LIGHT

There are two groups of believers.

The emotionally oriented believers like to feel that G-d has a personal relationship with every individual, and He takes interest in every detail of their lives.

The intellectually oriented believers think that’s ridiculous. G-d is to great to worry about us. It would be degrading to describe G-d as having a relationship with us.

When these groups interact with each other, the conversation goes something like this:

“What kind of G-d is He, if He has nothing to do other then worry about what you eat for lunch?”

And the response: “What is the point of believing in G-d if He does not care about you?”

What is the correct approach?

Let’s look at the way the Kabbalists describe the life force that creates the world, and we will learn about the relationship between G-d and the world.

The term the Kabbalist use is “Light”. Now light is an interesting phenomenon. It is only a ray of the luminary. It has nothing of itself; therefore it cannot exist independently of the luminary.

On the other hand it is an extension of and has great similarities to the luminary. Just look at the ray and you will learn something about the luminary. For the ray of the sun, the moon, and a candle are very different, and you can see the differences just by looking at the ray.

That is how the Kabbalists explain the idea that G-d is not changed by the creation, and by the Ten SEFIROT – attributes that He emanates from himself. For the SEFIROT are a ray of Him they are not His essence and they therefore do not change Him.

On the other hand they are “ME-EIN” – similar and are of the same quality and therefore the ray carries the power of creation that only G-d possesses.

Going back to the conversation in the beginning of this post. The “light” of G-d interacts with the world – it's only a ray compared to His essence. However do not make the mistake that G-d’s essence is removed, for the ray is the expression and carries His essence.