“God looked into the Torah and created the world” (Zohar 2:161b).
Day One: Light and dark.
Second Day: Upper waters and lower waters.
Third Day: Seas and Continents/Dry Land; vegetation.
God names/labels things and puts them where they belong.
Maybe if I made a plan and organized my life I would also be able to accomplish something. Actually, the Zohar continues: Man looks into the Torah and maintains the world. Hmm. I should pay better attention.
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I have all sorts of plans but no execution. Rambam makes a keen observation in Moreh Nevuchim (not that I read it.. 🙂 that we can observes Hashem’s ways from embryology. Things in the natural world (think of butterflies etc.) go from one state to another through various stages and phases. So there is the step by step plan followed by a step by step follow up. That second part is particularly tricky for some of us.
“Things in the natural world (think of butterflies etc.) go from one state to another through various stages and phases. So there is the step by step plan followed by a step by step follow up. That second part is particularly tricky for some of us.”
It is in the natural world, too. The thing is that we are not usually aware of the complications and difficulties that plants and animals face. We don’t see that the dung beetle or ant has to have a strategy for getting its payload home or the struggles it goes through. Often we do not see the critical stages of development of an insect, so we think the creature evolves smoothly.
Plans, effort and organization are great things, but unfortunately all of man’s endeavors and carefulness does not guarantee achievement or success. There has to be something above and beyond man’s effort because many many of the elements of control are beyond him and lay only with the Divine. “Except the Lord build the house, their labor is but lost that build it…” Ps 127