We've been going through pesukim from Perek Shira and
today's is the song of the stars. It's a pasuk in Nehemiah 9,6:
אַתָּה־ה֣וּא יְהֹוָה֮
לְבַדֶּ֒ךָ֒ (את) [אַתָּ֣ה] עָשִׂ֡יתָ אֶֽת־הַשָּׁמַ֩יִם֩ שְׁמֵ֨י הַשָּׁמַ֜יִם
וְכׇל־צְבָאָ֗ם הָאָ֜רֶץ וְכׇל־אֲשֶׁ֤ר עָלֶ֙יהָ֙ הַיַּמִּים֙ וְכׇל־אֲשֶׁ֣ר
בָּהֶ֔ם
It's You, Hashem alone. You made the heavens and the heavens above
the heavens and all the celestial beings; the earth and everything that's upon
it (the animals and plants and whatever you see on earth) The oceans, the
depths of the seas, with all the various creatures and species.
The next four important words are the song of the angels. וְאַתָּ֖ה מְחַיֶּ֣ה אֶת־כֻּלָּ֑ם
/And You give them all life.
וּצְבָ֥א הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם
לְךָ֥ מִשְׁתַּחֲוִֽים׃ /And the
celestial beings bow down to You.
This is the stars which are attributed to the Mazal and all the events
that are going on. The stars are aware of what the Source of all life is, and
they say, and You give life to all them. This is a
very important principle, brought down by all the sefarim.
The Bet Halevi on Bereshit,
chapter two, pasuk 2, where he says, a person should not, heaven forbid,
entertain the idea that after God created the world, the world just continues
to run on its own, naturally. No, God is constantly pumping energy into it.
When God wants to punish somebody, He
doesn't need to do anything, He just needs to stop pumping the energy in,
whereas when a human being wants to punish, he has to do something. God
doesn't have to do anything new, He just has to
stop the energy that He was pumping in.
He says, this is the pasuk of
the angels of V'Atah MeHayeh Et Kulam/You're pumping energy into all of
them.
The sefer Nefesh HaChaim ( Shaar 3,perek 1) says that's the reason God is called 'Makom.' We
say, Baruch HaMakom Baruch Hu. God is the Makom because He
is the true Place, He is the space, so to say, that everything lives in.
And if God would, heaven forbid, remove His energy for just a moment, the entire
world would cease to exist. He says this is the foundation of Jewish belief:
Atah MeHayeh Et Kulam.
In Shaar 3 Perek 10, he says that this is why God is referred to as the Soul of all souls, and the
Root and the Foundation of all existence- because nothing exists without
God currently pumping energy into it.
Rav Yehezkiel Levenstein, in his sefer on Emuna, when he
talks about Yetziat Mitzrayim, says that this is a fundamental belief,
not just in the way we view creation, but the way we view ourselves. We
have no existence on our own. Our entire existence and all of our being
is only due to God's will. When you realize that and it really overtakes you,
then you realize that your whole existence is null and
void, and all that exists is God will, not just God's will in what's going
to happen to you, but God's will is your very existence.
It's different than, If God wills it, I'll make money, if God
wills it, I'll lose money; if God wills, I'll be healthy, or has v'shalom,
the opposite. No, there is no me if God doesn't will it. Rav Yehezkiel Levenstein stresses this
when he talks about Elul and he says that every little, tiny creature, a
mosquito, an amoeba, everything is there because Ata Mechaye et kulam/ God
gives it life. And all of the food and all of the nourishment, that's just
a cover up, that's just a facade.
We have to work hard and think hard to
free ourselves from the physicality that we see with our eyes. It looks
like we're doing things, like we're running things, like we're deciding things
and like we're working hard for our parnasa,
and like if we don't work, we're not going to get anything. But all of that
is a mistake, because it's Ata Mechaye et Kulam. The whole concept of You're
going to make money by the sweat of your brow was just a fine. It's just
a decree. Our job on this earth is to appreciate the message of the stars,
V'Ata Mechaye et Kulam, an extremely powerful, important message,
that nothing is here because it's here, but because God currently wills it to
exist and pumps the energy into it.
