Bilvavi Part 5 - 351 The Inner Voice Of Creation

בלבבי ה. מילי דעבודה. "קול דממה דקה של פנימיות הנבראים" (עמ' שנא – שנב)

The Inner Voice Of Creation

Every day, we encounter the creations of Hashem. This includes the four kinds of life-forms:

• דומם still objects (such as rocks);
• צומח plants;
• חי living things, (such as animals); [1] and
• מדבר people.

In each of these, there is a life-giving energy that sustains them, every second.

What is that life-force? The Creator of the world!

Our mission is to connect the life-force in each thing we encounter. In everything, there is G-dliness inside it that sustains it, and this is what we must connect to – and not to the mere external layer of what we encounter.

If a person has developed himself more internally, when he encounters a cat in the street, he can actually feel the soul of the cat, and not just its physical shape. When a person senses pnimiyus (the inner essence of things), he looks at a rock and he doesn’t just see a rock; he hears a song contained in it, for even a rock sings to the Creator.[2] He identifies and connects to the life-force of even inanimate objects, not just to its physical form.

How much more so does this apply to when we meet people. If we develop our internal world, we do not identify and connect to others based on what they are wearing, how long his jacket is, what kind of hat he wears, or how long his beard is; upon developing our internal world, we connect with others on a whole different level. We will be able to see people as souls standing in front of us, and we will seek to connect to the person’s soul. We will connect to the “pure soul that You gave to me is pure” which is in each person – and then, we will find that it is actually not so difficult to connect to other Jews; all Jews.

Chazal (Sukkah 28a) say that there is such a thing as understanding the language of trees. What is the meaning behind this? It is because a person can develop himself internally and hear even the life-force of a tree. When a person just lives superficially, he identifies a tree as a mere physical object with a certain shape. When he seeks to connect to the inner essence of things, he connects to the very life-force of the tree, and not just to the external layer of the tree. And he will be able to hear the language of the trees.

When someone just lives superficially and he does not see each thing in Creation as containing a life-force, he does not connect to the life of each thing, and to him, everything around him is a dead organism. Even when he meets people, he doesn’t connect to the actual life found in people, to their living soul – his connection to others is dead. He identifies people based on their physical appearance and the clothing they wear – to him, people are kind of like dead objects to him.

Only a person who connects to the actual essence and life-force of each thing can be considered to be someone who is truly alive.