HASHEM-----ain od milvado 2

MODERATOR Posted - 01 January 2001 15:44

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The reason everything has to rest on Hashem is that Hashem created the world only as an expression of His will. The entire world, time, space, everything, even though it seems to us to be made out of real stuff, is actually only made out of Hashem's thoughts, so to speak, or, in the words of the Posuk, Hashem's words.

"Forever, hashem, your word stands in the heavens" (Tehillim ). The word "Yehi" ("Let there be") actually became the universe. And whereas when we utter a word, after we utter it, we no longer have control over it, Hashem's word is like thought in that way, that He constantly maintain His word with His will.

The world exists, if you want to give a moshol, all in Hashem's mind. it's like Hashem imagines the whole world, people, plants, everything. If you imagine a world in your mind, it exists in the form of actual electrical impulses in your brain and stuff, but it's all part of you, and compared to you, it is not part of reality.

So too "Ain Od Milvado", there is nothing except Hashem. "This means nothing has true, intrinsic existence except Hashem" (Rambam Yesodei HaTorah 1:4).

So if you were to imagine a world in your mind, of course nothing could happen without you willing it to happen. So to when we say that hashem runs the world we don't mean that He overpowers all powers in the world to control it, but rather, the nature of the world is such that nothing can happen except by the will of Hashem.

Except, of course, Bechirah, which is a miracle. What it means is hashem has given those little creatures in His mind kavyochol the ability to act independently of His thoughts, and to make choices on their own. This is why a Neshoma - a "part of Hashem" - was necessary to give to a person in order for him to have free will. Because really, only Hashem Himself can actually do things in this world.