IN THE BEGINNING GOD

MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH

The Heavens
By the Heavens we mean the Universe, not only the sky that we look up to but also the earth below and beyond and in all the other 6 directions of space. Our ancient sages already knew that there was no limit to the vastness of the universe and called it EIN SOF.(see scientific view)

The Earth
You and I are earth . Our bodies are made of earth. From dust we are made and to dust we will return. All our nourishment comes from the earth. Like our bones which are made of the atoms of calcium of the earth, the iron in our blood also comes through our food from the earth. This nourishment is largely created by the action of the Sun on organic, plant and other life on earth.

The adjacent diagram is also the I Ching Chinese diagram as well as the Vesica Pisces

A dip into nuclear physics
If we examine this” dust we are made of” scientifically, under the microscope, we find the dust includes all the animal mineral and vegetable nourishment produced by the earth.
If we look deeper with the electron microscope into this dust we find the dust is made of molecules. These molecules in their turn, are made up of atoms, electrons, subatomic particles. The deeper we penetrate into the structure of the atom the more confusing it gets (like Alice in Wonderland) because our scientists discover more and more vast space and less and less substance.
Electron
The electron is part of the atom and is one of the particles orbiting around the nucleus of the atom, (similar to the way a planet orbits around the sun.( see diagram of electrons orbiting). The space between one electron and the next is enormous, The electron can be compared to a football and the distance to the next football is 5 football fields away. (like the distances between the planets around the Sun) It is important to emphasis the similarity between the vast space between both the electrons and the planets
Even the electron itself seems to be more space and less substance and yet paradoxically our experience is that the Universe is created out of tangible, solid substance.
We will see a very interesting corollary to this when we look at sub - sub atomic particles and the hebrew words ( see Davar )

And the Earth was in a state of chaos and void. Genesis 1:1

The earth was in a state of chaos and without form and so could develop into any form. Because there was no structure, the earth had unlimited potential to develop into the diverse forms of creation. Because it was void. This void is like AYIN. In scientific terms it is the void one billionth of a second before the big bang See big bang.

This chaos is remiscent of the chaos which exists in our minds most of the time, but simultaneosly, it is full of potential to develop in numerous abundant different ways like stem cells.

This diagram can similarly represent a stem cell or any other cell. The content is always in a state of chaos.
The small particles or molecules, chaotically banging against each other continuously. (see Brownian movement) The stem cell has the potential to change into any other cell,

The diagram can also represent the Chaotic multitude of ideas and images moving around in mind, (which meditation can still).

In the cell and in mind there is also a nucleus. In mind it is a center for similar thoughts, whereas in the cell it organises the cell. The vast majority of thoughts in mind are of no value and we can scarcely remember more than one or two thoughts of last week.

(Thinkery thinkery thunk!

It's all utter bunk )

Is it fair to call them VOID or AYIN. Consider that our thoughts have always been present and will always be present without end , EIN SOF. See time space in meditation

Similarly mind is full of tremendous potential. Also in the creation this chaos has the potential to develop into all the diverse forms of creation. It is not limited in any way.

AND DARKNESS WAS on the FACE OF THE DEEP. Genesis 1:1

We usually think of deep related to water and face as sur-face, but depth of darkness, like darkness of night extends in all 6 dimensions of space. Similar to the Heavens which extend into the 6 dimensions of space, not only above.

When you close your eyes and cut of the light you see darkness in your vision and when you close your eyes to meditate, you have darkness in your vision and even when you meditate deeply there is still darkness in your vision. Darkness is nothingness, AYIN. But when you look into the Heavens you know that the darkness extends without end, EIN SOF.

And on the 6 day he created man

What is man?
(See Existential)
Who am I. What am I. This is the great existential question
Psalms
What is man made of that Thou art mindful of him
And the son of man that Thou thinkest of him psalms 8: 5
Lord , What is man that Thou takest knowledge of him, or the son of man that Thou makest account of him
Psalms 144:3

NACHMANIDES
Says Man has a similarity to both his origins, viz bodily he is like the earth whence he was taken but his spirit is immortal like God who breathed into him.

THE RAM BAM. Maimonides

Explains that man’s task is to bring heaven down to earth and lift Earth up to Heaven
Man’s task is to bring Godliness down from Heaven to earth and also to raise Earth to Heaven.
What does this mean in practice?
It simply means that if you take a piece of bread and make a blessing on it before you eat it, you have sanctified the bread you have raised the bread. Similarly with all other foods.

If you observe Shabbat then you have brought the Torah from heaven down to earth.
When Moses stood on Mount Sinai he brought the Torah down from Heaven to the people and He also taught the Torah to the people.

BREATH

Adam and breath

God fashioned the earth into the shape of a man and breathed into his nostrils to bring him to life. Genesis

From dust he was made and to dust he will return, (what is one breath in relation to a lifetime of breaths. Zero to infinity or AYIN to EIN SOF)

The word for Breath, Neshama, also means soul. Thus when G_D breathed into ADAM’s body, made of the earth, he also breathed in a soul. Hence life starts when we inspire our first breath and ends when we expire, when we breath out our last breath (See Breath Later)

Paradox.. Impotent and omnipotent
Our ancient sages give us a paradoxical message, telling us , that we are made from the dust of the earth (AYIN) meaning, we are worthless, everybody walks all over us,
But paradoxically they also tell us that the world was made for us, that we are made in the image of God, that we are Ein Sof, the highest of the high and not only is our every action recorded, but our actions affect heavenly events.
In his book “Letters to a Buddhist Jew” Rabbi Tatz of JLE partially resolves the above dilemma, by explaining, that in the carburettor of the motorcar is a tiny 50 pence screw. It is not worth much but if it has dropped out, the car ceases to function.
We are all vital links in a chain, we are all important cogs in the machine. If one is missing the whole industry stops working . Or if one link in the chain breaks hundreds can suffer. We each have a part to play for the success of the whole. We may be a little cog but without us things stop. We are each one but a weak link in an important chain which again our ancient sages knew all about describing it as a shalshelet a long chain of cause and effect..

Rabbi Tatz goes on to explain, that, the Mussar teachers say , you should keep 2 notes in your pocket at all times . On one should be written ”I am nothing” to be used when we are feeling a little too full of ourselves and on the other should be written ” I am everything,” when we are feeling a little miserable. Both are real.
Diagram 1 can be taken personally showing us that we can be as tiny as the point at the centre of the circle or we can expand the circle and feel as large as we like.
Indeed we sometimes feel expansive “as large as life” and inclusive of others and the next moment we can be feel insignificant and want to curl up into a little ball in the foetal position weighted down and burdened with all with all our own problems.
We all have our ups and downs. One moment we feel we are everything and the next moment we feel we are nothing.
The classical description of the extrovert, bigger and better: and at the other extreme the introvert questioning himself doubting himself,
We have to get to grips with the concept that we are both, nothing (Ayin ) and everything (Ein Sof) and that we change from one position to the other.