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Heat and Light

As you read this, the air molecules around you are flying at 3000 miles an hour, faster than a speeding bullet. The atoms and molecules that make up the body are trembling, whirling and colliding with each other constantly. Nothing in nature remains motionless. The smaller and more fundamental a particle is, the faster it moves and the more energy it carries. We feel this overall energy in our bodies and call it “heat.”

Motion and heat are clearly interrelated, as physics has established. At a temperature of absolute zero, there is no movement at all, even between molecules and atoms – a state that is exceedingly difficult to attain in nature. Warmth and movement are essential to life. But what has recently been discovered is that they are necessary not just for life but for the existence of matter itself.

Chassidic teachings have long grappled with the intricate relationship between life, warmth and movement. The more fundamental question is, where does the driving force come from? Every bit of matter in the universe, from the distant stars and planets down to the atoms and molecules of our bodies, are in constant motion. We can explain the individual movements as the result of complex interactions between particles -- but what set them into motion to begin with? What gives them the energy to climb above absolute zero, thus allowing them their very existence?

Chassidic teachings explain that the source of this energy is the breath of G-d with which He created the world. With ten utterances, G-d called the world into existence, and those utterances keep the world going to this day.

For now, this energy is hidden. We may know that it exists in an abstract way, but we have no way of accessing it directly. Yet when Moshiach comes, this energy, the Divine light, will become revealed to all of us. We won't need sophisticated physics research labs running nuclear experiments to discover this energy -- it will be revealed before our eyes.

The only way we can reveal the Divine energy is by drawing on the source of energy that is already within us, and using it to create a transformation in this world. The power of movement, of warmth and energy, is given to each of us. There is untold potential within each of us to warm our surroundings with the light of Torah and mitzvot. By tapping into these strengths we set a process into motion that will culminate with the ultimate revelation of G-dliness, with the true and complete Redemption.
 

 


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