Said Rabbi Elazar: Every man was created in order to toil, as it is written, “For man is born to toil”(Job 5:7). I still do not know, however, if he was created for the toil of the mouth or for the toil of work; when the verse says, “[The toiling soul…] his mouth compels him,” this tells me that he was created for the toil of the mouth. I still do not know, however, if he was created for the toil of Torah or for the toil of speech; when the verse says, “This book of Torah should not depart from your mouth,” this tells me that he was created for the toil of Torah – Talmud, Sanhedrin 99b

Labor Day in America – which informally marks the end of summer and the beginning of the work and school year – always falls out in the days preceding Rosh Hashana.

Quite fitting since Rosh Hashana is the collective birthday of the human race, when we begin a new cycle of life and assess anew our mission – the purpose of all our labor in this world.

Previously we explored the roots of work, its vices and virtues, and the need to permeate our material labor with a higher spiritual calling.

Let us now review the actual nature of our labor and how we can ensure that our work be connected to its higher purpose.

The Talmud tells us that there the human being needs to be involved in three types of labor: the “toil of work,” the “toil of speech,” and the “toil of Torah.”

On a most basic level the human being, created in the Divine image, has the power and the need to create. We are not merely passive recipients accepting the status quo around us, but through our hard work we have the ability to change the world in which we live. Only when he toils does man have full satisfaction and pleasure. As our sages tell us, “a person desires one measure from his own labor more than nine measures [given to him as gift] from another.” Effortless gain is called “bread of shame.”

The “toil of work” allows us to become partners with G-d in existence. When we plow and seed the earth to coax nourishment from it, when we forge wood, stone and other materials into a home, when we distill energy from matter, we are working. This is toilsome work, for we are combating the inert state of these “raw” materials. It is G-dly work, for we are furthering His enterprise of forming an ordered and civilized world out of an initial state of “chaos and formlessness.” We are fulfilling the divine will expressed in the verse: “He did not create [the world] for chaos; He created it that it be settled.”

A higher level of partnership is achieved when we introduce our “speech”—our capacity for creativity—into shaping the world around us. When we redefine reality by communicating our experience of it to others, when we speak ideas into being, when we dialogue and communicate with each other, we add a new dimension into existence, just as G-d spoke the world into existence. On this level, we are partners with Him not only in that we are both contributors, but also in that we are both creators.

The “toil of speech” does not just develop existing material resources, but it adds the synergetic creativity that comes through communication.

Finally comes the “toil of Torah,” the effort to impose a higher, supra-natural reality upon the world by implementing the divine will, as expressed in the Torah, in our daily lives.

In other words human creativity has three dimensions: The “toil of work” – what we contribute through our labor in developing existing resources. The “toil of speech” – a new dimension introduced through our creativity. The “toil of Torah” – which creates transcendent energy, reaching beyond human creativity.

For our labor and toil to be healthy it has to include all three forms of work: development, creativity and transcendence. Only then can our labor be aligned with its higher purpose and lift us to great heights.

Divorced of these three dimensions – as in labor that is driven primarily for profit or other motives – labor will crush us with its sheer weight. Materialism on its own is a “land that consumes its inhabitants.” Witness all the corruption resulting from human greed and narcissism.

Note as well that the order of the three labors is also precise. The latter two forms of toil (speech and Torah) are not sufficient. One must begin with physical work, the “toil of work.” Indeed, most of our time is spent immersed in material labor. Our actions have the power to transform the universe. Yet, for the work to be complete and connected with our higher calling, we need to complement the “toil of work” with the “toil of speech,” our creativity and communicative skills, and above that – the “toil of Torah,” introducing spiritual transcendence into our material activities.

So, as a Labor Day exercise as well as an Elul exercise, ask yourself: Does my life include these three types of labor? Is my material work integrated with the other two forms of toil, or am I completely overwhelmed by my job and career?

Am I working only to survive or only for profit? Does my work have any higher purpose?

On Rosh Hashanah we will have a rendezvous with destiny – we renew our contract with life and embrace anew our mission statement.

