Let My People Know

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “Destroying a system of order.”

Free will is an element of disorder.

It is also the only element of advancement.

Any kind of movement is a way of destroying a system of order.

Walking, for example, is becoming unstable.

Running is becoming even more unstable.

Flying in a plane creates a different kind of instability; the plane becomes less and less stable until it takes off, and then it restabilizes and gains equilibrium.

Movement destroys equilibrium all the time; the power to move is also the power to destroy order.

The imperfection is inherent, because I am the only creature that has independent volition, and the only creature in the universe that can distort.

These distortions are part of our common human work for coming to a higher point, because other creatures, seemingly, cannot move of their own volition, and we can.

And being able to move means that we can move in different directions.

We don’t have the same biological point of view as other creatures; we are free of instinct—not entirely, but to a very great degree.

That is our power, and that is our downfall.

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz