Let My People Know

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “Man is not just one instrument. He is an orchestra.”

The higher one gets, the more one sees the unity, until there is one point at which all souls become one.

The lower one descends from that point, the more differences appear.

In regard to this we must remember that man, with all his weaknesses, is a many-sided being.

Man is not just one instrument. He is an orchestra.

Because of this, we are not all alike—we are all different combinations.

In a certain way each man is all the world.

It is written that when the Lord said, “Let us make man in our image,” it was something that he said to the whole universe.

“Let us make man.”

Each being contributed, and that is man.

He has something of everything.

All of us are combinations, and the difference between us is that some of us are more lions and some of us are more foxes, but all of us are combinations of everything.

The problem is to have this universe of beings, which is our being, work together.

How to make the orchestra play together.

It is done in so many different ways, and each way is unique.

I cannot pass my way on to someone else because his way is slightly different, even when we seem to be alike.

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz