Naturally Outrageous - Daily Dose of Wisdom

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

Based on letters and talks of the Rebbe, Rabbi M. M. Schneerson

From the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory; words and condensation by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman. To order Rabbi Freeman’s book, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth, click here.

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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.

Orna Wellman
Toronto

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.

Tzvi Freeman
Thornhill, Ontario

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?

Carmen

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.

Miriam