Now is the time to review and realign the balance of your activities. If you are too immersed in your material labor, now is the time to introduce the other two dimensions. Find ways to use your work to help make the world a better place. Volunteer your time and skills to virtuous causes. Infuse your work with a refined sense of ethics. Be a mentsch.

What better way to prepare for the cosmic birthday coming up?

To Become Divine

To get a small taste of the radical impact of the different views on the Tzimtzum (the Divine concealment in existence discussed in A True Relationship) just read The Politics of God by Mark Lilla (excerpted here in the New York Times a number of years ago)..

In a comprehensive fashion Lilla maps out the history and evolution of religion and its role in running the world. The tense relationship between faith and governance, and the terrible bloodshed that it brought about, among other reasons, resulted in the development of new philosophies regarding the role of religious belief in modern society.

Lilla describes the fallacy of the Enlightenment’s expectations and predictions that society was on a “one-way track toward modern secular democracy and that other societies, once placed on that track, would inevitably follow.” Promoters of modernization took it for granted that “science, technology, urbanization and education would eventually ‘disenchant’ the charmed world of believers, and that with time people would either abandon their traditional faiths or transform them in politically anodyne ways.” This simply did not happen, and may never happen. On the other hand, political theology in the West no longer dominates modern society as it once did.

In the last few centuries different approaches developed to find some way to relieve the tension between faith and modernity. For Thomas Hobbes the rules of daily life must be separated from the laws of the Divine lest we risk rousing radical passions that will overrun society. “In order to escape the destructive passions of messianic faith, political theology centered on God was replaced by political philosophy centered on man.” Rousseau believed that religion ought to remain a potent force, but it must be stripped of its primitive principles and extreme political theology.

From West to East the shadowy ripples of the grand Tzimtzum’s black hole leave their mark in the rifts and tensions exposed by virtually every philosophy and school of thought. Whether it is Hobbes (and his descendants) compartmentalization between church and state (“the great separation” as Lilla coins it), or Rousseau’s (and his descendants) religious reform, tailoring it to contemporary standards. Or on the other extreme, radical religious passions, which now come in the shape of Muslim fundamentalism, mimicking its earlier Christian cousin, which for millennia dominated, if not terrorized, political life. All these positions – from one end of the religious spectrum to the other, and all the variations in between – make one thing very clear: No one seems able to make peace between a Divine mandate and the political realities on the ground.

And G-d will simply not go away.

However you twist it, G-d and daily life simply doesn’t get along. Is there a simpler way to define the grand Tzimtzum? Is there a more tangible expression of the Tzimtzum? Whether it is the literal or non-literal interpretation of the Tzimtzum, the Divine has a tenuous relationship with existence. The concealment and inaccessibility of the Divine defines the very nature of our political and religious history. When an entity (life) is out of touch with its mission, when substance is detached from spirit, when what you do is misaligned from who you are – you have a fatal rift.

Yet, the Tzimtzum is after all merely a state of concealment, not removal. Albeit, a profound and powerful concealment, which unleashed complicated tensions, but still, we have the power and role – our unique mission – to puncture the “black hole” and reveal the light within. We have the ability to bridge substance and spirit, to reveal their inherent unity and reconnect our material lives with its Divine purpose.

The cosmic order allows us to recognize the Divine properties within our material existence and actually enables us to integrate and align the two into one seamless flow. Substance and spirit – containers and light – join as one. Thus creating a full relationship between the human and the Divine – “I am to my beloved and my beloved to me.”

The question remains: How can we achieve total fusion of “I am to my beloved and my beloved to me” when the Divine Essence is a non-existential, independent, reality (metzius bilti metzius nimtza), completely beyond and diametrically opposite, in every way, of our existential, dependent, mortal existence. How then is it possible to unite these opposite realities? Given, we can unite with the Divine as it manifests in existence, but can we actually connect to the ultimate reality – the innermost essence of Divine reality, which we have absolutely no way of relating to?

