You Give Life to Them All

“You alone are Hashem. You made the heavens, the highest heavens and all their hosts, the earth and everything on it, the seas and everything in them. And You give life to them all, and the hosts of heaven bow down to You.” Opening The Book of Nehemiah says: “You alone are Hashem… and You give life to them all.” This is worth a closer look. What do the closing words, “and You give life to them all,” add? The verse has already said “You alone.” If Hashem is the only One, then of course He is the One who gives life to everything. Why does the verse need to say it again? The answer is that these are two completely different statements. “You alone” is faith. “You give life” is reality. The difference between them is the whole work of a lifetime. The Foundation Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, explains this in the section of his book about Hashem’s oneness and faith. Creating the world was not a single act that happened once and is now over. At every moment, Hashem brings all of creation into being again, completely fresh, out of nothing. If Hashem’s creative word were ever withdrawn, the world would not just fall back into chaos. Nothing at all would be left of it. Not a thing. That is the meaning of “You give life to them all.” It does not mean that Hashem created us once, long ago. It means that He is giving us life now, at this very moment, and at every moment. Think of the vitality inside you as a young married man: your power to speak, to think, to breathe. All of it flows straight from Him, without a single pause. A Common Mistake There is a habit, especially common today, of speaking to “the universe.” People ask “the universe” for abundance, for success, for help. It feels spiritual. It feels deep. But it hides a mistake that is subtle and serious. The universe is something created. It is a garment, not the One who wears it. Turning to the universe is like speaking to a king’s robe and asking it for a favor. The robe has no power. It has no will. It cannot hear. All it does is wrap around the one who wears it. That is the precise meaning of “You alone”: Hashem has no partners, not open ones and not hidden ones. The market that goes up and down, luck that smiles at you or turns away, the “energy” people try to draw in from outside: none of these is the source. All of them are only vessels. Sometimes, when we give them power of their own, there is a spark in it of the attitude the Torah warns against so clearly: “My own strength and the might of my hand have won me this success.” The Work in Practice So what is the work? Right after that warning, the Torah says: “And you shall remember Hashem your Lord, for He is the One who gives you the strength.” “You shall remember.” The Torah does not ask you to study or to investigate. It asks you to remember: to bring your awareness back to where it belongs. Picture a young married man heading out in the morning to his business. “The market” does nothing for him. The client who calls, the deal that closes, the idea that pops into his head that morning: every one of them comes straight from Hashem. The work is to aim the quiet stirrings of your heart in the right direction. Not toward the result, and not toward the vessel, but toward the Source. This does not have to be a long prayer. It can be one sentence inside you, a simple, everyday conversation with Hashem: “Master of the world, You gave me the strength to open this mouth. Help me say something good with it.” That already is a prayer. That already is clinging to Hashem. In Closing Let us go back to the verse: “And You give life to them all.” This verse holds more than a basic belief. It holds comfort. When things are hard, when “the market” is not cooperating, when there are no answers, there is Someone who is giving life to everything, at this very moment. There is an address, and you can knock on its door. There is no cold, uncaring “universe” that cannot be spoken to. There is a Father. There is a Creator. There is a “You.” That word is said face to face. It is close, and it is now. This is the heart of the Torah’s words “There is nothing else besides Him.” It is not only a verse we say. It is a reality we live.

Concepts: prayer