G-d is in need of man Bereshit, Genesis 1:1-6:8
Several years ago, I had trekked upon a glacier-like surface while I was visiting Iceland. Even though I was mesmerized by this event, I did not fully appreciate the effects of this experience since I was alone at the time.
I was unable to share the beauty and joy, which I had felt with another individual, which therefore left me feeling empty. If I had been able to bring another person to those magnificent ice fields, it would have led to a much more meaningful and significant undertaking.
Judaism teaches that there is one
G-d who created and sustains this world. It is important to note that despite our many human imperfections that without our existence, G-d would be left in solitude in this unending and borderless world, over which he rules.
Judaism also teaches us that our one G-d possesses many attributes and characteristics. G-d is everything from a judge to a warrior.
One of G-d’s greatest personal traits is his compassion for mankind. G-d loves all the people he has created and is constantly finding new ways to benefit, help, and forgive man. In the Torah portion of Genesis the commentators, inform us that when G-d created man and this world he did so because at that time creation was one of the many occurrences in which the creator was exercising his divine capacity for abundant compassion.
G-d possessed many good things, but his world was incomplete until he created man — a partner to share with G-d all the beautiful things in G-d’s lonely world.
Without having man as a co-partner in the creation process G-d, would have been left incomplete with an inability to share his goodness. G-d is in need of man in the same manner as man yearns for G-d. Either one without the other would be incomplete.
Judaism teaches that one day G-d will establish a kingdom with an abundance of many good things on Earth. When
G-d establishes this messianic kingdom, he will share the zenith of his light and the maximum of his goodness with all of us. Since G-d needs man in this world to come, G-d will never forsake the former and current residents of this world. In this future time, both man and G-d, through the Genesis process, will be whole and complete.
(This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association.)
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