1.
This is what man is all about; this is the purpose of his creation and of the creation of all the worlds, sublime and lowly -- to make for God a dwelling in the physical world.
2.
"The soul of man is a lamp of God" (Proverbs 20:27). Just like the flame of the lamp strains upwards, seeking to tear free of the wick and rise heavenward - though this would spell its own demise - so, too, does the Godly soul in man constantly strive to tear free of the body and the material existence and be nullified within its source in God.
3.
There are two types of pleasure before God. The first is from the complete nullification of evil and its transformation from bitterness to sweetness and from darkness to light by the perfectly righteous. The second [pleasure] is when evil is repelled while it is still at its strongest and mightiest ... through the efforts of the "intermediate man" (beinoni).
4.
If the human eye were allowed to see the spiritual vitality flowing from the utterance of Gods mouth into every creation, we would not see the materiality, grossness and tangibility of the creation, for it would be utterly nullified in relation to this divine life-force.
5.
During the time that Rabbi Schneur Zalman was imprisoned in Petersburg, one of the czar's ministers asked him to explain the verse (Genesis 3:9) "And God called out to the man and said to him: Where are you?" Did God not know where Adam was?
"Where are you?" said Rabbi Schneur Zalman to the minister, "is God's perpetual call to every man. Where are you in the world? You have been allotted a certain number of days, hours, and minutes in which to fulfill your mission in life. You have lived so many years and so many days - Where are you? What have you accomplished?"
This is what man is all about; this is the purpose of his creation and of the creation of all the worlds, sublime and lowly -- to make for God a dwelling in the physical world.
2.
"The soul of man is a lamp of God" (Proverbs 20:27). Just like the flame of the lamp strains upwards, seeking to tear free of the wick and rise heavenward - though this would spell its own demise - so, too, does the Godly soul in man constantly strive to tear free of the body and the material existence and be nullified within its source in God.
3.
There are two types of pleasure before God. The first is from the complete nullification of evil and its transformation from bitterness to sweetness and from darkness to light by the perfectly righteous. The second [pleasure] is when evil is repelled while it is still at its strongest and mightiest ... through the efforts of the "intermediate man" (beinoni).
4.
If the human eye were allowed to see the spiritual vitality flowing from the utterance of Gods mouth into every creation, we would not see the materiality, grossness and tangibility of the creation, for it would be utterly nullified in relation to this divine life-force.
5.
During the time that Rabbi Schneur Zalman was imprisoned in Petersburg, one of the czar's ministers asked him to explain the verse (Genesis 3:9) "And God called out to the man and said to him: Where are you?" Did God not know where Adam was?
"Where are you?" said Rabbi Schneur Zalman to the minister, "is God's perpetual call to every man. Where are you in the world? You have been allotted a certain number of days, hours, and minutes in which to fulfill your mission in life. You have lived so many years and so many days - Where are you? What have you accomplished?"
credit: Twenty Eight Teachings from Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi via Chabad.org
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