Why did Adam give Eve the name, "The Mother of All Life" right after she ate from the Tree and brought the entire concept of safek (doubt) into the world? Shouldn't he have called her, "The Mother of All Doubt?" What does All Life have to do with All Doubt?
The Ishbitzer Rebbe tells us that the pleasures of this world do not constitute the essence of this world; G-d only put them here because His world is exceedingly harsh and He wants to sweeten its harshness for us a little. So what, then, does constitute the essence of life in this world? To answer this question, says the Ishbitzer, we must look inside ourselves.
What's inside me? You're asking me, personally? Well, I'll tell you: I want to know why G-d does things the way that he does them. Hashem, why did you create creatures who can know that You are infinite, but who themselves are finite and can therefore never know You entirely? If Your purpose in creating the world was to bestow Your goodness to us, then why doesn't the existence of lack and suffering completely contradict that purpose? These queries, of course, have uncountable permutations and corrollary questions attached to them. The resultant unlimited stream of questions about the seemingly contradictory nature of the universe resides, I believe, within all of us.
The Ishbitzer says that it is exactly the unendingness of this stream of questions inside of us that lets us know that G-d is in the world. The unendingness points to G-d's infinite capacity to relate to us; it's only through not knowing the answers and needing to know the answers and asking for the answers that the possibility for relationship-with and knowledge of the Infinite can develop. This is why G-d told Avram to "Go to yourself;" He knew that Avram was seeking to know the true essence of life in this world, and knew that Avram would find within himsel
Jerry Silverman
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Jerry Silverman is a former student of Yeshivat Bat Ayin. He is working in new media, designing and managing media projects. He lives in Riverdale, NY with his wife Sarah and their two children. |