2 Mistaken Conclusions a Person Can Reach

Welcome to our weekly program, "The Inside Story of Chabad in America Through the Mindel Archives." We're now basically in the middle of last week's program. Last week we left off with the question that the Rebbe answered for the class in Manhattan. They asked about "Vayar" — since we know that everything Hashem does is good, why does it say [that He saw that it was good, as if it could have been otherwise]?

We mentioned last week that the Rebbe answers that even though we see that [unclear] is different than [unclear], nevertheless it can only be makif and not pnimi. You'll have to look back at last week's program for the explanation — I'm not going to go over it again.

Then we gave the example of an engineer, an expert — whatever an expert does. An engineer, an expert, makes a car, an airplane — it has to be, it has to be a hundred percent. So of course, when Hashem made the world, when He created the world, that's a hundred percent.

We also spoke about the third inyan — about "ki tov," that "good" means good, and it has to be — when you say "good," it means perfect, because if it's not perfect then it's not good. Now, we still need the answer that the Rebbe gave as to why it says "ki tov."

So I'm going to continue reading what the Rebbe writes. Number one: what's the answer? Since a person is able to create and build in the world, as we explained, moreover he must take part in building the world and improving it — that was the manner in which the world was created, as He said. So since man must do that, a person might — chas v'shalom — reach a mistaken conclusion. A person can make two mistakes.

Mistake number one: this leaves room for two mistakes. A person might make a mistake and say, "It is my power, and it is me who is improving the world, and only through my work is the world becoming from bad to good." A person might say, since a person is, like you would say, like a sheliach — Hashem created a person in this world to accomplish [a task] — so a person might think that whatever it is, whether it's a car, whether it's an airplane, a table, a chair, a house — "Anything I made, I am the one who finished it off, I am the one who made it. It's my koach."

A person might say that Hashem, kavayachol, was unable to create a perfect world, and that's why He created it in that manner — that it's imperfect because He needs people to finish it off, or He needs people to help Him out. A person might think that way, and that's why — that's why He created people for that. That's why, that's why the Torah tells us "Vayar Elokim" [unclear] — so this is why, this is the answer.

The posuk says, at the end of every single creation, "and Hashem saw that it was good." When the Creator sees the thing that was created, He sees it truly — He sees not only what is revealed and can be seen by everyone, He also sees what is hidden in it, the potential of it. That's what this is teaching us — the Aibishter already made everything in the beginning. So right in the six days of creation, as soon as He created it, He saw that it was good — and "good" means completely good, perfect, otherwise it's not good, as we spoke about in the introduction.

So this is obvious — the answer to the two mistakes one may have: that Hashem was certainly able to create a perfect world, and He actually saw this perfection right in the beginning.

So what does a person do? What is a person's role in creation? We see a person makes an airplane, a person makes a table, a person makes a car — the craftsman [oman] is only megaleh — revealing — the hidden koach. The person's job is only to reveal in actuality what is already here in potential. It's always here — the plane was here, the table was here, the house was here. When Hashem created the world He created everything perfect, b'foel. But in actuality, the person reveals this — reveals for himself that he reveals the power that is hidden in him, and through this he reveals in the creation the hidden, true good.

Like, for example, I would say, like a seed. You put it in the ground — you put a seed for a potato, or a seed for a tree. The seed is a seed, but everything that is going to be is already in that seed.

The same thing also applies here, as we spoke, I think, a few programs ago, when Mr. Stillman [?] at the class asked the question: how did Hashem wish to create the world — with machshava or with chomer [unclear]? Rabbi Mindel answered them that everything that later came to be in this world was already contained in the machshava.

So this is the answer we give here: that "ki tov" means it's immediately good — in English, everything is good — but people are only megaleh, that the person helps the Aibishter to create the world. This is the answer here.

I want to say something on this subject, and also on what we spoke about last week, and what we're going to speak about next week regarding the class that the Rebbe wrote about. I just want to let you know — I think I mentioned once — that Rabbi Mindel, when the Frierdiker Rebbe told him to translate the Tanya, the Rebbe helped him with the manuscripts, gave them to him, learned with him at the time, taught him certain things. So the Rebbe said, "Why don't you go and get a PhD? You might as well get a PhD in college." He wrote the thesis — this was in 1962.

So he wrote the thesis on Tanya. Before the presentation, before he had the test, he showed it to the professors. They were in awe — they had never heard of such a thing. I mean, he wrote the thesis on Tanya, and part of what Rabbi Mindel included in his thesis were these answers that we spoke about today and last week — the answers that the Rebbe gave to this class. What he wrote was part of his thesis.

Next week we will continue with the other questions that the class had. Thank you.