The Theory Of Everything

 

I have a friend – one of those quirky geniuses – who says in order for man to be worthy of being called that, he had to be born into the Garden of Eden.

The primary book of Jewish mysticism is Sefer Yetzirah attributed to the authorship of none other than Abraham.

Abraham was another remarkable man – and he too was born in a time of plenty.

You see, as Abraham writes in his book, “to good there is nothing higher than pleasure and to bad nothing worse than pain.”

If we just understand this we understand, well everything.

You see, as Rabbi Shnuer Zalman of Liadi author of the Bible of Jewish mysticism the Tanya writes, we have within us three distinct souls – each one has a pleasure /pain system.

The one we are most familiar with is what he calls and animal soul, for like every animal there are instinctive biological (though really reflective of its soul) hardwired pleasure / pain factors.

For example, we share with every animal, the pleasure over feeling satisfied and the pain of hunger – the pleasure of going to the bathroom and the pain of needing – the pleasure of security, the pain of fear/anxiety (insecurity,) the pleasure in cohabitation and the pain of not.

As is obvious, the Holy Creator of infinite knowledge, hardwire a system which biologically impels each individual of a specie, to live and perpetuate his specie.

Now there is nothing altruistic in this.

For the reason I eat is because I am hungry, the reason I go to the bathroom is, I feel angst, and as is obvious, the reason I cohabite.

In addition to the negative instincts, there are positive instincts, such as compassion, which we see both humans and animals display, especially towards their own.

But most hidden of all is the fact that behind everything is the source (G0d.)

Without the source – for without a source – there can be nothing.

This is what Maimonides – the famous codifier of all Jewish laws, physician, amongst many other notable achievements (he was one of the greatest physicians of all times) writes, as the first two laws and introduction to all of Judaism, that the foundation of all, the source of wisdom, is to know, that there is a first being who created all subsequent.

And if you may think that there isn’t, so how can anything else exist?

As the Alter Rebbe (the author of the Tanya) writes, we make a cosmic mistake (somewhat spoken about in quantum physics) for we think reality exists, but reality as Einstein’s famous theory of relativity taught is only relative, in other words, as Einstein says “reality is an illusion (an experience) albeit a very persistent one.”

So it is true, we may perceive ourselves and the world to exist, but what is it that I perceive – am I perceiving the energy that makes up all matter, or the matter which hides all energy?

So there is a source that created the energy, and furthermore made it to look like matter, and finally made man.

We are born into darkness – the very first creation of God is not light rather a dark world, as the Bible teaches, In the beginning.. the world was dark… but the spirit of God was present!

And in this we find the greatest truth that ever existed.

For if reality is only a perception, it very well be that what I perceive isn’t what truly is, but what isn’t! for a perception is not limited, for if I make a movie, there is no reason that anything in the events you will see will actually be true, as almost all movies, novel etc. are.

So then we must ask ourselves not so much what is the perception (which is the quest of science) rather, why?

And the answer to why must come from the person who made it.

Many know there is a God, but few know why.

It is one thing to imagine God needs an ego boost, and serve; quite another to know what God wants.

And in Jewish mysticism, a tradition passed from Abraham down, as well as being one of the four levels that God teaches Moses (for the Bible can be studied on four levels) and the previously concealed level was Kabbalah.

Now to summarize Kabbalah is to like summarize science – impossible – however we can summarize the reason why.

Why? – the answer, because God is love.

The paradigm of parent is ideal – parents give birth, especially a mother, for the very knowledge that she carries a baby in her (though not yet formed) is motivation enough to birth, feed, love, care and educate.

Ultimately this is exactly what God has done.

However there is one fundamental difference for whereas the education of a mother or father is obviously limited by what they know, G-d has no limits; hence we born into concealment have but a single opportunity which is to stop thinking, to stop assuming (for subconsciously we assume our thoughts are valid) We must understand that we are not that much smarter than any animal (in fact some are smarter) but the one thing we are guaranteed is the ability to change.

Yes, this is the sole gift of G0d – that you, through herculean effort (more than any other accomplishment, for they coincide with your instincts, but change geos against it) we can continually accept, as the Baal Shem Tov teaches, that everything we encounter is a message – and the ability to change in a world that can send us infinite messages is infinite.