I am on a Chaim Potok reading spree right now. I just finished my sixth book of his and I continue to be fascinated with the Jewish world that his books reveal. Four of his books that I have read have characters who are members of a Chasidic community.
There were two quotes that were said by the Rebbe in “The Gift of Asher Lev” that were laden with truth and brought me great comfort as I continued to digest them. Here they are:
“My father, of blessed memory, once said to me, the verse in Genesis: ‘And He saw all that He did and behold it was good’–my father once said that the seeing of God is not like the seeing of man. Man sees only between the blinks of his eyes. He does not know what the world is like during the blinks. He sees the world in pieces, in fragments. But the Master of the Universe sees the world whole, unbroken. That world is good. Our seeing is broken.”
“The Bratslaver Rebbe taught that obstacles are given us in order to make our desire even stronger. The more a thing is hidden from man, the more he desires it, and the greater chance that he will one day discover it.”
The second one immediately made me think of our invisible God. God often feels distant and it is hard to sometimes feel that we have an intimate relationship with HIm. This quote therefore reminded me that perhaps God chooses to remain more hidden out of His love for us. By remaining hidden, we will not be able to take God’s presence for granted or mistakenly view Him as common; we will thus seek Him more and through that seeking will be blessed by Him.
