96: Unique Providing for the Manifold of Life | יחיד חי העולמים

Rabbi S.R. Hirsch, “The Nineteen Letters”, Third Letter:

…[God] created an abundance of forces… and then He separated them, so that each had to sustain the other: none was henceforth able to exist and function by itself, but had to be sustained by fellow creatures and , in turn, had to help them exist and function. In this way, everything contributes according to its strength, however much or little, to the existence of the whole; and if it destroys a fellow creature, it robs itself of what it needs for its own existence.

 

Thus … the seed, after germination in the ground, is taken from the earth to become the ripened fruit, so that the earth will have to receive again in order to give again. Thus one immense bond of love, of receiving and giving, unites all beings. None exists by itself and for itself; there is a constant striving of each creature with, through and for the others, on behalf of the whole, and of the whole on behalf of every creature. Everything receives strength and resources not for itself as such, but merely in order to give, to give and thereby to attain fulfillment of the purpose of its existence.

“ה stands for love,” say our Sages; “love, sustained and sustaining, characterizes the Creation of the earth.

Everything in it whispers to you: “Love”.

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