Tzimtzum: Love implies freedom and responsibility

The ability to know and not use the knowledge. To give while giving up control. The greatest expression of divine self-limitation allows us our ability to choose, even as we choose against God. As the Hebrew mystics write so beautifully, “even at the very moment that you choose against God, God continues to love, support and breathe life into you.”

Choice, the ability to freely will our life path, is just one implication of our understanding of love. When you feel that you have internalized the notion of divine withdrawal in love, you all of a sudden realize that someone is waiting. God is waiting for you, for me, for humanity, to step up to the plate as a lover, partner and co-creator of world.

Love implies not only freedom but responsibility — awesome responsibility.

Remember Master Menachem Mendel who was asked by his students, “Rebbe (teacher), where is God?”
The master responds, “God is only where you let him in.”

The repair and healing of the world depends on our partnership with God. God steps back and says, “I cannot do it alone. I need you to be my messengers. Even more, I need you to be my eyes and ears and hands.”

– Dr. Marc Gafni