The Purpose of Creation

 

Opening 3: The ultimate purpose of the creation of the world was for God, in accordance with His good desire, to bestow the ultimate good.

 

 

The ultimate purpose of the creation of the world – for clearly, every actor acts for a purpose – was for God. to bestow – not for His own need, since He has no need for His creatures, but in order to benefit His creatures in accordance with His good desire. In other words, if you ask, “Where did this purpose originate?” the answer is clear: That which is good desires to bestow good. The Supreme Will is the ultimate good. If so, His desire is to bestow good – the ultimate good, because He is the ultimate good, and therefore His desire is to bestow the ultimate good. This is why He made the world in this way, with free will, reward and punishment. For this is the means to bring His creatures to the ultimate good, as will be explained in the next Opening.

 

 

Opening 4: The Eyn Sof, blessed be He, wanted to bestow complete good, so that its recipients will not even be ashamed. He planned and calculated how to reveal His perfect oneness in actuality, for before Him there are no barriers or deficiencies. Accordingly, He established the system of government that He follows, in which eventually evil actually turns back into good. Initially, He gave a place for evil to do what is in its power, but at the end of everything, all the damage is repaired and all evil turns back into actual good. And thus His oneness is revealed, and this itself is the delight of the souls.

 

The proposition consists of four parts: Part 1. The Eyn Sof, blessed be He… This is the underlying principle of the order that was instituted to serve the ultimate purpose that I mentioned in the previous Opening. Part 2. He planned and calculated how to reveal… This is the plan that lies behind this order. Part 3. Initially, He gave a place… This discusses how evil turns back to good. Part 4. And thus His oneness is revealed… This tells us what comes at the end of the cycle.

 

Part 1 – The Eyn Sof, blessed be He, wanted to bestow complete good. As explained earlier, He wanted to bestow good to the utmost degree of goodness and perfection so that its recipients will not even be ashamed, for, as the rabbis stated, “One who eats what is not his, feels ashamed to look in the face of his benefactor” (Yerushalm, Orlah 1:3). In order to avoid this, He wanted that people should have a way of working in order to thereby earn the good which they then receive as their reward. Accordingly He created good and evil and gave man free will, placing him in a situation of reward and punishment until the intended goal is achieved.

 

Part 2 – He planned and calculated how to reveal His perfect oneness in actuality… For the actual method of man’s service also had to be fitting and not merely arbitrary. For clearly, whatever the commandments that He might have instituted, they would all have been to men’s merit when duly performed by them, and they would receive a reward for all of them. But true to His exalted wisdom, the Master of the World wanted that the method of service, rather than being merely arbitrary, should itself be a single system, consistent in all its parts and constructed according to a deep plan. He wanted one root for the entire system. The Supreme Will calculated that there could be no more fitting and logical focus for man’s service than if He were to reveal His oneness in actuality. This would provide a suitable area in which man could serve, and the revelation of God would itself be the benefit man would receive, as will be discussed below.

 

For before Him there are no barriers or deficiencies. His unique perfection surely lies in His total and absolute power. No possible barrier or deficiency can stand in His way. This we will come to know from the side of God’s perfection, not from the opposite side. For this is only revealed when it is not the deficiencies and the repair that comes to them through the power of His perfection that are seen, but only His perfection alone is seen. This was a suitable area within which service could exist. In His wish to reveal His oneness in actuality, His plan was first to reveal the deficiencies, after which His oneness and His power over them would again be revealed, and He will rectify everything.

 

To be continued.