The answer in one (Hebrew) word is: Bittul. This may be a foreign expression to some of us. Indeed, “bittul” is hard to translate into English, perhaps because the concept is outside of our mind-set.

Bittul is a combination of humility, modesty and selflessness. Bittul is the single most important ingredient in all growth and excellence, and the only way to achieve immortality: The ability to suspend your self – and self-interest – in order to channel that which is greater than you.

Every birth must undergo a metamorphosis in which a previous state of being recedes in order to allow a new state of being to emerge. A seed rots in the ground before it blossoms. Creativity is the child of frustration. Raw metal must be melted in order to shape it into a beautiful ornament. One layer of skin has to be shed before a new one replaces it. As the Kabbalists put it: Between two states of “being,” “itness” (“yesh”) there is a vacuum, a state of suspension (“ayin”). As long as the previous state remains intact, it can never fully access a completely new level of experience. The past will shape and (often) haunt the future.

This is what “thinking out of the box” truly means. All of us are defined by our subjective perspectives: The combination of our education, experiences and viewpoints. As great as that perspective may be, it still is our own defined perspective. Bittul is the ability to suspend your perspective – now matter how hard earned and developed – and allow in the possibility of another, fresh perspective.

In the language of the Chassidic masters: “Bittul” is the entity called “ohr” – light or energy. Light/energy is the powerful metaphor that the Kabbalah uses to describe Divine transmission. The Divine Essence (Atzmus) is beyond expression and definition, a “non-existential” reality (metzius bilti metzius nimtza). Light is the way the Divine expresses and manifests itself. Just like light is merely a reflection of its luminary, so too Divine light has no substance of its own, but it merely reflects and expresses its Source.

Any entity that has its own presence will express itself, and in doing so, it must conceal any other (higher) presence. Because it has no substance of its own, light illuminates, rather than darkens, the landscape with the presence of the luminary it reflects.

In other words: Light is bittul. The epitome of an entity that combines both substance and no substance: it has no substance of its own and always reflects its (luminary) source. Yet, by virtue of its utter and total bittul the Divine Light assumes and emanates the “personality” of its source. (see Light: Where the Existential Meets the Non-Existential). Precisely because of its transparent bittul (selflessness), with no “personality” of its own to get in the way, light purely reflects and channels the deepest “substance” of the source, including the “non-existential” “nature” of the Essence. In effect, the utter bittul of light becomes one with its source (“kodum ke’kadmuso), thus “carrying” the non-existential Essence into existence.

So this completes the circle: Light is the manner by which the Essence imparts its qualities to existence. This light will go through many stages of evolution: It will divide into the infinite light and the finite one, and then experience the radical “quantum leap” of the Tzimtzum, which conceals the light and allows for our independent consciousness. The light will then pierce the Tzimtzum as a narrow thread of light (kav), which in turn will undergo further stages of concealment and revelation.

And this light is also the manner by which we climb the ladder, reversing the steps and returning from matter to spirit, from the containers to the light. The defined “lights” and “containers” of the cosmic order allow us to pierce the Tzimtzum’s concealment and fuse the personality of our material existence with the Divine “personality” (in whose “image” we were created). We then climb via the kav into the pre-tzimtzum light, and that in turn leads us into the infinite (Ein Sof) elements of the Essence reflected in the light. Since light is completely selfless and only reflects its source, it ultimately bridges the final gap between the existential and the non-existential Essence. Ohr (light) is the final stepping stone bridging our mortal existence with the Divine.

Truth be told, bittul is necessary on all levels, to transform every level from the human to the Divine. But it is absolutely imperative, and in its ultimate form, in order to rise from the existential to the non-existential.

For us to fuse with the Divine – “I am to my beloved and my beloved to me” – we too must become like light. The process begins by first recognizing that every aspect of our material existence is a “means” – a “container” – for Divine light. We then transform and sanctify our material belongings and activities into spiritual forces, e.g. donating money to a good cause. Slowly we expose the Divine properties in every detail of the fabric of existence. The containers then become an extension of light, in turn becoming an extension of the Divine Essence. We thus convert the entire material world into a home for the Divine – a magnificent Divine tapestry reflecting the beauty of the Divine in the multifarious nature of existence.

