The Ultimate Gift
What does God need a universe for?
Something cannot come from Nothing.
In case you missed the last two XLs, this was the bottom line.
If Nothing is truly nothing, then nothing can ever come from it.
No matter how fancy we get with our scientific explanations about where the universe (or multiverse) came from, we will never escape this most devastating of questions:
…why is there anything at all?
Unless there is an Ultimate Something/Someone behind everything, there really shouldn’t be anything.
And yet there is.
Our universe is anything but nothing, and therefore it demands an explanation…
Last week, we introduced a way of looking at God not as an opaque religious dogma, but rather, as a logical conclusion to this question.
We reviewed the options.
To say the universe comes from:
nothing at all
or
from an endless chain of cause and effect
or
from a random number generator that is baked into the fabric of the cosmos for no reason whatsoever —
all of these are less plausible and more dogmatic than the conclusion that there is an Ultimate Source of Being.
However, even when we arrive at the Ultimate Source of Being, the question doesn’t go away. Instead, it morphs into this:
Why would the Infinite and Ultimate Source of absolutely everything ever feel the need to make anything?
Isn’t it ironic that we started by wondering if God exists, and we ended up, instead, pondering why WE exist??
This is truly the big mystery.
Watch here how the great 20th century physicist Richard Feynman is not bothered by the existence of God as much as he’s bothered by why God would be take an interest in an otherwise insignificant race of bipeds on a wet rock orbiting a medium-sized star in the Milky Way galaxy:
If the force of this question is not smacking you in the face yet, try closing your eyes when you have some time, and meditate on it.
Ask yourself:
Why are you here right now? What has brought you to this moment?
Pursue this question, and it will take you back to the story of your life.
Ask why? again, and it will take you back to the stories of your culture, your parents and grandparents, and your ancestors before them.
Keep asking why? and you will see in your mind’s eye the story of humanity, life on Earth, and the universe at large.
This is essentially what we’ve been doing for the last two XLs.
Now, we’re trying to get you to realize that this same question why? boomerangs back when you arrive at the conclusion that there must be an Ultimate Cause of Everything…
Why would God want to create me?
Doesn’t He have everything He needs??
What does He want from me???
This question is so deep, and so prone to philosophical mumbo jumbo that we prefer to go super simple to avoid getting tangled up in unnecessary complexity — as simple as the ABC’s.
We have a oral tradition, recorded in the Talmud, that the Hebrew alphabet is not merely a collection of phonetic symbols (like English), but is also a series of conceptual symbols (more like Chinese 中文 and Egyptian hieroglyphics 𓂀𓆣𓋹𓀛𓁀𓆙), except that in Hebrew, these symbols are organized as a conceptual progression about the meaning of life.
The first two letters of the Aleph-Bet are hard to forget. They are Aleph א (אלף) and Bet ב (בית). These first two letters are said to represent the first two priorities in a person’s development.
א – אלף
“Le’Aleph - לאלף” means “to learn” by absorbing and integrating knowledge into oneself.
In Modern Hebrew, the kind of academy in which spoken Hebrew is taught to new immigrants with the goal of making it their second nature is called an “Ulpan-אולפן.”
ב – בית
“Bet” means “house” as in “Bet Sefer - בית ספר” (school, lit. “house of books”), or “Bet Knesset - בית כנסת” (synagogue, lit. “house of gathering”).
After children absorb the raw material of knowledge like a sponge (אלף) — the first stage of education, they must work to deconstruct and reconstruct that knowledge to formulate a framework of understanding they can intellectually inhabit (בית). For this reason, the word for understanding in Hebrew is Binah-בינה, which is related to the root for building, Boneh-בונה.
Investing in our cognitive capacities dominates the early stages of life, but education is not an end unto itself. One who says that his life is exclusively about Torah study, “even Torah study he doesn’t possess.” He’s made the Torah into a dead-end. The very Torah he is learning is pointing him in the direction of action, and he’s not following its directions, or has not gotten past Aleph Bet in his studies…
ג – גימל
Stage 3 is represented by the letter “Gimmel,” which means to give of oneself. When people properly perform acts of kindness, they are not merely “doing” them (עושה חסד) — they are giving of themselves (גומל חסד).
