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Engaged

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Our job is to keep Him engaged. When the Creator’s mind is engaged, our world comes alive. It resonates with His presence. Miracles happen. If we lose His interest, He acts as though He is not there, as though He is sleeping. Madness breaks loose.

He needs to see things that interest Him happening down here. Something more than an everyday world going about its everyday stuff. More than the patterns and rhythms of the nature He created. Even angels singing His praises all day can get tedious after a millennium or so.

But an earthly being doing a G‑dly act—now that’s something to wake up about.

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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Discussion (11)
April 3, 2012
G-d has needs?
While I understand what you're trying to say, I think you should choose your words a bit more carefully. You make G-d sound impatient, and the fact that I'm writing this belies that notion ;-)
Ben
Da Atex
April 2, 2012
This is a nice idea on a global level in that as a nation, we should ensure we are engaging Gd by doing mitzvos. However, when something goes wrong in one's life, if one reads this, it just perpetuates the self-blame one may have anyway on something they are not in control of ie. gd forbid terminal disease.
Anonymous
new york
April 1, 2012
I disagree...
I firmly disagree that anything on this earth - human beings, animals, insects, plants, trees - anything at all would lose Hashem's interest. Hashem is concerned with every single thing that goes on in His world, from the well being of every individual on earth, to a single blade of grass, to the way the wind blows, to a single particle of water. Hashem is all-seeing and all-knowing.
Justin Roth
Staten Island, NY
January 19, 2010
Indeed Rabbi Rosenthal
The mitzvot are for our benefit, because G-d knows all, but isn't Keter, Desire? Desire is also a metaphor. It is a force that pushes forward. Desire is the will to act, is it not. Words are little traps sometimes.

All of Torah is for Man, and our perceived needs/desires/mitzvot is for our own sake. The Torah is a mirror from which we gaze upon our highest potential and at the center of it is the perfection of G-d.

Best
cecilia beltran
New York
January 19, 2010
This is Kefirah
G-d does not have needs or desires. He was perfect prior to the world and after the world was created - any action that Man does does not improve him.
As the Ramban says, The mitzvot are for OUR benefit - only!
Any expression of G-d having needs is a metaphor - "dibra Torah Bilashon Bnai Adam".
Rabbi Pinny Rosenthal
NYC, NY
January 19, 2010
A reality of life
His children haven't grown to adulthood. It is pleasant to see your children do something right, even when it is merely once and a while. Earthly living presents conditions that stymie Divine actions on this earthly plane of existence. However, when a child sacrifices a earthly pleasure for knowing G-d's certainty in an act resembles the charity of our existence. it is stimulating both below and above keeping the Holy Line alive drawing power directly and not by reflection.
Anonymous
Belleview, Florida
January 19, 2010
Keter
Dear Rabbi,

Yes, this is Ha- Erets! The first strong need. Where He desires to fathom the darkness and so generated light in His desire to know "the depths of the waters"--meaning consciousness, His own mind. And so the entire creation was born, so that His own mind will be known to Him. And so when a connection is made, a new creative event or creative thought He takes interest and light pours down. The usual, the mundane is all in G-d's lower realms, the natural world. It takes a bright luminary, a shift in mind, a breakthrough for miracles to happen. Because that is when G-d's spark ignites the mundane. This is how I understand it. Is it my active imagination or did I really get it?

Best Regards
cecilia beltran
New York
March 25, 2007
Reb Freeman, thank you for the clarification. Does it have to always be a drama? People die violently in dramas... Can't it be a comedy for a change?

Shoshana, I hear you, and it is inline with Isaiah. But very precious few people hear His world, and even fewer are receptive to it, even in the times of the Prophets, and at the time of Exodus. What about the rest of us? Are we of no iterest to Him? There seems to be some contradiction here...
Alex
March 24, 2007
for Alex
it is the love of that G-d wants from us. His wants and needs are designed so that we can better understand our duty to Him as people. He wants our love, He wants our respectand prayer. He is love and truth and we should freely give of oursleves to Him so that we can; in turn, recieve His love without reservation. If you can truly hear Him, and are truly receptive to His word, you are thus of interest to Him because you are, not just because He is
Shoshana
NJ/USA
March 23, 2007
For Alex
I used the word "needs"--but the need is not because He is lacking something. He needs because that is what He desired in His creation of the world--that it should be a real place with a drama that will involve Him.
Tzvi Freeman (Author)
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