Estimation, Impression, And The Meaning Of Life

MyLife Essay Contest

Based on Chapters 10-13 of The Gate of Unity of Rabbi Dov Ber Shneuri (Shaar HaYichud of the Mittler Rebbe):
A person is born. The first part of his life is the subject of continuous and tumultuous struggle for stability. He becomes aware of his dream and he works toward its implementation. Eventually, we hope, the uphill climb levels out, and a person lives. A pattern, a rhythm, arises. Years pass. Decades. For many people, a feeling of sadness, or emptiness, can arise. Once, there was a dream. This dream was a deep desire, from the essence of the soul. Now, there is repetitive action. But can one truly be expressed through a physical, limited world? Can action bring fulfillment to the soul?

Chassidic philosophy says yes. If it is good enough for G-d, it is good enough for you. Chassidus teaches that G-d also has a dream, and this dream became our physical world. And he’s very happy with it, or at least he knows that it’ll work out in the end.

Chassidus gives us a degree of understanding of the process by which an infinite and unknowable G-d can express himself in a very deep way through a limited creation. Our sages teach us that one of the reasons why man is called by the word Adam (אדם) in Hebrew is because of its connection to the word similar, domeh (דומה). “I am similar to the supernal”, “אדמה לעליון “. It is the thesis of this essay that through our applying within ourselves that very same process we will be able to find deep meaning and fulfillment in even the repetitive and mundane day-to-day duties that comprise the passage of our lives.

In particular, three critical, initial levels of divine revelation spoken of in Chassidus will be focused on: Kadmon (קדמון) – estimation, Reshimu (רשימו) – impression, and Tzimtzum (צמצום) – compression, as these concepts are presented in Shaar HaYichud (שער היחוד), The Gate of Unity, of Rabbi Dov Ber Shneuri, know as the Mittler (Middle) Rebbe.

The Mittler Rebbe explains in chapter 10 that first, there was an estimation. G-d decided within himself exactly what he wanted to do.

One analogy for this estimation is the ability of a person to move. When a person decides he wants to move he first estimates within himself exactly how this particular movement will be revealed from his general ability to move. This particular movement which comes out first existed within his ability in all of its particulars. However, it is a truism that the ability to move is not a movement. Otherwise, a person who possesses the ability to move would constantly be moving. Likewise, before he moves, even the specific estimation of exactly how he is going to move is not a movement at all, and we are left with an interesting paradox. On the one hand, the movement which occurs was certainly preceded by the ability to move, but within the ability there is no movement. The question arises: can it be that this physical movement is an expression of an unlimited and non-corporeal ability to move? Another analogy that the Mittler Rebbe brings is from a kind person. His ability to be kind is not an actual kindness. At the same time, though, every kind act which he does is first measured with all of its particulars within his power of kindness.

In chapter 11, he quotes a phrase from the introduction of Eitz Chaim: “When it arose within G-d’s will to create the world”, and comments that certainly the reason why it arose within His will to do an act of kindness, namely creating our world, “היינו רק כי חפץ חסד הוא בעצמו “, this is because He, within Himself, is one who desires to do kindness.

But how can His infinite, unknowable, and undefinable kindness be expressed through a very limited creation? This same question can be asked on the ability of kindness of a person, and is what is at the heart of this feeling of emptiness that this essay is about.

A person has a soul. This soul has a dream. For example, a person who wants to be a teacher to give something of true value to a student, and watch him grow. This desire exists within the essence of a person’s soul, within the deepest levels of his being. Before he reveals this dream in a particular way, he measures within himself in a particular way exactly what he wants to happen. Being that everything is over there, it would seem that there is very little change between before the dream is revealed and after, but in fact there is an enormous difference.

As the fulfillment of the dream is measured within the person’s soul, it is so vividly clear that this whole process is a direct revelation and fulfillment of the essence of who he is. Aside from being a preparation for outside, it is right now inside. It is not separate from him. Every detail is so obviously him. Even the smallest, most insignificant act that he is prepared to do is, at this point, so obviously full of meaning. The light of his soul completely illuminates all of the means of self-expression. To speak in terms of the earlier analogy, it is not a movement because he hasn’t moved, it is not a kindness because he has not been kind; it is not teaching because he hasn’t taught. Even this estimation is really just a revelation of who he is.

Then he moves. The dream becomes reality. And the reality becomes routine, and routine becomes painful. He gives a lecture, a test, one year passes, and another. For many people this does not become painful, rather every day continues to be full of meaning. But for many it does. What goes wrong? As this action was estimated within himself, it was an absolute good. Why does that change after the dream turns into an action, if this whole action was in the dream?

This leads us to the Reshimu, the impression. Before we begin an explanation of this idea, it is important to point out that the Reshimu is definitely not to be compared to the final action. However, being that it is the beginning, any limitations that it posesses will also be found in all that follows it, including the final action.

In chapter 12 the Mittler Rebbe gives some analogies for the Reshimu. The first and primary analogy is of the transmission of a deep idea. Take, for example, a Rov, an authority on Jewish law, who is asked by an unlearned layman whether a particular chicken is permitted to be eaten according to Jewish diatary laws. The Rov has a very deep understanding of all the complexities and controversies that pertain to the permissibility of this chicken. But the questioner can’t understand them, so the Rov tells him simply: “You can eat the chicken.” To paraphrase the Mittler Rebbe: “The whole breadth and length of the idea is in his intellect, but he conceals it when he says the law in short.”

This legal ruling exists in two states. First, it exists within himself. At that point, these letters are full of the light of his intellect; he sees within them all of his wisdom that pertains to this question. This is a problem, for if the light is there, if the full depth of his understanding is communicated within his response, the layman will not understand it. And then he says these words and it is understood.

This can be tied in to the human condition under investigation. Within himself, these words are an absolute good. But in these same words afterwards something is different. As before, many will find in this answer that they give deep satisfaction. But many will be pained how such a beautiful idea was so thoroughly and brutally truncated. But its the same words, coming from the same place.

The difference between these two people is in their tzimtzum, how they remove the light. When G-d removes the light from the letters of His expression, we say that the tzimtzum is not literal. Really, all the light is still there, just that to us, the recipients, it is hidden. The Mittler Rebbe brings the analogy of a teacher giving over an idea in short, in such a way that everything is included in this summary. Obviously, it is not all spelled out openly, otherwise it wouldn’t be a summary. Rather, the teacher sees within the summary the whole magnitude of his understanding. When the lessening is done in this way, the soul sees within this limited expression everything that it is trying to reveal. Or, to address the issue at hand, when the person sees within the action the full light of his dream, he finds happiness in his actions.

The key issue, then, is to explain how a person can transfer properly from his soul to his action in this three part process of Kadmon, Tzimtzum, and Reshimu.
The first thing that a person has to do is regenerate his day to day, rote actions within his soul in a way of kadmon. He has to reconnect with these qualities that he possesses and is trying to express, and measure within himself how it could be expressed in this manner. At this point, the only thing that it is important to achieve is the clear awareness that this is something that expresses himself in a perfect manner.

The next step is to remove the light, and leave behind a reshimu. As in the analogy of the Rov, the world is not able to recive the full light of his soul. His essence is not revealed in the action. But it is important to bear in mind and to see within the physical reality that this concealment is only to the outside viewer. He has to work to see that in truth, nothing has changed, and that his dream, the expression of his soul, is still extant, and is completely expressed in this seemingly meaningless shell.