ב”ה

Based on a talk of the Rebbe, delivered on Simchat Torah 1966

Introduzione

This blog is based on a sicha, a talk of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He gave it on the night of Simchat Torah in 1966. The talk is about light. But it is not the light we turn on and off in a room. It is something much deeper.

In the beginning

Most people know the opening of the Torah like this: “In the beginning the L-rd created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was empty, and there was darkness.” But according to Rashi, this is not the best way to read it. Rashi explains it like this:

In the beginning of the creation of the L-rd of heaven and earth, when the earth was unformed and void, and there was darkness over the surface of the deep, and a wind (or spirit) from the L-rd was floating over the water, the L-rd said: “Let there be light.” And there was light.

So, the first thing G-d created was light. Not the heaven, not the earth, not the water. Light came first.

Three questions

The Rebbe asks three questions about this.

  1. Light has no value by itself. Light only helps us see other things. But on the first day there was nothing else to see. So why was light created first?
  2. G-d hid this light. Our Sages teach this in the Talmud. If light is meant to show things, why hide it?
  3. “Light” and “secret” have the same number. In Hebrew every letter has a number. The word o (אור, light) adds up to 207. The word raz (רז, secret) also adds up to 207. But light means to reveal, and a secret means to hide. They seem to be opposites. Why are they connected?

The blueprint of the world

To answer these questions, the Rebbe quotes a Midrash. When a king wants to build a palace, he does not build it himself. He hires a builder. The builder does not build from his own head. He uses a blueprint. In the same way, the Holy One, blessed be He, looked into the Torah and created the world. The Torah is the blueprint of creation.

Now think about how building works. Before you start, you must know what you want to build. You do not tell a builder, “I want a building.” You say, “I want a house, like this, with these rooms.” The goal comes first. Only after that do you start to build.

Answer 1: Light is the goal

The Hebrew word for “world” is olam (עולם). It is related to the word helem (העלם), which means “hiding.” The world is a place where G-d is hidden.

Why? The goal of creation is that G-d’s light is revealed in this world. And G-d wants noi to reveal it. He wants a “dwelling place” for Himself in this physical world.

So light was the first thing created because light is the goal of everything. There is a famous saying in Hebrew: the end of the action is first in thought. When you build a palace, the palace is the first thing in your mind. It is also the last thing you see.

What happens in the middle?

While building, you cannot see the goal. A worker puts brick on brick, with sand and mortar all around. He does not see a palace. He only sees dirt and bricks. But the palace was always the plan.

Creation works the same way. The goal (light) is clear at the beginning and clear at the end. In the middle, it is hidden. This hiding makes room for all the different parts of creation to be built, each in its own place.

“And G-d saw that it was good”

There is one more important point. After each day of creation, the Torah says that G-d saw that it was good (tov). After light, the Torah says that G-d saw that the light was good. So light is connected to goodness.

Look at the second day. It does not say “good” there. Rashi explains that on the second day G-d made a separation. Then on the third day, “good” appears twice, once for the second day and once for the third day.

Is separation bad, then? Not really. Think about a marriage. Sometimes you need some space. You love each other, but sometimes you need to be alone for a while. That separation is not the goal. But it helps you to value being together afterwards. So, separation becomes “good” when we see that it leads back to closeness.

The lesson for us: light is not only the final goal. Its goodness is also found in every day of creation. This gives us two levels of purpose:

Answer 2: Why was the light hidden?

G-d hid the light so that there is room for us to work. If everything were fully clear, there would be nothing for us to do. The light is still there in creation. It is just hidden. And this hidden light gives us strength to face difficult moments, because we know that the darkness has a purpose.

The Talmud says that G-d hid this light in the Torah. When we learn Torah and keep the commandments, we reveal the light that is already inside creation.

A difficult example

Many people asked the Rebbe a painful question: “Why did G-d allow the Holocaust?” The Rebbe did not like this question. G-d does not “allow” things as if He lost control. G-d is always in control of everything.

Instead, the Rebbe gave an example. Imagine you walk into a room and see a person tied to a table. Several people stand around him with knives. They are cutting him, and there is blood. You would think this is cruel. But if you knew that this is an operating room, and that these people are saving his life, you would not say “how cruel.” You would say, “what great kindness.”

We are like the person who walks into the room. We only see the cutting and the blood. We do not understand what is really happening. And of course we do not: G-d is infinite, and we are not. Before the operation the person is sick, and after it he is healthy. In the middle, we only see pain.

This is a very hard idea, and it should not be taken lightly. It is something to think about slowly. But it shows how light works. It is revealed at the beginning, hidden in the middle, and revealed again at the end, when Mashiach comes.

Answer 3: Light and secret are the same

Light and secret have the same number because they are two sides of one thing. Light is the final purpose, but it is hidden (a secret) during the work. When the world is fully refined, the secret becomes light. Hiding and revealing belong together.

The lesson

The Rebbe explains what G-d asks of us:

“Let there be light” is the purpose and the goal of all work of creation: that a person refine their part of the world until it becomes light.

G-d has already put the light into creation. We do not need to create light. We need to reveal it. We must turn darkness into light.

The Rebbe says something deep here. Imagine you took all the darkness out of your own life. You do not do anything wrong. You “sit and do not commit a transgression.” That is already very good. But it is not enough. You have not yet turned anything into light. The real work of a human being is not only to “turn away from evil.” The main work is to “do good”: to change the world around us into light and goodness.

Think about it: why are you in the place where you live? Why do you know the people you know? Maybe it is so that you can bring something good to them.

A word for those who feel they did too much wrong

Some people came to the Rebbe and said: “I did terrible things in my life. There is no hope for me.” In many cases, the Rebbe’s answer was: don’t look back, look forward. Stop doing what was wrong. Stop crying over the past. Do good now. By doing good, you refine yourself, and in this way you also heal what happened before.

In practical terms

When you wake up. Remember your purpose. The first words Jewish people say in the morning are Modeh Ani: “I give thanks to You, living and eternal King, for You have returned my soul within me with mercy. Great is Your faithfulness.” Just as light was the first thing G-d created, a good day starts with light: “I am here for a reason. I am here to refine myself and the world around me.”

During the day. Life gets busy, and we forget. That is normal. The purpose does not disappear, but it is harder to feel. So try, a little, to remember it again and again: the purpose of all of this is light. Try to feel that light in everything you do.

Riepilogo

Our job is not only to avoid darkness, but to turn darkness into light by doing good.ad each word in its own context, we get a much clearer picture.

The first thing G-d created was light.

Light is the goal of creation. That is why it came first.

During the “building,” the light is hidden. This hiding gives us room to work and gives strength to continue.

Light and secret are the same: the light is the secret, and it is revealed at the end.

By Rabbi Tuvia Serber

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