What is the Purpose Behind This World?

B”H

What is the Purpose Behind this World?

The ancient sages of the Talmud teach that the purpose for which this world was created is that G-d desired to have a dwelling place in this lower realm.

This statement is difficult to understand: How can G-d, the ultimate of Infinity, Who fills all worlds and realities equally, desire to dwell in the “lower realms”, and what difference would it make for G-d if He dwells in the higher realms or the lower realms? In fact, with respect to Infinity, there is no such thing as “high” or “low” to begin with!

Kabbalah elucidates the sages’ teaching by explaining that, in deed, to G-d Himself there is no difference between “high” and “low”, or even “good” and “bad”. At the supreme level where we can talk about G-d as he relates to Himself, past, present, and future all exist as a single infinitesimal point.

As the Kabbalists put it, “before the world was created there was only He alone, One and Unique, filling all the space in which He created the world.” From G-d’s perspective, so to speak, it is still that way now. He is One alone now as He was before Creation. The change was only with respect to those receiving His vivifying force and His Light, meaning the vitality and life-force that bring life to all the worlds.

Before Creation there was no-one to receive the life-force. Creation brought into being those recipients (which includes us, angels, and all inhabitants of all the physical and spiritual worlds in existence.)

The different recipients of G-d’s light or life-force receive it through numerous “garments” or “veils” that serve to conceal the light to varying degrees. The reason behind this is that if it was not for these veils, and the light was aloud to “shine” in its full infinite force, it would “blow” creation out of existence, literally nullifying all of creation in its infinity.

These veils of different degrees conceal the light to different extents, thus creating different “worlds”, or different levels of revelation of G-dliness. The “highest” worlds carry the least amount of concealment and thus the greatest amount of revelation of G-dly light. The “lower” worlds, on the other hand, contain the most amount of concealment and therefore the least revelation of G-dliness. The lowest of all the worlds is this physical world of ours, where the light is contracted to the extent where it allows the existence of the coarse and corporeal reality of the physical world – our “reality”.

The higher “spiritual” worlds are more abstract and less tangible therefore they are better vessels for revelation of G-dliness. The physical world is only made possible (the existence of something sop finite and limited as the physical world is only possible) by the greatest contraction or veiling of G-d’s Infinite light. These garments actually conceal the very life-force which is constantly bringing creation into existence from total nothingness. The specifics of this concealment are the subject of the chainlike succession of the worlds which are studied in depth in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

The descent of the worlds from level to level, through the many garments that conceal the G-dly light, culminate in this physical world where the truth of G-d’s creative power is not evident and even more so – the lie that creation stands on its own as an “accident” is held as unarguable truth. This double concealment of g-d’s light makes possible for several things. One of them is free choice, which is an interesting topic in its own right, and the other is the possibility of existence of something that is so to speak the “opposite” of G-d – the existence of Evil.

The reason behind this elaborate system of worlds and levels of concealment is, as the sages say, for G-d to dwell in the lowest realms (the lowest world, i.e. our physical world where the greatest concealment exists all the way the point of the actual existence of Evil.)

Kabbalah teaches that G-d “dwells” in this world by revealing His light specifically where the greatest darkness exists. This task is accomplished by Man (all of us) by overcoming the evil in this world and doing good. By overcoming our own evil inclination or even the evil in the world around us and by doing good (to ourselves and others) we are revealing G-d’s light in this lowest of all worlds, thus making a dwelling place for Him.

We can make the G-dly light in all the worlds and creation more revealed, which translates to a higher revelation of G-dliness in our own lives, by bringing positivity and goodness into dark moments. We do this by performing good deeds for one another with the intent of by doing so overcoming evil with good and revealing G-d’s light in all the worlds.

By holding ourselves back from negative thoughts, thus overpowering the negativity in the world resulting from the concealment of G-dly light, we can reveal more G-dliness around us, making this world a dwelling for G-d, so to speak, and fulfilling the very purpose of our existence.