Imagine how wonderful such a world would be.

The most critical ingredient to achieve such seamlessness is through bittul – to be like light whose entire being is to reflect a truth greater than itself.

All the attempts to either ignore or integrate religion into modern life, Lilla writes, conveniently avoid the single most important message of faith: You must change your life. But this message is the one people don’t want to hear. And therein lays the undoing of all the philosophies – from radical atheism to radical religiosity, from compartmentalization to liberal theology: As long as you want to live on your own terms, and even religion must fit into your defined framework, you will be left solely at the mercy of your limited resources; the most that you can expect is what your mortal life and subjective experience can offer. You, thus, can never truly integrate with the Divine (let alone with the Divine Essence). Absolute self interest simply does not allow in (in any complete way) anything beyond your self.

Bittul, however, selfless dedication to a cause greater than your self, opens up the door to the Divine, and ultimately to the Divine Essence.

Through bittul – absolute and utter devotion to the cause for which we were created, rather than our own myopically perceived need – allows us to become part and extension of G-dliness.

Then and only then do our otherwise pedestrian lives take on eternal, immortal and absolute meaning.

Is there a greater gift than that?

Love remains the most compelling and elusive issues of our time, and perhaps of all time.

How can I find a healthy, meaningful and above all, permanent relationship?

No adequate answer will be found to this question until we first understand what exactly a relationship is.

The word “relationship” means two things relating to one another. But what is the essence of a relationship? What makes a relationship work? What ingredients are necessary?

The secret of a relationship can be found in an unlikely place: The month in which we find ourselves now.

We have just entered the Hebrew month of Elul, the last month of the year. Every month has its own unique energy and power. Elul is the month of love and relationships. The sign of Elul is Virgo, and one of the acronyms of Elul is: Ani l’dodi v’dodi li, meaning “I am to my beloved, and my beloved is to me” (Song of Songs 6:3).

Ani L’dodi V’dodi Li captures the very essence of a relationship: It is mutually symbiotic fusion of two forces – I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me.

First there are two distinct personalities: “I” and “my beloved.” Then the “I” (my personality) takes the initiative and reaches to “my beloved.” In turn, “my beloved” responds “to me.”

Ani l’dodi v’dodi li emphasizes another vital aspect – that a relationship is a reflection: You and your beloved mirror each other. Like the face reflected in water, one heart [is reflected] in another (Proverbs 27:19). Love elicited is in direct proportion to love given. When “I am to my beloved” – “my beloved” will be “to me.” The same way that “I am to my beloved,” so will “my beloved” be “to me.”

Thinking of love as your reflection is quite extraordinary: Look into the eyes of your beloved and you will see yourself.

Finally, Elul’s Ani l’dodi v’dodi li teaches us that love is about initiating. First Ani L’dodi – I am to my beloved, and that is the catalyst for “my beloved to me.” Love is proactive, nor reactive or passive. If you want love in your life do not stand on the sidelines, “protecting” yourself from being hurt and wait for someone to love you. You must learn to give – to initiate, to love. And when you do – love comes back to you.

One powerful question, however, looms: How is it possible that two distinct entities should become one? Can they actually retain their distinct personalities and truly love each other? It’s one thing to say that for love we pay a price. The price is relinquishing independence and compromising your identity for the benefits that love brings. But it’s quite another to claim that love can be had without compromising individuality.

Yet, we are told that true love is unity, and true unity is the fusion of two souls in one seamless union, in which both remain intact while joining as one.

How that paradox is possible requires a journey into the mystery of Divine Unity (Hashem Echod), the theme of this column over the last few weeks.

