Together

We’re always getting together. We celebrate, join clubs, form leagues, “friend” people on Facebook, arrange play dates, schedule meetings, participate in after-school activities, throw parties, join parties, shop, make plans, do lunch, watch the game, camp out, go to a museum, go to the zoo, play video games, host, attend, give a shower (bridal or baby), organize, enter, sponsor, volunteer, chew the fat, call, email, text, message, Skype, tweet, post, comment, chat, follow, blog and go bowling.

            Today, seemingly, we have a greater ability to “love your fellow as yourself” and to unite with one and other than ever before. With 2.41 billion monthly active users connected through Facebook and five billion people worldwide hearing each other on mobile devices, the world has become, if not one big family, at least one big community center. The Internet has enabled us to extend our connections beyond our inner circles to circles conceivably as wide as the whole world.

            Our differences, on the other hand, breed conflict: mass shootings; terrorist attacks; religious intolerance; anti-religious bias; rancorous politics; nativism; political correctness; epidemic divorce rates; cyber bullying; racism; hate crimes; anti-Semitism; sexual harassment; nuclear tensions; war. Nature works against harmony. The world’s vast diversity creates an environment susceptible to clashes. No two things are alike in this world. Every life form carries its unique DNA, rendering multiple varieties of each creation and multiple ways of thinking, doing and being. There are 350,000 known species of beetles alone (and over 30 kinds of Coke)! It’s hard to keep all this multiplicity floating in the same, peaceful boat.

            The tension between the urge to connect and the fear and hatred provoked by our differences is natural. The world was created this way – on purpose. G-d created a world full of innumerable, seemingly autonomous creations, all of which are in truth one with Him and, consequently, with each other. We only see the objects, though, and not the unity, because the Creator conceals Himself from the Creation. In his work, the Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi provides an analogy to explain the separate-yet-unified world G-d created.

            Consider the sun and its rays. The ray in the atmosphere and on earth appears to be independent of the sun. But, of course, the ray can be tracked back to the sun, its source. The ray’s state of being in the body of the sun is different than its state outside the sun. In the sun, the ray merges with its source to the point that it can no longer be called “ray.” Because the ray is only the sun’s radiation and not the sun itself, it becomes nullified in the body of the sun. The only place where the ray is seen to exist is in the space between the sun and the earth where the body of the sun is not present.

            The world is like the ray of the sun. It appears here as light issuing from G-d. But in its source the world becomes nullified to the Divine light. The ray of the analogy, however, differs from the world in one significant way. Where the ray can be seen, the sun is absent. G-d, on the other hand, is everywhere, even in the place of the world. The world, then, is always one with G-d, even here where it appears to be independent. He hides His presence, though, to render us unaware of this constant unity so we can experience the world’s existence as separate from Him.

            The world of squirrels, condos, sunsets and cartoons G-d created is in actuality subservient to Him; but from our perspective the world is self-made and self-perpetuating. G-d designed a seemingly autonomous world because He wanted to make us partners in the ongoing perfection of His Creation. By concealing Himself from the Creation, by disguising His oneness with us, G-d enables us to help Him make the world a little more united. And every time we make a connection between two apparently disconnected things, we catch a glimpse of the One who holds it all together. Every purposeful act of unity demonstrates that the world is not random but interconnected by that oneness.

Although living in a fractured world can be painful, it’s comforting to know that we’re all in this together and that the reward for our efforts waits for us ahead. Our service of G-d in the darkness of His concealment readies us for the future when Mashiach will finally reveal G-d’s Infinite Light. We will then see with our very eyes how the entire world and all its multiplicity are bound to the Creator.

Today we improve the world by doing G-d’s will despite the lack of Divine revelation. In the Days of Mashiach we will serve G-d by knowing Him through direct revelation. But it won’t be until the Future Redemption that we will understand the greatness of our service in the darkness. Then, according to Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, we will long for the days of the Diaspora. We will sorely regret not having worked harder to serve G-d when doing so was a challenge.

One challenge is using technological innovations for the good. The Internet has definitely been used for both good and bad. It seems that the social network can be a force for good and might even be a prelude to the great experience we will share with the coming of Mashiach: “For then I will change the nations [to speak] a pure language so that they will proclaim the name of G-d, to worship Him with one resolve (Zephaniah 3:9).”

That will be some celebration. L’chaim!