Let My People Know

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “God is found in everything and everywhere.”

God created the world and man in order to have “a dwelling place
below”10 which, to quote Ecclesiastes (12:13), “is the whole [purpose
of] man.”

God is found in everything and everywhere, including the
lower worlds, and this reality is not dependent on man at all.

Moreover, from God’s perspective, there is no distinction between

the higher and lower realms.

Therefore, the concept of “a dwelling place below” refers
not to God’s existence in the lower realms but rather to the fact that
His existence is revealed to man both consciously and emotionally.

The notion of lower realms as applied to the psyche of the human being
relates to a level of his intellect or emotion that does not perceive
the divine.

When a person becomes aware that God is present in
his ordinary state of reality, when he feels close to God, he creates “a
dwelling place below” for God, and as such he attains the great goal
of the existence of all worlds, from their beginning to their end.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz