God's Light

April 3, 2009
Rabbi Seymour Rossel

     The Zohar teaches us that when God decided, for God's own reasons, to create the universe, there was a problem. God is infinite, so God takes up all space. Where would the universe be created? Where was there a space that was free of God? And, if there could be a space that was free of God, how could God be present in the universe? The answer can be seen, the mystics say, along with all other answers that we need, in God's creation. In this case, the answer can be observed in how sunlight works.

     When sunlight reaches us, it is still sunlight. In a sense, it is still attached to the sun, taking the message of the sun to whatever place it reaches. More than that, it is also reflected. It reflects from the earth to shine from the moon, and still it remains the light of the sun. No matter how many bounces or changes or bends or reflections it may make -- in water or in mirrors, on faces or on leaves, through glass or through clouds -- the light is still the light of the sun, bearing the message of sunlight throughout our world, day and night.

     Understanding this special nature of light helps us explain the magical existence of God's universe. The Zohar says you can find this spiritual knowledge in the beginning of the Torah. God's first step in creation is to say "let there be light," but God does not create the sun and the stars until the fourth day of creation. If that is so, what is the nature of the light that God created on the first day of creation?

     The Zohar identifies this first light as a ray of God's own illumination. This is the most concentrated bit of God that would ever enter into the finite universe, the most powerful force that was ever created. Most scientists agree that the universe began this way. In their theories, they refer to this first outpouring of light as the "Big Bang." Scientists arrived at their explanation through observing God's universe; and that is how the authors of the first chapter of Genesis arrived at their theory. What they would all agree on is that the first light is potent, propelling everything that happened after that moment.

     For the mystics, this creation, the first point of light, did two things at one and the same time. It separated God from the universe, allowing for a space in which the infinite God would not be present. And it allowed God to enter the universe, the finite space, through God's messenger, light. But God's messenger was also God, in the same way that sunlight never ceases to be anything else but a bit of the sun. That is just the beginning of the magic.

     Now, take a prism and send a bit of sunlight into it and out comes not one ray of light, but a rainbow of colors, a whole spectrum of the many wavelengths that are always contained in the one ray of light. The Zohar says that this happened to the first ray of light as soon as it entered the finite space we call the universe.

     That first ray of light divided ten times, creating a kind of tree of light that the mystics call the sefirot. Taken together, these ten divisions of the first light formed an image -- an image in the shape of a human being, but only an image. This first image contained in itself the message of God, the shape was enormous, as if it were a constellation formed by stars that are millions of light years apart. And yet it was all connected to the first point of light.

     The mystics call this first image created by the ten sefirot, Adam Kadmon, the "Original Adam." This was the image that Ezekiel saw riding in the heavenly chariot of his vision. This was the image that spoke to Moses in the light of the fire of the thorn bush that burned and was not consumed. This is the image that we speak of when we say that we human beings are created "in the image of God." It is in this sense that the Zohar says that we human beings are the beginning and the end of God's creation.

     Because this is just an image, you should always remember that it is a metaphor. It is not a physical image, so scientists will not ever eventually find it. It is a way of speaking about the outpouring of light, the same way that you may see a shape in the clouds, while others, looking at the same clouds will see some other shape, or no shape at all.

     Of course, this was just the beginning of creation. But now, it was the image that continued to divide and reflect its light, creating world after world, being after being. And all the worlds and all the beings in the worlds that were created are all reflections of the first point of light, just like the whole unfolding universe continues to be the ongoing result of the first Big Bang.

     The Zohar speaks of worlds of angels and worlds of demons, things we no longer consider "scientific," but it does not matter. We still speak of many things that cannot be seen, but can only be felt. We speak of love and respect or honor and treason of loyalty and frustration and enlightenment and psychosis -- and we can see none of these and find no science to observe them directly. They are our angels and they our demons. All of these are images, metaphors, ways of speaking about the condition of our souls and the things that motivate our bodies.

     You may feel a bit overwhelmed by this idea that everything you see around you is created of light. At first, it may seem improbable that light can have density and thickness and dimensions that can be measured. It may seem unlikely that the tree which gives you shade from light is itself made up of light. So the Zohar suggests that you think of this in another way. All you have to remember is that the original light of creation is God's "breath."

     In the beginning, the Torah says, there was a mass of material which was tohu va'vohu, "unformed and disorganized." And there was a kind of water which was just called tehom, the "depths." But above that mass of material and that depth of formless waters, there hovered the spirit, the "breath," of God, ruach Elohim. When God chose to express that breath, to bring form to all things, God chose to do so through light.

     If you could only see one another truly, you would see that you breathe God with every breath you take, the still small voice inside you is another breath that is your inner light. You may be on Atkins or the Hollywood Diet, but that is merely a matter of bringing the mass of you into a form more pleasing to your eyes. The true light of you is inside and shines out whether you are thin or fat, bent or straight, handicapped or not. All you are is light and everything around you is also light. And all of it is the breath of God.

     See yourself this way and you can be proud of your heritage. So long as you behave according to the laws of light, you choose the life that God chose for you. It is only when you choose darkness and chaos by behaving in ways that cause pain and suffering to others that you lose a bit of the brilliance that God has given you. But if you act according to the highest standards of being human, you act in the image of God and your light brings light to yourself, it reflects from the inward spirits of your children, and it is reflected by all those with whom you spend time. You are God's light in the world.

     And let us say: Amen.