Friday, January 22, 2016

Nefesh HaTzimtzum - Makom

I was somewhat intrigued about the Sefer Nefesh HaTzimtzum which has recently been published and publicized. What convinced me that it was worth buying was that it has a Haskama from Rav Yitzchok Meir Morgenstern. As he himself writes, it is rare for him to give a haskama on something written in English. Indeed, it is not light reading at all. It is a sefer that happens to be written in English.
As each volume can be purchased separately, I purchased the second one as I was curious to see his chiddushim with regards to Tzimtzum. One interesting thing I saw is that he begins by explaining the meaning of the term makom as a name for God. He explains that makom refers to the space-time fabric of the Universe. I was thinking that this is perhaps why when someone returns to the place where a miracle occurred for him he says ברוך שעשה לי נס במקום הזה, he emphasizes that the miracle occurred in this makom (place). Why is the makom so important?
Perhaps we can suggest that as makom refers to the physical space-time fabric of existence, and a miracle is something which is beyond that space-time, the real chiddush of the miracle is that it happened in a makom where his experiences should have been confined to the normative workings of the physical world, but he was uplifted (נס) beyond them.

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