Naturally Outrageous

When G‑d desired to create the world, He went for the most outrageous solution. With the power of His very Essence, He burst it into being out of the absolute void. And He continues doing so every moment.

He could have done things otherwise. He could have taken an orderly approach and allowed a creation to gradually evolve, while staying aloof and beyond the whole thing. Even though that doesn’t make sense to us, He could have made a universe with a different set of logic so that it would have made sense.

But as it stands, the world was created with an outrageous solution. That is why such solutions tend to be the most natural ones to this day. With all your essence, go for it head-on.

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Just Go Over It

Enter High

By Tzvi Freeman

From the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory; words and condensation by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman. Subscribe and get your dose daily. To order Rabbi Freeman’s latest book, Wisdom to Heal the Earth, click here.

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12 Comments

Avishai Barbourville, KY April 25, 2023

Ein Od Milvado-. There is nothing besides Him! Vanity of vanities, said Koheleth; all is vanity (thought). The words of Kohelet (1:2 )
But the Creator brings Order from Chaos and this is the “six days of Creation.”. Bringing Order is “good”. Bringing chaos via destruction, this is ”Evil”. Balancing these two aspects is the secret of form and maintenance of it. Sabbath.
So “Being” is the Creator, I AM, and He must keep everything balanced to prolong it. He does this through us. In the form of male and female, He gave us he active mode, but we couldn’t keep the balance and so tipped toward the chaos once again. We tried to act on their own, and chaos ensued.
We are One with the Creator, Being is our natural state. Just “BE”. Trying to fix things on our own creates more chaos and destruction.
All this takes place in “mind”, and is thought. Without thought, there is no mind; our world is basically sensation and its limitations. So, as they say, “Let go and Let God.” Reply

David Harold Chester Petach Tikva, Israel April 25, 2023

An outrage is a severe opposition to something that already exists. But before G-d created anything there was nothing but chaos. So, this explanation of outrage is impossible from using any logical terms, because an outrage can only come from its being against an orderly situation and not from one that has no definite form, as with chaos.
Was time flowing backwards at the creation during the 6-days? Reply

Ron Cohen Arad, Israel April 25, 2023

From the narrative the Almighty created a world of jumbled objects in a void, which he immediately set about establishing order. We are his partners in furthering this process to the coming of the true Mashiach. Thus:
אשר ברא אלוהים לעשות. Reply

Brenda Toronto, Canada January 21, 2018

Naturally Bad Attitude There was initially one simple light. G_d. Only love, bestowal, goodness emanated from Him.

He desired to provide joy, abundance to His creation. We have to learn how to function in mutual response. Otherwise we will react as a spoiled child.

For us to learn His Goodness, He created an evil inclination. He tricked us into thinking we are separate, individual, free-willed, creatures that must strive to preserve and receive for the self at all costs.

Only by reaching the worst level of divisions, conflict and hatred between us, will we consciously recognize this flaw He implanted in His creation.
Then only can we begin to correct our outrageously evil inclination and turn it into the good inclination - to pass the Light I receive to keep it flowing eternally through humanity. Those who correct first will spread the Light to all.

The world waits impatiently for the Light to start flowing! Reply

June McIntosh Mercersburg January 21, 2018

Love this. Reply

Anonymous January 21, 2018

How is it that we can define God's actions? Reply

Orna Wellman Toronto December 29, 2008

re: "outrageous solutions" Perhaps the words: "outrageous" and "solutions" have evolved into coloquial, mundane terms. Perhaps we must try, if possible, to immitate G-d's actions by constricting our own perceptions and comprehend a world where the actual act of creation is one of awe and wonder, so that "outrageous" can be defined as completely out of human range and understanding. The 'solution', then is the response to the questions of doubt of how the creation occured in the first place. Perhaps G-d planned a solution in order to prevent a problem - since He knew His species well, He perceived that problem and therefore created a solution in order to create eternal clarity and truth. Thus, the mundane and the awesome become truly synonomous. Reply

Tzvi Freeman Thornhill, Ontario December 28, 2008

some explanation It's cryptic, because that's the medium. But I'll try to expand--just enough.

We believe that G_d created something out of nothing--and that at every moment, He continues sustaining the world out of nothing.

Being G_d, however, He could have done otherwise. He could have step by step brought a world to emerge out of His presence. Perhaps we can't make sense of that--how can you go step by step from absolute unboundedness to a finite world? But if did do it that way, He could have made it make sense as well. After all, He's G_d.

But He didn't. He chose to create the world "suddenly"--for it to just emerge out of absolute nothingness.

When the Rebbe explained this (and the intellectuals listening really had their world shaken by it), he provided a practical application: Since G_d created the world this way, every good solution in the world will work in the same way. Don't go under it, just go over it.

Now read the thought again. Reply

Paul Bourgeois January 21, 2018

in response to Tzvi Freeman:

As I understand it, G-d created Nothing out of his own Essence (He cleared a space for existence), and then he extended himself into the Void (AYIN) in an orderly way. It is man which altered or broke this order, but the paradox is that all which is and all which is not is G-d. Reply

Carmen December 28, 2008

One of the "outrageous" definitions: "greatly exceeding bounds of reason or moderation".

Is there another way to step higher than the way above defined? Reply

Anonymous January 21, 2018

in response to Carmen:

Yes. You can always step further than what is defined. Reply

Miriam December 28, 2008

Outrageous? How so? Why do you use the word "solution" as if there were a problem?

When you make something, does that mean there is a "problem"? Maybe you just felt like making something. Why use the word "solution" when there is no problem?

And why do you say that the way Gd did it was "outrageous"? It sounds perfectly natural to us. We've heard it all our lives. You don't give us a reason to think it's "outrageous". I don't get it.

The account in Bereshit doesn't say "burst," and we don't know that "tohu vvohu" means "void" either, since those words never recur.

This post seems more cryptic than usual. At least, I am not getting it. When I read the account of creation in Bereshis, I see nothing outrageous and I see nothing bursting. Most importantly, I see no "problem" and therefore no need of a "solution". Your injunction at the end is supposedly derived from Gd's creation technique but I am not convinced that Gd's creation was outrageous. Reply

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