The quest to discover Divine unity in a pluralistic universe is far thornier than the effort to build unity between finite creatures. After all, as different as two people may be, they still are both human, both mortal and finite, both with more similarities than differences, and both in need of love. G-d and the universe, on the other hand, are infinitely distant entities, that seemingly have nothing in common. Quite the contrary: they are diametric opposites: G-d is infinite, the universe is finite; G-d the invulnerable Creator, we the fragile creatures. Above all, our existential, dependent, existence is absolutely different than the Divine non-existential, independent, existence (metzius bilti metzius nimtza). How then is it possible to unite these opposite realities?

The entire study of Kabbalah and Chassidus – Jewish mysticism – comes to answer this very question; to teach us how humans can develop a relationship with G-d

The mystics lay out an elaborate system which allows us the ability to achieve Divine Unity (Hashem Echod) in the universe: Like “stepping stones” the process of creation, called the “cosmic order,” enables us to climb the ladder that marries heaven and earth, the human and the Divine – the finite and the infinite.

In an article titled The Kabbalah of Duality we discussed the first step in this process – the Tzimtzum concealment. In order for there to be a relationship we first need independence – an “I” who reaches to “my beloved.” In the presence of the Divine omnipresence no independent entity can arise. The Tzimtzum concealment allowed “room” for our independent consciousness to emerge.

However, the Tzimtzum is not “literal,” it is only a state of concealment, and it only affects the outermost layers of consciousness (light), not the higher states, and surely not on the unconscious level. [Yet, even the non-literal Tzitmzum is real, not an illusion, and the independent reality it creates is real, not just in our perception]. Hence, despite the concealment we always have the ability to connect and integrate our lives with the Divine light and the Divine Essence.

But the Tzimtzum only explains the possibility for potential integration, not how to actually achieve it. The non-literal Tzimtzum tells us that within existence we can find the Divine. But does existence itself have Divine properties?

To answer this question we need to dissect existence a bit. What exactly is existence?

Existence as we know it is comprised of various elements, but in its most basic form they break down into two forces: matter and energy. Every part of the universe, from the largest to the smallest, has a “body,” some form (physical or otherwise), and a “soul,” the inner power that defines the energy of the object. Matter is the “outer” layer and energy is its “inner” function and purpose.

Breaking it down further, both matter and energy are also each comprised of these two dimensions: The “body” of matter – its tangible properties, and the “energy” of matter – its shape, form and function: The “body” of energy – its definable personality, and the soul “energy” of energy – its deeper purpose.

Now the question is this: When we connect our lives to the Divine do we do so only on the spiritual (energy) level or also on the material (matter) level?

The argument could be made, as some schools of thought maintain, that the objective of life is to deny the material and transcend to the spiritual. Unity, then, is achieved exclusively on the soul level.

Even if we need to engage somewhat the material world, some suggest that at most we can channel the “function” of matter toward spiritual ends, but not the coarse matter itself.

At the other extreme, one could argue that even the spirit and energy of existence cannot be integrated with the Divine. At most the “energy” of energy can find some commonality with G-dliness, but not the “matter” of energy (its personality and form). A soul can unite with G-d only in a very general sense, but not with its distinct personality. Its must relinquish its individuality in order to become one with the Divine.

[All these viewpoints, mind you, are possible even according to the non-literal interpretation of the Tzimtzum, which only tells us that the Divine is present (albeit concealed) within existence, but does not inform us about the personality of existence, and thus, to what extent we can integrate the universe with the Divine. Let alone according to the literal interpretation of the Tzimtzum, according to which there is no direct relationship between our world and the reality of the Divine].

In the ultimate application of Divine unity, the mystics teach us – as emphasized in the works of the Chassidic masters – that the unity must permeate every fiber of existence, not just its spirit, not just its shape, form and function, not just in general terms. But every dimension of the universe – from energy to matter, from the matter of energy to the matter of matter – contains a Divine dimension that is waiting to be released.

They explain this with the elegant structure of the “cosmic order” comprised of “energies” (lights) and “containers,” which correspond with and are the root of the “energy” and “matter” of our universe.

