Rebbe Nachman's Meme

There is an oft quoted line from Rebbe Nachman of Breslov that "The day you were born is the day God decided that the world could not exist without you." Unfortunately, this line does not appear in any of his writings, nor is it attributed to him by any of his disciples. Some suggest it is an oral tradition in his name.
I did discover, however, that Rav Kook says exactly this (עין אי"ה ברכות פרק ב' מ"ו)
The Talmud quotes a prayer (nowadays part of the High Holiday service) "God before I was formed, I was unworthy, now that I have been formed, it is as if I was not formed." Rav Kook writes as follows:
Prior to my formation, since the beginning of time, there was nothing in the world that needed me. If I had been needed to complete any task, I would have been formed. The fact that I was not formed until that time is a sign that until then I was not worthy of being created and there was no need for me until the moment of my creation when the time arrived that I need to do something to complete Existence. If I focus my efforts to the purpose of my creation then I am now worthy. But if my actions are not directed towards good, but to my own selfish desires, then I have not achieved my goal, and I am as unworthy of being as I was previously.

Charedi Chaos

Kabbalistic thought teaches us that the world was originally created in a state of תהו (tohu). This was a state in which the Sefiros, the spiritual atomic particles of existence, were not working in harmony. The result was a state of chaos in which each Sefirah was, so to speak, looking out for its own good, and not focused on unity within creation. Ultimately, the goal is to move from a state of תהו to one of תקון (tikkun), the state in which each Sefirah is able to relate to each other one in a harmonious manner. The state of תהו is a state of Galus, exile, in which the world is not achieving its potential. תקון brings with it the coming of Moshiach, a time of peace and harmony.

In the seminal Kabbalistic work Etz Chaim, Rav Chaim Vital quotes his brother-in-law Rav Gedalyahu as presenting an explanation of what leads to a state of תהו and what results in תקון. He explains that when someone is in a state of יראה, fear, he tends to see the deficiencies in another and will stay away for fear of being affected. Rabbeinu Yonah writes that one who has יראה will stay away from even the slightest doubt of wrongdoing. In the same vein, the Sefiros were conscious of the deficiencies they each had and stayed away from each other. The result was chaos.

The only way to overcome this is to leave the paradigm of יראה and move to that of אהבה, love. על כל פשעים תכסה האהבה. Love covers over all deficiencies. When we move from the paradigm of fear to the paradigm of love, we move from barrier building, and finding reasons to justify building them, to bridge building, relationship and connection.

These paradigms are reflected not just within Creation, but within the life of each individual as well as within each relationship. The constant challenge is how to remain in the paradigm of love and away from that of fear.

I find it interesting that over the past few decades the name Charedim (those who fear) has come into use to describe the so-called Ultra-Orthodox. According to Rav Gedalyahu it is that fear which leads them to build boundaries. However those boundaries, while needed according to their paradigm, prevent the achievement of תקון and the coming of Moshiach.

This would seem to support the need for a Breslovite or Kookian philosophy such as that espoused by Hachalban, Shlit"a, which emphasizes the mandate to learn to love every person, no matter how much they seemed to be caught in sinful behaviors.