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Automatic transcript; may contain mistakes, especially in Hebrew.
This week's question is, why did Hashem create us and put us in a physical world if the goal is just to be close to Him? Why not just create us in a different realm where we are already elevated? It's a very important question. If in Shamayim we were neshamos and we were close to God, why not just leave us there? Why put us down in a physical world and then just have us get back to where we once were? Just leave us there to begin with. There's a parallel to this question. The parallel to this question is by Adam and Havah. Just like neshama in Shamayim, Adam and Havah were originally one. And then Hakadosh Baruch Hu split them. And Adam was Adam, Havah was Havah. And then they were told, Go get married. Well, if they were already one, why did Hakadosh Baruch Hu split them? What was the purpose of splitting them just to bring them back together? It must be that there was something about the initial state of Adam and Chava that was lacking, just like there was something about our initial state of being a neshama and shamayim that was lacking.
So what was missing? What was missing was intimacy. There's a difference between closeness and intimacy. Two things can be exceptionally close, but it doesn't make them one. Two people can share a body, but it doesn't make them one. So even though Adam and Chava were originally in the same body, they weren't echad. They weren't one. And that's why the Pasuk says, The purpose of marriage is to become truly intimate, to become one. Even though Adam and Chava shared a body, they weren't one. Now why is that? The reason is, is because there is something about otherness that's appealing. In order for a marriage to work, we need to marry someone that's not ourselves. That's why opposites attract. So there's value in saying to somebody who's totally different than you, I'm going to remove my own self to create a space for you. And that's what love is. Love is removal of your own ego to allow for the space for another to occupy within yourself.
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That's the goal of marriage. The goal of marriage is v'hayu labasar echad. How do we become basar echad? How can I become physically one with somebody else? The answer is that by diminishing my own ego and allowing for another to enter into my space, they literally become one with me. Not just that we share a body, but we occupy the same space. And the same is true when it comes to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. As a neshama and shamayim, we were so similar to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We were in a purely spiritual state. Intimacy cannot occur without otherness. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, I'm going to send you down into the physical world. This is where you will truly feel other than me. And the choice to be mevatel yourself, and to bring me into your life, that will be the creation of intimacy between us and God. So God desires the physical world. He wants to be revealed here in the physical world.
The goal is not to get to Shamayim. The goal is to bring Hakadosh Baruch Hu down into this world. And by bringing Hakadosh Baruch Hu down into this world, we create true intimacy. The goal is not elevation. People ask this all the time. They say, I just want to be in an elevated place. Well, if we were in an elevated place, then we wouldn't be other than God. So we have to earn. our relationship? How do we earn our relationship? We earn our relationship by being in a place that feels other than God. And because we have that feeling, it allows us to withdraw our ego. to say, even though I feel otherness, I'm going to remain committed and attached to God by serving him in this world. The real matara of all this is that when we feel distant from God, when we feel other than God, is when we're actually getting closest. The more other we feel, the more distant we feel. The more opportunity there is to say, despite all of these things, I'm going to remain deeply connected. And that is the ultimate creation of a relationship. Commitment breeds intimacy, not the opposite. People say, if I feel intimate, then I'll be committed. No, commitment breeds intimacy. When I'm committed, despite my feeling of otherness, despite the feeling that I totally feel disconnected, and yet I remain committed, that is where intimacy comes from.
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