My four-year old son heard fireworks the other night. I thought he was going to want to go outside and see the spectacle. Fireworks are not so frequent in Israel and I don’t know if he made the connection between the sound and the beautiful sparks in the sky, but this time at least, half-asleep, he was not thinking of fireworks.
“Is that the sound of G-d creating the world anew every second…Oh, there it is again!”
There is a beautiful concept in Chassidic philosophy that G-d did not just create the world and leave it alone. Nor did he create a world and just rule over it as a king (which he does, but this is not the main thing). G-d is involved in creating the world anew every second. Or not even every second. Every instant. Everything we see is constantly being created anew, and according to Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya (a seminal work on Jewish mysticism) if G-d ceased to keep creating the world every second, everything would cease to exist.
This is an interesting concept, but what does it mean for us? One practical application is that there is an opportunity for renewal every instant. Is there something you regret? I know there is something I regret. I really lost my patience this afternoon. I want to forget it ever happened. I want to wipe the memory away and start again, but I feel so bad, the memory is just bringing me down.
But you know what? Hashem has created the world anew a thousand times since then. And He is creating the world anew right now. I can bring that past into the present moment, or I can chose to focus on the fact that I have a new opportunity for change exactly at this moment.
If only we could look at ourselves and each other constantly with fresh eyes. If only we could see the neighbor and forget about that incident last year, or what her kids did, or what her dog did etc…The past is real to an extent, but the world is being created anew, so it can be left behind or carried along with us endlessly. It is really our choice.