The People & The Book: Amazing powers

A single person can act to repair the world and make real its potential to be unified.

By RABBI SHELDON LEWIS
Art by Pepe Fainberg (photo credit: PEPE FAINBERG)
Art by Pepe Fainberg
(photo credit: PEPE FAINBERG)
ONE DAY, Dad returned home after a hard day at work and settled into his favorite chair with the daily newspaper. Almost immediately, his five-year-old child jumped onto his lap.
“Can we play?” the child pleaded.
Thinking fast, Dad found a page in his paper featuring a picture of the globe. Quickly he tore the page into small pieces.
Handing them to his child, he said, “Here’s a puzzle for you! Put the world back together again!” The child took them, and happily went to work on the carpet. Dad was certain he would be able to read his paper in peace.
Was he ever surprised when, within only a few minutes, the child cried out, “Look, Dad, it’s finished!” The map of the globe lay perfectly reconstructed before him.
“How did you do it?” Dad asked incredulously.
“Oh, it was easy,” the child said proudly. “On the back of the page there was a big picture of a person. I fit his parts together, and the world came together, too!” Jewish thought, based on the promises made to Abraham, speaks to the amazing power of a single person to shape the world. At their first momentous meeting, God promises the first Patriarch: “And in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 12:3) How can there be a pathway from person to world? The Zohar offers one inspiring possibility: “Come and see: All who occupy themselves with Torah uphold the world and sustain each aspect of creation as is proper. And there is no organ or limb within a person that does not have its counterpart in the world. For just as a human being is composed of organs and systems with all of them standing in a hierarchy, arranged these upon those, and all are one body, so it is also in the world. All creatures consist of limbs and organs standing these upon those. And when they are arranged just so, they are truly one body.”
“And everything is constructed on the model of Torah, for Torah is entirely parts and chapters standing these upon those. And when they are all so arranged, they compose one body. When David looked at this work [of creation], he opened and said, “How many are Your deeds, God! You have fashioned them all in wisdom. The world is full of Your possessions.” (Psalms 104:24) (Zohar 1:134b) Abraham is linked to the whole world by the mandate he receives from God. The Zohar explains the source of his power. A human being is a microcosmic manifestation of the world. A person’s body and soul with their intricate and interdependent organs and vessels are wondrously unified as a single organism. And when a person wills it, s/he can be single-mindedly devoted to the task at hand.
Likewise, the world as a whole is mysteriously constructed of interdependent parts. It is a largely unseen single organism. Created similarly, a person can act to repair the world and make real its potential to be unified. One organism can bring another larger organism into synchronicity. Microcosm can profoundly affect macrocosm. For a Jew, the Torah provides the roadmap from self to world. It is the affinity of all, small and large, that enables a person to work in such a large radius.
The mystical tradition enlarges the scope of human influence still further. A person, bearing God’s image, mirrors the structure of the cosmos and even the reality of God. When a human being does well, healing and unification are projected onto the unseen world of the spirit beyond this world. Daringly, the aspects of the Divine are brought more perfectly into alignment. Similarly, destructive behavior below has the opposite effect, unraveling the parts of the universe that long for unification. Itaruta d’letata, “arousal below” brings itaruta d’leila, “arousal above.” The unseen world above awaits healing and unification from below.
Jewish thinkers stressed the power of an individual to bring tikkun olam, repair, to the larger world. In the modern era of globalization, the power of the individual is more apparent than ever before. So many new channels allow a person to reach out around the globe to places one has never been and to people one might never meet in order to extend a helpful hand.
In Deuteronomy, one verse underscores the power of an individual.
“Behold I place before you today blessing and curse.” (Deut.11:26) The grammar of the verse is confusing. It begins by addressing an individual in the singular (“re’eh”) and concludes with the plural (“lifneikhem”). The grammatical inconsistency teaches that a single person can move the moral balance of many.
“V’heyeh b’rakha!” “Be a blessing,” Abraham is told. (Gen.12:2) That message resonates through the ages.
Sheldon Lewis is Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Kol Emeth in Palo Alto, California. He is the author of ‘Torah of Reconciliation’ and the forthcoming children’s book ‘Mini Adventures in Jerusalem’