G‑d set up the world in such a way that from the very beginning, there was a built-in movement towards healing, wholeness and transformation.

Our soul comes from the highest spiritual source but is vested in our body from the earth. We work through daily obstacles and challenges in this world to create a complete transformation from darkness to light.

This is the concept of geula (“redemption”). No other word could embody so fully this powerful transformative energy and the deepest possible peace, tranquillity, freedom and unity of the world, its inhabitants and everything in it.

In contrast is the state of galut (“exile”). No other word can encapsulate so fully the sense of constraint, darkness, resistance and confusion.

However, even if we feel stuck in our own lives at any moment—either from within or from external circumstances—we can take faith in knowing that this evolutionary process towards revealed good is on its way.

Sources: Chassidic interpretation of Gen. 1:2, see Kehot Chumash; Basi Lagaani; From Exile to Redemption, Kehot Vol 1.