Additionally, the giving is not just to give and feel good about giving. It is for the good of the recipient. A breastfeeding mother who weans her baby is “Gomel Chalav - גומל חלב.” This mother’s goal is not to give milk per se, but to nourish her baby so that he can be weaned off milk and eat on his own. In wanting the recipient’s independence, the giver shows that she has the recipient’s best interests at heart.
In these ways, “Gimmel-ג” represents true giving.
ד – דלת
Stage 4 is direct contact with those in need. “Dalet,” the fourth letter of the Aleph-Bet, means “needy” and “lacking” (as we find in King David’s praise of God as “uplifting the poor from the dust — מקימי מעפר דל.”) Until people start truly giving of themselves, they can’t grasp the depth of the struggle of those in need.
After going through the basic meaning of these first letters, the Talmud asks a seemingly cute and innocuous question:
"Why is the leg of the Gimmel extended [as if it’s running] towards the Dalet?”
The Talmud’s answer is going to shed light on our original question. Here it is:
The nature of those who sincerely give of themselves for others (גומלי חסדים) is to run after those in need (דלים).
This answer needs to be understood:
Why is the essence of doing kindness represented by a figure running to do kindness, more than the doing of the kindness itself?
(And what, you may be wondering, does this have to do with the creation of the universe?)
The Talmud is not just sharing a sweet instagrammable take on the shape of a Hebrew letter. It is expressing a profound insight into human psychology and the nature of true kindness.
Kindness is not a function of how much one gives, as much as it is about how proactively he is giving. How much is the giver running to find those in need?
In this way, kindness can be seen on a spectrum.
On the right end of the spectrum, the giver is giving because an opportunity came his way, and he feels guilty not giving. You probably have had the experience yourself of walking past a homeless person without having had any plans to give charity until your heartstrings are pulled, making you stop, reach into your pocket, and fork over some change. To be clear: this is not bad. It’s good! It means you have compassion. But you cannot say that this giving is true generosity. If you would have had a true drive to give, you would have proactively gone out that day looking for someone who needed help.
One notch in the correct direction might be that you see a person in need, which triggers your compassion, but instead of giving them just enough money to alleviate your guilt, you go out of your way to get them a hot meal, or even better, ask them what they need and go get it for them. Going this extra mile is running to give.
As you move towards the left end of the spectrum, the higher the form of giving, the more you are running after those in need. Walking through town, looking for those who need help is more of an act of generosity. Starting an organization to prevent people from falling into poverty in the first place is more of an act of generosity.
The principle is that the more proactively you are giving, the less it is driven by filling a void in you, which means the more it is about you filling the needs of others.
This is why Gimmel-ג, which represents true giving, is symbolized by a figure running towards a Dalet-ד, the person in need.
This brings us to God.
God i.e. the Infinite Source of All Being Who lacks nothing and therefore needs nothing — has nothing to gain. When we ask ourselves, “what did God need a universe for?” we are asking a perfectly valid question. He didn’t and doesn’t need a universe.
So, why did He make one then!?
Not for Himself — that’s for sure. He must have made it for someone else…
For whom???
For you. And me. And everyone else who wants to receive His gift of life.
Here is the elegant formulation by Rav Moshe Chayim Luzzatto:
Contemplate this: the purpose of creation was to give from His goodness to another besides Him.
Creation is the paradigmatic act of love.
It is the infinite horizon that the giving-spectrum is pointing towards.
So much did God want to give, He created creatures to give to.
There can be no act of giving that is more proactive than this.
We didn’t ask Him to be created. It wasn’t guilt that motivated Him. He knew that if He made us, and we lived the life He gave us to the fullest, we’d be thankful.
We’re just left with the question:
This love sparked creation, but how far does it extend? Does it ever expire? Can we become unworthy of it?
Stay with us as the journey continues…