A Tight Place or a Window of Light
A Simple Question Here is a simple question with a deep answer. Why does water put out fire, while hydrogen gas, one of the very ingredients of water, burns and explodes? Both are made of the same elements, hydrogen and oxygen. The difference is not in the material. The difference is only in how the parts are combined. One small change in the formula gives a completely opposite result. One brings life, the other brings death. One puts fire out, the other sets it ablaze. You may ask: what does chemistry have to do with the life of the soul? Everything. Letters: The Raw Material of Creation The Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Hasidic movement, built his teaching on a great foundation. Everything that exists, spiritual or physical, is nothing but a revealing of the letters of Hashem’s speech, combined in different ways. The Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, explains this in its section “The Gate of Unity and Faith.” Even the most lifeless things, like stones, the dust of the earth and water, have a hidden life inside them. That life is the letters of Hashem’s speech, clothed within them, giving them life and keeping them in existence. The letters are the spiritual raw material of every created thing. Nothing in the world exists without the power of the letters that create it and hold it up, every single moment. From this comes a great principle. The difference between something good and its opposite is not in the raw material. It is in the combination. The letters themselves are neutral. Same Letters, Different Worlds Now stop and notice something surprising in the Torah itself. The Torah tells Noah: “Make a window of light for the ark.” Rashi, the classic Bible commentator, explains: “Some say it was a window. Others say it was a precious stone that gave them light.” This word means light. It is the window, the opening through which light comes into the darkness. Now look closely at the Hebrew. There is another Hebrew word that means a tight place, trouble, an enemy, a narrow strait. That word and the word for “a window of light” are built from the same two root letters. What is the difference between them? One letter. One vowel. One combination. Here is another example of the same thing. The Hebrew word for “a plague,” a painful affliction, and the Hebrew word for “delight” are made of exactly the same three letters. Just reverse their order, and the plague turns into delight. On one side, something impure. On the other, pure pleasure. Everything depends on the combination. You Are the One Who Combines Until now, this has only been a lesson in grammar. Now comes the lesson for life. Hashem gives you the “letters” of your life. He gives you your circumstances, your challenges, the situations you find yourself in. These are raw materials. He is, so to speak, the “chemist” who handed you the ingredients. But you are the one who combines them. What decides the combination? Your faith and your trust in Hashem. Not the situation, but how you respond to it on the inside. Here is living proof. Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa, a sage of the Talmud, was told that vinegar had been lit in the lamp instead of oil. He answered: “The One who told oil to burn will tell vinegar to burn.” Did the vinegar change? No. But the power of his faith changed the combination, and that very same vinegar burned. Not different raw material. The same raw material. A different combination. The same is true for you. When you face a tight place, a hardship, pressure, a narrow strait, you can ask yourself: How am I combining these letters? Do I see them as a trap closing in on me from every side? Or can I combine them in a new way and open a window in them, a window to the light?
Putting It into Practice
The next time you sit down and start counting your troubles and describing how hard things are, stop. Ask yourself only one question: What is my combination right now? Not “What is my situation?” but “What is my combination?” The letters Hashem gave you are what they are. They will not change. But the combination? The combination is in your hands. Stop blaming the raw material. Start working on the formula. A tight place, or a window of light. The same letters. You are the one who combines them.
Questions and answers
Q: Why does water put out fire while hydrogen, one of its own ingredients, explodes?
Rabbi Landau answers: Here is a simple question with a deep answer. Why does water put out fire, while hydrogen gas, one of the very ingredients of water, burns and explodes? Both are made of the same elements, hydrogen and oxygen. The difference is not in the material. The difference is only in how the parts are combined. One small change in the formula gives a completely opposite result. One brings life, the other brings death. One puts fire out, the other sets it ablaze. You may ask: what does chemistry have to do with the life of the soul? Everything.
Q: What does the Baal Shem Tov teach about the letters of Hashem’s speech as the raw material of creation?
Rabbi Landau answers: The Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Hasidic movement, built his teaching on a great foundation. Everything that exists, spiritual or physical, is nothing but a revealing of the letters of Hashem’s speech, combined in different ways. The Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, explains this in its section “The Gate of Unity and Faith.” Even the most lifeless things, like stones, the dust of the earth and water, have a hidden life inside them. That life is the letters of Hashem’s speech, clothed within them, giving them life and keeping them in existence. The letters are the spiritual raw material of every created thing.
Q: What is the connection between the Hebrew words for a tight place and the “window of light” in Noah’s ark?
Rabbi Landau answers: Now stop and notice something surprising in the Torah itself. The Torah tells Noah: “Make a window of light for the ark.” Rashi, the classic Bible commentator, explains: “Some say it was a window. Others say it was a precious stone that gave them light.” This word means light. It is the window, the opening through which light comes into the darkness. Now look closely at the Hebrew. There is another Hebrew word that means a tight place, trouble, an enemy, a narrow strait. That word and the word for “a window of light” are built from the same two root letters. What is the difference between them? One letter. One vowel. One combination.
Q: If Hashem gives you the letters of your life, who decides how they are combined?
Rabbi Landau answers: Until now, this has only been a lesson in grammar. Now comes the lesson for life. Hashem gives you the “letters” of your life. He gives you your circumstances, your challenges, the situations you find yourself in. These are raw materials. He is, so to speak, the “chemist” who handed you the ingredients. But you are the one who combines them. What decides the combination? Your faith and your trust in Hashem. Not the situation, but how you respond to it on the inside. Here is living proof. Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa, a sage of the Talmud, was told that vinegar had been lit in the lamp instead of oil.
Q: What question should you ask yourself the next time you start counting your troubles?
Rabbi Landau answers: The next time you sit down and start counting your troubles and describing how hard things are, stop. Ask yourself only one question: What is my combination right now? Not “What is my situation?” but “What is my combination?” The letters Hashem gave you are what they are. They will not change. But the combination? The combination is in your hands. Stop blaming the raw material. Start working on the formula. A tight place, or a window of light. The same letters. You are the one who combines them.