The Nature of Nature

There is a beautiful saying attributed to one of the great Chassidic Rabbis of the 18th century: "To try and gain insight into the soul of a painter, one must intensely study his painting.
So too, to gain insight into G-d, one must discern Him in nature and the world He has Created."


It's known that children constantly wonder, often out loud, at the world around them. "Why's the sky blue?" "Where does the sun go at night?" "Why do I have 5 toes?" But as we grow older, most tend to lose their wonderment and awe when seeing their surroundings. That's because we've become used to what we see. It's all just "Nature." And nature means that what we see is a constant that doesn't really change much; it has a pattern. Flowers grow in the spring, leaves change color in the fall, snow falls in the winter. But how come we often ignore the designer behind the design called "earth"?

The Hebrew word for nature is teva. The Hebrew word for something connotes its function, its inner truth. "Teva" in Hebrew also means "sunken" or "drowning." The revelation of G-d is hidden in nature; sunk. Like an object that sinks into water, out of sight and submerged, G-d too is hard to discern in the world He has formed.

How can one remedy this situation? We've grown up, and simply aren't as astounded or even interested in perceiving more beyond the "nature" we see. I recently read an interesting meditation or contemplation that I found very insightful & helpful. The author asks: When you see something in nature - whether it be a flower, a tree, a grape cluster or anything else, do you immediately label it, naming it in your head? Of course we do. Our minds instinctively classify the thing that we see, and we move on to something else, unimpressed. "That's a hummingbird. That's a wheat field and those are stalks." Try, the author says, to start training yourself to not label things. See the flower, and say: "what's that green thing with purple on top & yellow in the middle?" "That thing gliding through the air is pretty strange..." By not labeling, we allow ourselves to appreciate the unique and brilliant beauty of design in each thing we see, without passing it over and classifying it as the same thing we already "know."

May you have a restful and tranquil Shabbat, full of marvel at the art which is this world, gaining insight into its Infinitely profound artist.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel