Why is God so hard to see in the world around us?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau explains that God is hard to see because the world was made to hide Him. “What you call reality is just God hiding in plain sight.”
He points to the Hebrew word for world, olam, which is connected to the word for concealment. The world is not a window onto God; it is a covering. Creation went from light to form, from form to matter, and from matter to noise, each step another layer between us and the source.
His image for this is an artist and his painting. “The world is hiding the artist so well that we mistake the painting for the painter.” We look at the colors and shapes of nature and forget that Someone is painting them.
That is why he calls Shabbos a time of recognition. During the week the painting fills our eyes; on Shabbos, “for one day a week, you can see through the mask.”
Watch Rabbi Landau's teaching · Also taught in: teaching 2
Related concepts: Spirituality · Receiving Shabbos
In A Soul at Peace: When the Hiding Stops
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
God is hard to see because the world itself conceals Him; reality is God hiding in plain sight.
What may be behind it
Each step of creation added a layer: light, form, matter, noise. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that the world is an ongoing process of hiding Hashem's light, and that the earth is really His clothing.
Deepest human truth
We mistake the painting for the painter. On Shabbos, the hiding pauses and a person can see through the mask.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Shabbos · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz