Chapter 21

In the previous chapter, the Alter Rebbe explained that Hashem He creates the universe with the word, and this makes the world insignificant before Him. To help us understand, He gave us an example using our own words. But when we analyze human speech more closely, we realize that it is not the same as the word of God. Hashem.

When we say something, those words separate from us and travel through the air to the person we are speaking to. But the words of Hashem They are never separated from Him, because there is nothing outside of Him. So why did the Alter Rebbe use the example of man's word to explain creation? HashemFurthermore, the Torah herself, when speaking of creation, says that Hashem “"speak"”¹ to create the world… Why?

The Alter Rebbe explains that the example of man's words serves only to help us understand that, just as words reveal what was hidden in the heart, in the same way, when Hashem He speaks, revealing what is hidden within Him, which is our world.

It's like having a good friend and feeling love for them, but if we never tell them, that love remains hidden inside. But when we say, "What a great friend you are!", something that was hidden within us is revealed.

However, the man's words are different from those of Hashem, Because a man's words separate from him when he speaks them (that's why we must be very careful with what we say, because words cannot be erased once they have been spoken; they have already separated from us and we cannot control them). But the words of Hashem They do not separate themselves from Him: nothing can be separated from Him Hashem, because Hashem It encompasses everything, and there is nothing outside of it.

And here a very profound idea emerges: the words that Hashem He says that to create the world, they are never separated from Him. They are not like the words of human speech, which separate from the one who utters them, but rather like when we are thinking something. In the brain, even before saying anything, when an idea is still being thought, there are also words, those used to think and give shape to the idea within us. Such are the words that Hashem He uses it to create the world. It's as if the whole world were "inside his head". Hashem.

But Hashem He wants us to see the world as separate from Him, as if it were created from words spoken by a man, separate from Him. Then the world perceives itself as separate from Him. Hashem (comparable to a man's word after he has spoken it) but, in reality, it is bound to Hashem (analogous to the word in the man's brain, before he says it).

This difference between the way the world is (attached to Hashemand how the world it looks (separated from Hashem) is called contraction (tzimtzumThe Alter Rebbe explains that this contraction only affects us, beings created by Hashem, But not to Him. What Hashem The hidden aspect is that the world is united with Him, that is, that the world depends entirely on Him; this is what we don't see. We see the world, but as separate from Him. Hashem.

The reason for this concealment is so that we can live in the world, because if Hashem If He were to reveal His words as they truly are, we could not bear it. It is like the sun being far from the earth: that way we enjoy it. But if we had the sun close to us, we would end up incinerated. If the energy of the words of Hashem If it were revealed to us, we would have no way of enduring them and we would end up ceasing to exist.

From our perspective, we see the world as separate from Hashem, But He sees the world as it truly is, as nothing before Him, small and insignificant.