HASHEM-----nisaveh sh'yehei lo dira b'tachtonim

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It's very nice that G-d "wanted" a dira b'tachotnim (dwelling place below), but that doesn’t answer the question as to why He created the world, because the question still remains, why did He wants a dira b'tachtonim? Was it not "good enough" for Him b'elyonim (above)? The dira b'tachtonim idea does not explain why G-d created the world.

In fact, if you slip up just a bit here, you end up understanding not Torah but Apikorsus. Because if you believe that G-d created the world because He wanted something for Himself - including a dira btachtonim - you have been nichshal in Apikorsus. Because G-d, being Perfect, does not need anything. More: He cannot gain anything no matter what happens or what He does, since if He could gain, that would mean He was deficit before the gain, which would be a contradiction to His perfection.

So chas v'sholom, Hashem did not create the world because He desired something for Himself. Therefore, we cannot say that the reason G-d created the world is because He wanted to dwell somewhere else or in addition to where He was dwelling before (whatever "dwelling" - dira - means in regard to Hashem).

This is one of the problems with learning chasidishe seforim - especially the Tanya - before you have a good background in Jewish thought.

The idea of "nisaveh sheyehei lo dira btachtonim" means something completely different.

First, its not "chasidus." It's a Medrash Tanchuma (Naso 16) and Rabbah (Bereishis 3:9), quoted in the classic seforim of the Chasidim, Misnagdim, Litvaks, Sefardim, Yerushalmis - you name it. It's also in earlier places like the Akeidas Yitzchok and Shelah. It's all over, a basic Judaic concept, and has nothing to do with Chasidus.

Now if you look in the Medrash, you will find that it says "At the time Hashem created the world, He wanted a dira btachtonim". Meaning, that the "desire", kivyachol for a dira btachtonim happened because Hashem decided to create the world. After He decided to create the world, and already had His reason, he then, in order to facilitate His own reason for creating the world, which He already had, needed to create a dirah btachtonim."

The reason for creating the world was not a dirah btachtonim, but rather after Hashem decided to create the world, then and only then did He find a need for there to be a dirah btachtonim.
And the reason He decided to create the world, as Rabbeinu Tam proves in Sefer Hayashar, had to be for our sakes, and not for anything that has to do with Him or His sake. This must be because, as I said before, Hashem is perfect and cannot gain from any type of creation. And to create something for no reason is an imperfect thing to do, so that option is also out. The only possibility left, is that G-d created the world for our sake. Only the physical world and G-d exist - and since we eliminate the purpose of the world as having anything to do with G-d, we conclude therefore that it had to do with us, meaning, the physical world itself.

The world was created for our sake.

That is a given. The question now, however, is that just because G-d wanted to benefit us, why did He have to so by creating the world in the particular way that He did - meaning, as a physical/spiritual entity with the potential and ultimate goal of being sanctified, with all the gashmiyus and ruchnius forces that it contains - why did He have to do all that? We know why G-d made the world - but of all the ways He could have fulfilled that reason - to benefit us - why did He do it by creating this world?

The answer is, G-d wanted to give us not just benefit, but the maximum benefit possible, and in order to do that, He had to give us a way not only to exist, but to connect to Him, since He is the only source of Maximum Pleasure. Therefore, in order to facilitate His will that His creations connect to Him, He created a world is His dirah b'tachtonim. A world where Mitzvos will be able to be done, where the Torah will be able to be accepted, where the Bais Hamikdash would be able to stand, etc , all so that His presence would be able to sanctify the world through the actions of His creations, thereby earning them Gan Eden --- but the earning of Gan Eden on their part, that is, their eventually connecting to Him, that is the purpose of the world.

If you learn Chasidus after you have a strong background in Torah machshava, you will understand them; if you learn them without a strong background in the basics of Torah maschshava, not only will you misunderstand what you read, you also may fall into Kefirah.

The Tanya in particular was designed for the talmidim of its author. It is great for us to learn these seforim, but we have to know the background information needed to properly understand them. You have to walk before you can run.


....The Tanya implies no such thing. The Tanya talks about the "tachlis" of the creation, not Hashem's motive for making it. Other seforim also phrase the issue that way - they do not say that this was the motivation for Hashem but rather the tachlis habriah. Big difference. If I were to tell you that the tachlis of a car is so people can drive around in it that would be true, but thats not what motivated the manufacturer to create it - his motivation is to make money.
Everything the Tanya says about "hester oro" and malchus and things like that all apply only after Hashem decided to bestow goodness on others. Now the question is, if you look at the world, the "car" that Hashem made, what is its tachlis?

If you look at a car you will discover that its tachlis is clearly to drive people around. And if you look at the world the same way - through the eyes of the Torah - you will find that its tachlis is for Hashem to have a dira b'tachtonim. And He needed a dirah b'tachtonim in order to fulfill all the things the Tanya said he did. But all that applies after Hashem decided, for purely altruistic reasons, to bestow good on others, He then and only then needed kivyachol, a dirah b'tachtonim, in order to fulfill His own, self-determined goal.

But that does not chas v'sholom mean that Hashem's motive was in order to gain something for Himself.

To say that, is pure kefirah. Hashem is perfect and He does not and cannot gain. Whatever answers anyone gives to this question, the answer cannot be that Hashem gained anything for Himself by creating the world. The only beings that gained by Hashem creating the world was us.

Hashem created the world in order for Him to succeed in His decision to bestow good upon others. In order to succeed in His decision, Hashem needed a dirah b'tachtonim - thats what the Chazal - and the Tanya - mean. Its not that Hashems decision was made in order to have a dirah btachtonim but rather Hashem needed a dirah btachtonim in order to fulfill His decision. The "need" only existed after Hashem decided it should. But the decision was not in order for Hashem to gain. The only beings that gain from creation, is us.