Every Moment Is a New Reality

I’d like to begin with a little bit of philosophy.  And the reason why I’m going to jump into some philosophy is because when we understand the philosophy behind ‑‑ or the mechanics, if you will, behind how the universe functions, it can help us tremendously in having the right perspective and the right mindset as we go through life.  And that’s why the philosophy I’m about to share is so fundamentally important and leads to a transformation in the way we experience moments in our life.

You know, there are many theories about how the world has reached the state that it’s at right now.  There’s a theory of evolution, Big Bang Theory, many different theories discussing how everything came about.  Every theory, though, all share one major problem.  And that one major problem is what some people refer to as the first cause or the causal argument.  And that is that, you know, with the Big Bang, we’ll say it’s some gases exploded and things evolved from there.  Evolution, you know, things evolved from one thing to the next to the next.  But the question that always remains is, how did the very first piece of matter come into existence?  What did it evolve from?

And if we say it evolved from something else, then it is not the original, the very first piece of matter, there’s something before it and what did that evolve from?

In layman’s terms, the first cause or causal argument is where did the very first thing come from?  And, of course, Judaism tells us, as the religion that brought monotheism to the world, that that very first being is what we call G‑d.  And it really does not make a difference what we call it.  We can call it the Supreme Being, we can call it the first cause.  But whatever it is, we’re all referring to the same thing and it is that entity that is infinite and independent.  So it was not caused by anything.

In some way, beyond any ability for us to fathom or comprehend, there is this one entity which is eternal, it always was, it is, it always will be, it wasn’t caused by anything and, therefore, it’s not dependent on anything.

Because, you know, in cause and effect, whenever you have one thing causing something else to come into being, this effect that came into being is always living, existing at the effect of its cause because the cause is what brought it into effect.  And that is called a very dependent existence.

So what G‑d then did was, G‑d, this infinite being said, Okay, I’m going to create matter.  And so G‑d created and put things into being.  Now, how do you create things which aren’t?  Well, the truth is, we have no idea.  And the moment you do understand how you can create something which isn’t and bring it into existence, then you are G‑d, which is why we as humans will never really understand how something can be created from nothing.

But this is how all of existence began, by this infinite independent entity creating something or, if you will, many things, from nothing.

And here is the reality.  If we understand this, we understand that we as humans don’t really create anything in its truest sense.  You see, G‑d works in the creation department, we work in the formation department.  So G‑d creates things.  In the truest sense, creation means it wasn’t and now it was created.  We never really create anything out of nothing, we’re always taking things which G‑d created and we are forming it into different shapes and forms.  That is really what we’re doing and that’s how we put things forth.  Even our thoughts or our ideas which seem to be completely abstract or maybe even original are coming into being through the brain and the life force which G‑d gives us and with that we can then come up with ideas.

You know, there’s a cute joke they say about scientists who came to G‑d and they say, G‑d, you know, we’ve been studying and studying and we figured it out, we can actually make man ourselves now.  And G‑d says, Wow, I’m really impressed.  Why don’t you show me, demonstrate your newfound ability?  And so the scientists are very excited to show G‑d that they’re catching up with him or perhaps that they’ve caught up with him and so they do what G‑d did, as it says in Genesis, that G‑d forms man out of earth.  So they scooped up a bunch of earth to make man.  And when they scooped up earth G‑d said, Whoa, what are you doing?  And they said, What do you mean, we’re doing what you did, we’re going to make man.  And G‑d said, One second, I used my own earth.  You have to use your own earth if you want to make man.

And the point is that the scientists were always coming back to sources or resources that G‑d had created.  Because we don’t really create anything from nothing, we’re always reforming, if you will.  And so creation deals with existence, bringing something into existence that never was.  Formation deals with style, if you will.  We take it.  And some of that formation is very very impressive.  You know, let’s give it its due respect.  However, it’s still working with the material that G‑d had already given us.

So when something is creating, it’s causing it to be.  When there is someone that creates something or when G‑d creates, he is causing it to be.  And this is very important to understand.  Whatever it is that G‑d does to cause something to be, because it wouldn’t be without G‑d causing it to be, G‑d has to constantly cause it to be.

Let me give you an analogy which is not perfect by any means but the best analogy I can think of and that is you know how sometimes you’re computer screen goes to sleep?  Well, there’s actually a setting on your computer which you’re probably familiar with where you can set that after ten minutes of no activity it will go to sleep or after a half hour of no activity it will go to sleep.  Well, imagine if you’re able to set your monitor to fall asleep immediately after there is no activity.  That means the moment you take your finger off the keyboard, it goes to sleep, it goes black.  And the moment you press your finger on the keyboard it lights up again, comes back alive, so to speak. What you would need to do to keep your monitor showing is you would need to hold your finger down constantly on the keyboard.  And the moment you take your finger off, the monitor is going to go off.  That means you need to constantly make a conscious choice of having that monitor on otherwise it simply goes off.     That is actually exactly the way the existence of the entire universe is.

G‑d is consciously constantly choosing to cause every minutia of the universe to be at every single moment.  Because creation, true creation, requires a constant cause for the effect, the creation to be.

Now, the effects of this concept are very profound and life transforming and that’s the reason why I shared all of this with you.  And that is that, number one, this means that G‑d is constantly engaging with every aspect of the universe.  This is very significant.  But the second point, which is what I really want to emphasize now is, that every single moment G‑d is sending a new intention to the universe.  And that means that at every single moment we are a new being.  We may look the same, we may act the same but we actually are being given a renewed energy.  We are being given a new reality.

And what’s so powerful about this is that we are never stuck in a situation because a situation is constantly changing every single moment.

And so it offers us new opportunities.  And so when we find ourselves in life stuck at a certain point, we need to realize that all it takes is a new moment for that to change.  When we pray to G‑d for things to change, no matter how impossible it may seem to us that this situation can change, to G‑d, he’s sending a new form of energy to this reality and it just means sending a slightly different energy and things change.

And so this is extremely encouraging and supportive whenever we’re reaching out to G‑d or whenever we maybe, G‑d forbid, are losing hope.  And we probably all know from our own personal experience a few moments in our lives where literally in a moment things changed tremendously.  In fact, everything that happens in our life in a moment changes.  And that’s because from one moment to the next there’s an entirely new energy which G‑d is giving to that new moment.  And that’s why the Jewish people are a people of hope.  Because we know that at every moment G‑d is giving us a new opportunity, being driven by an entirely new energy.