Let My People Know

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “The individual is the axis around which all reality revolves.”

From one perspective, a person should see himself as the center and essence of the universe.

“I and He” – that is the reality.

The human self and the divine self unite with each other, and God is currently involved only with me.

This is not an expression of human egoism, but is a part of divine service.

The service is not to regard oneself as the center of the world.

Rather, one’s task is to bear the responsibility that is implied by this.

As the center of the world, the individual is the axis around which all reality revolves.

All creatures and all actions come toward him from all directions, and he determines their significance and the direction in which they are to flow onward.

This is what “the world was created for me” means: not that everything was made for me, but that I am responsible for all of reality and everything that happens in it.

If I am the center of the world, this means that I and my actions, for better or worse, determine the nature of all reality.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz