The Power of the Un-Miraculous Miracle: The Alter Rebbe on Tzimtzum and Why God Never Left

A group of friends are sitting around comparing the miracle working greatness of their Rabbis. One says “my Rabbi told me not to go on vacation and as a result, I avoided a deadly tsunami.” The other says, “that’s nothing.” “My Rabbi told me to invest everything I owned in Amazon the day after it posted its worse loss, and the next day it clawed back 14 percent and posted its largest gain ever.” Well said the third, that’s nothing. My Rabbi advised me to invest all my savings in forests for lumber, and the very next day I lost everything in a devastating forest fire.” “So what exactly is the miracle they asked?” To which he replied “the miracle is that he’s still my Rabbi!”

I feel like this year as we prepare to celebrate the miracles of Chanuka, we are asking a similar question and hearing the same surprising response.

If ever there was a moment in our times that we might be feeling like we are being punished simply for being what we are meant to be, it would be this time period from October 7th 2023 onward. And yet, despite the piling on of, and the surreal ignominy of an utterly irrational and misplaced surge in antisemitism across the globe, we are also witnessing an unprecedented renewal of desire to be more active in Jewish life. The miracle is that, like the poor fellow who lost everything but his faith, we still believe in Miracles.

What is missing however is the why. Why are we coming back, in such record numbers, to our Jewishness? Why are we returning to a besieged home and an embattled identity?

What is the secret power of the un—miraculous Miracle?

In order to try and get a bit deeper into that it would help to take a closer look at the Jewish take on miracles themselves.

One way to break that down is through a better understanding of a rather deep rift within the Jewish communities in Lithuania and white Russia in the mid to late eighteenth century.

Here is an extremely abbreviated version.

Rabbi Shneur Zalman

of Liadi, who eventually became the founder of Chabad Chassidism, was originally the prized student of the Magid of Mezritch, the undisputed heir of the Baal Shem Tov ( founder of Chasidism) and leader of the Hasidic movement. As the Stature of Rabbi Shneur Zalmen grew and his unique method of breaking down the deepest esoteric ideas into a highly rational doctrinal system of thought was circulated widely, so did the resistance to this methodological declassification of the deepest esoteric ideas intensify.

In addition to the general resistance to disseminating what was meant to remain available only to the seasoned Kabalist, there was resistance to some of the ways these sublime ideas themselves were being taught.

Perhaps the most controversial was the debate with regards to the idea of “Tzimtzum.” This Lurianic doctrine held that G-d had withdrawn his essence from a given space so as to allow human consciousness to emerge without being obliterated and overwhelmed

by the infinite power of the divine consciousness.

The Alter Rebbe as Rabbi Shneur Zalman was known, was vociferously opposed to the literal application of that concept.

Instead, he postulated, the Divine presence never “left” this space. The effect of the Tzimtzum (withdrawal of the Divine light of self) was only that it appeared to do so. However, that was only a one way realisation.

A great way to understand this is by way of a simple but effective metaphor of water being poured into a coloured glass cup. Though the water appears to be colored from the outside, it doesn’t make it “blue water.” From the acosmic standpoint of the Alter Rebbe, while “Tzimtzum,” may “colour” the reality as we observe it, it does so while remaining fundamentally unchanged: as such G-d remains as close to us as he ever was.

These fundamentally different theological positions form the basis for two ways of understanding miracles.

From the stance of understanding “Tzimtzum” “literally,” (albeit metaphorically so) G-d is actually “compelled” to withdraw from the world in order to allow human and planetary consciousness to operate autonomously.

Seen from the viewpoint of the pre Chasidus Kabalist, in which G-d is “distant” —in order for a miracle to be “celebrated” it has to be impressive if it aims to overcome the “loneliness” that grows out of the separation of “distance.” It has to compensate for its “Absence” by bringing something “big”—like the parent who is always away on business who comes home bearing expensive gifts. Or the need for the Miracle working oracle to facilitate “impressive miracles”

From the bold, radical, and in some ways spiritually subversive perspective, and counterintuitive worldview of The Alter Rebbe however—the inability to see G-d is not because he is distant. He is still here. That we can’t see him is an absence that can be addressed contemplatively, right where we are—as opposed to meditatively transcending the discomfort of where we are.

For the “child” of the Chasidic innovation of the Alter Rebbe over the Kabalah—it is enough to know that though the parents are not yet home, they are close by.

In this world the power of the un miraculous miracle is such that one can feel loneliness while still knowing that they are not necessarily alone.

Much Love,

Rabbi Yossi