By understanding the interplay between “light” and “container” and how each of them interact with their respective divine source, we can learn how to marry heaven and earth and integrate every aspect of our beings with higher purpose, ultimately with the Divine itself. The relationship between these forces teach us how to develop the relationship between our material bodies and souls, between our involvements in the physical worlds with our spiritual endeavors; we learn how to develop and expand our own material “containers” and fuse them with the “lights” of spirituality.

Beginning with the human soul shaped in the Divine Image, the mystics explain that the soul manifests and mirrors the Divine energy (light); each person’s soul is a reflection, a microcosm of G-d’s “personality.” And not just in a general sense, but the distinct personality of each soul is rooted in the distinct personality of the “lights,” which have defined properties (there are actually several opinions regarding the extent of these “light” properties, which reflect in different levels of the unity that can be achieved. But the final consensus is that the “lights” have individual properties, which allow our unique personalities to find divine expression).

Similarly, the spiritual forces within the material world can be aligned to their respective Divine roots, in all their glorious detail, rooted in the Divine light, the kav (thin ray of light) that pierced through the Tzimtzum, whose source is the light before the Tzimtzum, the Divine power to create the infinite (koach ha’bli-gvul).

That’s the soul. What about the body and the matter of the universe? The human body too was created in the Divine Image, and every aspect of matter is shaped by the “hand of G-d.” Not only “light” but also the “containers” reflect higher levels of the Divine. Not only the spirit but also the structure of existence is rooted in the Source with G-dlike features, which we have to reveal.

In mystical terms: The “containers” of existence are rooted in the Divine “containers” of Atzilut, which in turn are a reflection of the “containers” of Adam Kadmon, which originate from the (letters of the) reshimu, the residue that remained after but was unaffected by the Tzimtzum, rooted in the Divine power to create the finite (koach ha’gvul).

Now, when you take into account that “light” and “container” join together until they become one, we can begin to understand E=mc² – how energy and matter are actually one and the same.

This, briefly, is the way the Kabbalists explain how the very fabric of existence (matter and energy) can be integrated with the Divine. It’s not just that the Divine Essence, which transcends all definitions and structures, enables the fusion of matter and spirit. That would imply that the fusion is solely a result of the Essence’s power, despite the limits of existence. The ultimate purpose is that the universe, on its own terms and by the standards of its own parameters, contains the Divine. That is ultimate unity – not simply on G-d’s terms, but also on the terms of existence. Such unity can only be achieved when we recognize that in the personality of existence glimmers of the Divine.

Discovering the Divine within the properties of our universe is the most magnificent effort we can undertake, transforming life into a majestic journey.

The ultimate manifestation of Divine unity is in human relationships – in the ways of love and marriage. The “lights” and “containers” that teach us how we can fuse our lives with the Divine, teach us how we can discover true unity, while maintaining our individuality in our interpersonal relationships.

A good analogy for this is music: The power and beauty of a melody is dependent on each note maintaining its “individuality” and playing its unique sound. Simultaneously, each note is completely fused with all the others, all complementing each other, without in any way compromising each ones’ distinct identity. The same synthesis – harmony out of diversity – can be witnessed in the symmetry of every healthy organism and system, from the human body to the extraordinary design of nature.

A true relationship is total fusion of two – “I am to my beloved and my beloved to me.” Two distinct individuals, with different bodies and different souls, join together, in one seamless union. Neither is compromised or diminished. A transcendent power enables the fusion; but it also manifests in the individual personalities: as they remain intact they also recognize on their own individual terms that love – “I am to my beloved and my beloved to me” – is the ultimate expression of individuality.

In this month of Elul we have the opportunity to create, mend and renew relationships. May we use the month well, and may we all be blessed with experiencing “I am to my beloved and my beloved to me.”

One fundamental question still remains: How can we achieve total fusion of “I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me” when the Divine Essence is a non-existential reality, completely different and beyond our existential existence? Given, we can unite with the Divine as it manifests in existence, but can we actually connect to the ultimate reality – the innermost essence of Divine reality, which we have absolutely no way of relating to?

The answer is in: I Am to My Beloved and My Beloved Is to Me.