we do. So, what are we seeing from here? All of this is just an extension of how any type of placement of body consciousness onto God and limiting Hashem's space, even spiritual spiritually speaking. Even spi- Those that thought that Hashem was not in the halal. We weren't talking about physical things here. You know, this whole discussion's not about physicality. We're talking about very lofty things. A goof doesn't have to mean like, you know, dangling legs. A goof means that there is something is here conceptually. I even Hashem can even be conceptually in one place but not somewhere else. And we speak that way. It's interesting we say like conceptually when you say like hate has no place here. What do you mean? Like where where is it going to sit? No, there's no room for it. Like there's lots of room. There's you know, there's some chairs in here. Like No, you don't mean I don't mean a place. Like I mean don't bring that that kind of consciousness here. So we speak as things having a place as they're being so to speak place. And even that the Torah says, "Oive Hashem sinu rah." Those that love God hate evil. They don't hate people. They hate the concept of evil. And really they feel bad that somebody's been overtaken by bad vibes, by evil >> [snorts] >> influences. That's bad. And yes, we are very much into um ensuring that spaces can be safe spaces, that people don't have to be subjugated to horrible things, which is is going on a lot right now. And sadly, Ivy League campuses are allowing and not standing up and allowing for very hateful speech. So this that we say though that sin doesn't have a place. So we're not referring to a physical thing. We're referring to even spiritual something can have a place somewhere. But when it comes to Hashem, you can't even talk that way. There's no such thing as Hashem has a place here [snorts] but not there. Hashem is the oneness. So the Baal HaTanya is beginning his his rebuttal that you cannot suggest that tzimtzum is k' pshuto cuz then you'll be putting a sham somewhere and not somewhere else. Yeah? Says the Baal HaTanya VaYomer. Af gam zeh is not only that lo b'dasi d'aberu m'acha she'hem ma'aminim b'nei ma'aminim she'haKadosh Baruch Hu yodea ha' y'tzurim she'b'olam ha'zeh asher hu mashgiach aleihem v'al kein ein yedi'osav oisim muisafah b'ribui v'chidush mipnei she'yodea hakol b'yedi'as atzmo harei k'viyachol mahus atzmuso v'da'ato hakol echad. Another problem with putting a sham somewhere and not somewhere else is how does a sham know creation? Remember we spoke about this? A sham knows creation because a sham knows himself. If a sham was somehow separate he was distant has v'shalom then he would only know it as something outside of himself. He's aware of what's going on, observing it. But not him cuz he's not there. That would go against the unity of God that God knows all of creation cuz he knows himself. And that knowingness is not something separate from a sham, it's one with a sham. So by suggesting that a sham is so to speak away from creation, just think this is this is so mind-boggling. And this changes your life. Once you're moving into a world of tzimtzum shelo k'pshuto, it means God is saturated in this world. He's saturated in this world. And therefore the entire mission that the Jewish people are here to share with the world is a sham is here. He's here with us right now. And he wants a relationship. He's not distant observing from a window what's going on over there with this creation. Like a watchmaker who's even worse. He just winds up the watch and walks away. Like the Baltanya addressed those he called them fools that they even think that. Because that would imply that Hashem is creating the world something from something. Right? Like Hashem took a bunch of material like silver and Hashem just fashioned the silver into a goblet and then walked away. So does the goblet need the goblet maker? Or the goblet maker could go ahead and you know have lunch and you know take a break and the goblet will still exist on the shelf. Yeah, so Hashem could do the same thing. The Baltanya says this is the the fools. Your whole way of looking at creation is is is flawed from the get-go. Is this world is not created something from something and something from nothing. It's constantly being energized. Cuz Hashem is the infinite one that's radiating light infinite or using the tzimtzum to allow for levels of finite creation to exist. And the secret being that even in the lowest places Hashem is still there. That even though he so to speak covered up his unity and the oneness to allow for finite creation to exist, he never left. Okay, so we saw two proofs today from the Baltanya based on the Rambam that the Rambam says that Hashem has no body. You cannot get any any separation body consciousness to God has for shalom. >> [snorts] >> If you would have suggested that Hashem has so to speak the tzimtzum as kashuta Hashem would have left. Has for shalom we can't say. Then he would say "Hashem, excuse me, Hashem is here, but he's not there." Right? Like anybody who ever had a Chabad ganenet, "Hashem is there, Hashem is here, Hashem is there, Hashem is truly everywhere." Right? That if your ganenet was a Chabad ganenet, she would sing that song. We're going to see that, by the way, that niggun is the machlokes. Do you sing the niggun? That The entire thing comes down to that, as we'll see. Is we're going to learn when we open up the Nefesh HaChaim that the Nefesh HaChaim agrees to the song. The question is are you allowed to sing it? Do we say Hashem is here, Hashem is there, Hashem is truly everywhere? Do you Do you say that? Should you say that? According to the Alter Tanya, and we're going to see from the Nefesh HaChaim, it's going to be clear. It's true that tzimtzum is not k'pshuto, Hashem is fills all the worlds, fills all the worlds. But should we talk about it? We're going to see from the students of the Baal Shem Tov not only are you allowed to, but the survival and the destiny of bringing Mashiach depends on understanding Hashem's being in our life in the most crucial way that will be a harbinger, that will bring [clears throat] us to the geulah that we so desperately are davening for and we so much want, and will give hope back to humanity, that everything that they're going through Hashem is with them, and that's really where we're going with this. The second proof we brought from the Baal Shem Tov, from the Rambam, against tzimtzum k'pshuto was that if Hashem left, then he wouldn't know creation by knowing himself, he's not there. So that goes against a principle of the unity of God. We should be zocheh mamash to experience the unity of Hashem in a very, very fundamental way. To be continued tomorrow we open up a piece from the Tikunei Zohar called to Rabbi Isaac. All the best. >> Thank you.