Divine Dreams

Think about your deepest wish. I don’t mean an ice cream sundae or new shoes; I mean something really close to your heart, a deep-seated desire that strikes at your very core.

Develop this idea, so that you’re imagining it in detail. Focus on it, emblazoning its image on the backdrop of your mind.

You know that this very important mental image is just a wish.

Now, how would you feel about someone who made it a reality? Can you imagine a deeper sense of gratitude?

According to Chassidic thought, ‘Divine Dreaming’ is what gives rise to our entire existence. G-d ‘craves’ something, and its ‘mental image’ is burned into the ‘Divine mind’. That’s why G-d created the world. Just to serve this ‘craving’.

[G-d obviously doesn’t have a ‘craving’ as we understand the sensation. ‘Craving’ is a Rabbinic metaphor for ‘deep-seated desire beyond our (human) understanding’. So read Craving as: Deep-Seated, Beyond-The Human-Ken Desire].

What is so monumental, so powerfully important, that it could grant G-d ‘Divine Satisfaction’?

You.

And me.

And our struggles to live the purpose of our Creation.

That’s what’s so valuable.

When G-d created the world, it was in pursuit of a ‘deep-seated dream’; and it is us.

You see, we all struggle. I try to avoid generalizations, but I believe it’s safe to say that morally-conscious people all struggle to maintain their Higher vision and balance. Maintaining a healthy perspective and balancing our values/priorities isn’t easy.

For some of us, it’s too many distractions. For some, it’s the existential distress that comes with having too few distractions. But, for all of us, a meaningful life has its price; it takes a struggle.

And that struggle is what G-d finds so precious.

In the Torah’s Creation-narrative, we find G-d’s creative process metaphorically depicted as Divine Speech: “Let there be Light”, etc.

So G-d spoke the world into being. But, thought usually comes before speech, so what was G-d thinking?

Our Sages say that G-d was conjuring a very deep-seated wish: That deep ‘Mental Image’ was you and I finding the strength to do the right thing.

Sometimes it’s “How do I deal with that annoying situation?” Sometimes it’s “I know I have that family responsibility, but I’m just too tired”.

Sometimes it will involve finding the moral strength to light Shabbat candles or lay Tefillin.

So, at any given moment, recognize that you have something productive to do. Remember that G-d contemplated this very moment.

And make His dream come true.