Having finished Chapter 32 – a chapter dedicated to loving another as one loves oneself, the Alter Rebbe takes us back to the theme he had begun in Chapter 31 – namely the theme of becoming happy and getting oneself out of a state of depression.
Here the Alter Rebbe gives us another way of becoming happy in life. It is through contemplating the unity of God. Not that there is only One God that runs the world, but that really – everything is God. This should in and of itself be enough to cause us to realise that we are not alone. God is everywhere. Everything that is happening – whatever it is, God is there.
God has not changed since creating the world. He is exactly the same now as He was then. Everything in existence is constant – with God’s presence there all the time.
The Alter Rebbe compares God’s existence to our own way of being and thinking. Our essential beings – even before anything is even put into thoughts, speech or action – contains within ourselves everything we really are. Even though we cannot visually see all this, it is because it is all swallowed up inside ourselves. It is nullified to our essential existence.
So too all of God’s creation is nullified within Himself like the rays of the sun are nullified inside the sun. Yet, even though all of existence is nullified into God, this does not in any detract from God being where He is – everywhere. He hides himself simply because everything is completely nullified into Him.
Ultimately God wants for us to reveal Him in this world down below. It is for us to show that God is here. When we begin to see Him here – even though he is completely nullified, we bring Him much joy because He wishes for this world to be a Dira BeTachtonim – a dwelling place for Himself in this lowly world. Indeed He is certainly as present here as He is even the highest of worlds. It is just that everything is nullified into Him.
We should feel a great sense of happiness at being able to “host” God within our homes – just like a simple person would feel great delight at being able to host a great king into His home. We can all do this! We do this by involving ourselves in the Mitzvot and making a dwelling place for God through our actions here.
The Alter Rebbe essentially tells us that we need to have faith – to know that God is around us and that our involvement in Mitzvot is important making a difference to everything in our lives. We need to be aware of God’s presence in everything we do and in this way we will realise that everything that is happening is clearly in accordance with God’s wishes – as He is with us in all of this.
We will conclude this chapter Be’Ezras Hashem in our next lesson and put it all together.
