Upon returning home from Kotzk, Reb Leibel Eger was asked by his father, Rabbi Shlomo, what he had learned during his time away. Reb Leibel replied, “I learned three things: a man is a man, and an angel is an angel; if a man wants it enough, he can be higher than an angel; and that God created the Beginning (Bereishis), but just the Beginning. Everything else, He left up to man to complete.

A person can sometimes think, “How can I be expected to improve the world through my effort when God created it just as it is? Why am I responsible for helping the poor and the hungry? If God made it the way it is, there must be a reason to leave it just as it is! If God made it as it is, perhaps I should go along and support the status quo.” The answer to these questions is found in the words of creation themselves.

The Bible does not say, “…what God created and did.” It says, “…what He created — to be done.” God’s ultimate intention and His expectations of human beings are “to be done.” We must search for those areas still awaiting our input, and through our effort, we fulfill the purpose of creation and receive the remuneration and blessings that come with this accomplishment.

Through their own effort, every individual has the ability to improve what is lacking and bring his surroundings to perfection “under the sovereignty of God.”

The first step in improving the world in its unfinished state is right there in the first few words of the Bible. “Beraishis Bara Elokim“; in the Beginning, (at the start of things every day), we must reveal the Godliness (a play on the Hebrew words – Bara Elokim) that exists in (to) the heavens and the earth. 

Whether it is “spiritual” in the heavens or physical and materialistic on “earth,” revealing the Godliness in everything peels away the element that is restricting holiness and full blessings. The surface we are forced to live upon in our existence is just that — a surface, superficial and no more than skin-deep. The surface is the lie (skin-deep appearance) most people are satisfied to live with!

One sure way of accomplishing this extra awareness and revelation of Godliness and spirituality is by starting the day with our prayers and meditating on how God is involved in everything down to the smallest particle. Otherwise, how would anything operate with such incredible design and precision?

A person must tune with the pure spark of Godliness within the universe, down at a level even deeper than the sub-atomic or the quantum state. Once a person connects with the deep truth that it is all God Himself, they will personally experience the security of a benevolent design of goodness in every aspect of one’s life. 

Observing Shabbat is the most outstanding assistance to succeed in this quest to reveal Godliness. “And Elokim (understood in mysticism as the power of concealment) ended on the seventh day.” 

While the entire week we are forced to work together with worldliness, the day of Shabbat is when Elokim, the force of restrictedness, is withdrawn, and we get a chance to vacation in an oasis of time or soul and spirit in peace and tranquility. A day with the source of creation, Himself.

Shabbat, when experienced as dictated by our Holy Torah, allows a person to refresh his mind and recharge his physical, emotional, psychological, and most critical spiritual batteries with his family so that the coming week is even more successful than the last.

Chapter 278  www.aspiritualsoulbook.com