God My Shadow

To say that Yosef is the key to success is an understatement, especially in this millennium. For, the sixth millennium is governed by the sefirah called “Yesod”, which according to Kabbalah is said to correspond to Yosef. The energy of this 1000-year period is based in that which drove Yosef HaTzaddik; if we harness it, we can achieve success as he did.

 

This is why our generation is witnessing the availability of success like never before. Technology alone makes it possible to accomplish in a year what it used to take an entire life to achieve in the past. Furthermore, Yesod is the basis of redemption as well, which is destined to be initiated by a descendant of Yosef, Moshiach Ben Yosef. That power has to be available in this millennium as well, as it was in Yosef’s lifetime, if we follow in his footsteps.

 

To this end, there is a remarkable sefer that has existed for some time, though not learned as thoroughly as it ought to be. It is called “Nefesh HaChaim”, written by Rabbi Chaim Volozhin (1749-1821). Rav Chaim was the main disciple of the Vilna Gaon and the founder of the Volozhin Yeshivah in 1802, the most important and most influential Jewish institution in Lithuania. In Nefesh HaChaim, Rav Chaim’s philosophy is expounded where he emphasizes the power of Torah study and fulfillment of mitzvot to bring a Jew close to God.

 

That is not all Rav Chaim emphasizes. Rather, Rav Chaim reveals how incredibly powerful and empowered man is, having a soul that is comprised of all the upper worlds, and how, because of our lofty soul, we have more to do with the direction of Creation than we think:

 

King David said, “God is your shadow on your right side.” (Tehillim 121:5). Just like a shadow moves in the direction of the thing that casts it, so too does God cause the worlds to “shadow” the actions of man. The Midrash explicitly states: God said to Moshe, “Go and tell the Jewish people that My name is, ‘I will be what I will be’.” What does “I will be what I will be” mean? It means that, just as you are with Me, that is how I will be with you. This is what David meant when he said that “God is your shadow”, for just like with a shadow if you laugh, it laughs; if you cry, it cries; if you present an angry or happy countenance, it will do likewise. Thus, too, is God your shadow: as you are with Him, that is the way He will respond to you. (Nefesh HaChaim, Ch. 7)

 

What an amazing concept. This is not the way the average person looks at the world or God in it. Rather, they see it as the other way around, that we are God’s shadow so-to-speak, meaning that He decides what has to happen, and we respond to that. We can be in a great mood, but if He is angry, then watch out; our outlook takes backseat to His.

 

However, the Nefesh HaChaim is saying just the opposite. He is saying that all the power, all the good or the “bad” that we see coming from God, originates with us. He is responding to us. We think that we are not smiling because He stopped smiling first when in fact it is us who stops smiling first, and only then does God change His “mood” towards us.

 

This point shows up, albeit in a subtle manner, in the following account in the Torah, when Avraham is bargaining with God over the destruction of S’dom. Avraham was able to bargain God down from fifty righteous people to ten, at which point Avraham thought that he had gone far enough. “Less than ten people could not save the world in Noach’s time,” Avraham thought to himself, “so how can less than ten save the city of S’dom from imminent destruction?”

 

Was he right? We’ll never know because Avraham never asked. However, what is amazing is the sequence of events that took place at the conclusion of the bargaining session. Did God say, “That’s as low as I’m going” like any merchant who has hit bottom dollar? No. Instead, Avraham just stopped bargaining and walked away, and only then did God leave, as Rashi says:

 

As soon as the counsel for the defense had nothing more to say the judge left as well. (Rashi, Bereishit 18:33)

 

This seems to imply that God had been waiting for Avraham to make the next move, almost implying that asking for less righteous people to justify saving S’dom might have worked. However, once the counsel for the defense ended his plea bargaining, the judge seemed to say, “Well, if he’s done, then I am as well.”

 

So, S’dom was destroyed, and seemingly rightly so (nothing is by accident), but that is not the point. The point is that God had waited for Avraham to make the next move, and only after Avraham had decided in which direction He wanted to go, God “shadowed” him and went the same way.

 

To be continued

 

    

(Author, lecturer, and scholar Rabbi Pinchas Winston is the director of ThirtySix.org. His book Be Positive is available for purchase online)