Different levels and purposes
Hashem has created many different lifeforms, with different purposes, yet all together serving 1 great collective purpose, as explained by the Baal Shem Tov, all the particular activities of the created beings are controlled by divine providence. This providence is the life energy of the created being and maintains its existence. Every single movement of an individual’s created being has a connection to the purpose of creation. A slight movement of one blade of grass or a single wave in the ocean fulfills G‑d’s intent for the creation as a whole.
Humans are made in a state of potential
This is why it takes us years to make progress. While other species are created in a state of completion in the way that animals and insects are self-sufficient in a short amount of time. Having a simple existence yet being unmissable all evolves around us and even the smallest details contributes to an environment that can sustain us and nourish us in our physical form, so they serve our existence for which we ought to be grateful. As the highest creation on the ladder we need to earn what is offered to us, our level of existence is unlike the plants, insects, and animals one of potential and our purpose demands great individual effort.
Divine Providence focuses on the individual
Genesis 1:26 And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and they shall rule over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the heaven and over the animals and over all the earth and over all the creeping things that creep upon the earth.” This scripture is about various existential levels, the verse also gives a new insight to me as a person. Rabbi A Twerski, stated that the “US” in let us make man, is also speaking to us, as humans, where Hashem offers us Hatova, goodness in the form of a program of existential transformation to our own benefits, a way to increase our spiritual level in the image of Hashem, to ones full potential of effort, and the way to it is Judaism.
What is Judaism?
Judaism, is not hobby or simply fitting into a religious box. Just keeping the apointed mitzvot and doing teshuva will not make you a good person, a persons characteristics needs work as well; Deuteronomy 6:5 And you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your means. Judaism is a full dedication to Hashem and his creation as a whole, with all you got, mind, heart and soul. This shift is initiated by the individual itself, but the divine providence does not rest upon all men equally, fools who rebel against Hashem, their interests will be controlled by the natural order as are those of the animals.
By Yoeri Schepens
inspired by: The Baal Shem Tov and Rabbi A Twerski
Sources: Genesis 1:26 and Deuteronomy 6:5
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