Does God Really Care About the Details?

Does God really care if I eat a cheeseburger? Does it really matter whether I light my Shabbat candles a minute before or after sunset?

Does God really care about these picayune details? Isn’t the most important thing that I’m a good person?

Why would an intangible, infinite, eternal Being care what we tiny, limited, creatures do in this finite, physical world? Aren’t these just insignificant details compared to the big picture?

Yes, the big picture is essential but the “details” are crucial to its implementation. As our Creator and Manufacturer, God knows how we can best function and has given us an instruction manual—the Torah—complete with a myriad of detailed directions. These “details”—the 613 mitzvot—are our instructions for living the best possible life in this world. These instructions pertain to our thoughts, words, emotions, and bodies. We’re called upon to manipulate various physical objects in our environment in specific ways and at specific times. And it’s all for the ultimate good of ourselves and our world.

Details matter. Just ask the person responsible for tightening the bolts on the exit door of one of Boeing’s Max 8 jets. He didn’t sufficiently tighten the bolts and as a result, the entire door blew off in mid-flight.¹ Oops.

It’s through these mitzvot—these “details of life”—that we can affect not only earthbound phenomena, but the spiritual infrastructure of the heavens as well.

But these instructions don’t just affect our earthly world. It’s through these mitzvot—these “details of life”—that we can affect not only earthbound phenomena, but the spiritual infrastructure of the heavens as well.

Here’s what Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, 19^th century scholar, educator and author of the seminal philosophical work Nefesh HaChaim wrote:

“… When God created man, He empowered him to control countless forces and worlds, handing them over to him so that he should direct them according to his actions, words, or thoughts, whether for good or, God forbid, for the opposite. With his good deeds, words and thoughts, man sustains and gives energy to countless forces and holy celestial worlds, increasing their holiness and light, as it says, ‘I have placed My words in your mouth… to implant the heavens and to set a foundation for the earth.’²”³

But how?

How could whether I eat from Karoline’s Kosher Kitchen or from Sam’s Seafood Supermarket affect the highest spiritual worlds?

Reaching Into a Higher Realm

Each mitzvah we do is like a handle with one end attached to this world and the other attached up to the heavens. Each time we do a mitzvah, we are turning this handle and releasing a flood of spiritual light—not only into our world, but also into the higher heavenly worlds.

Unfortunately, we three-dimensional beings can’t see beyond our limited three-dimensional senses into these higher-dimensional worlds. Our sages, however, assure us that although we can’t see what our actions affect, we are making great changes in these highest heavenly realms.

Perhaps, we can understand this by imagining how an inhabitant of a lower dimensional world would perceive a visit from a higher dimensional creation.

Contemporary Torah scholar Sarah Yehudit Schneider in “Evolutionary Creationism” explores Edwin Abbott’s 19^th century political satire called “Flatland” (also popularized by Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” series). “Flatland” describes a flat world of only two dimensions where everyone and everything is absolutely flat. Concepts such as “up” and “down” don’t exist; the only directions in Flatland are “side to side” and “front to back.” All reality in Flatland exists on a flat two-dimensional surface, and all the different creations of this world (e.g., triangles, squares, circles, hexagons, etc.) are all completely flat.

How can you tell the shape of another “inhabitant” of Flatland? Not by looking down on it from above or looking up at it from below, since there is no such thing as “above” or “below.” You can only determine its shape by moving around its perimeter and seeing how many and what kinds of sides it has.

How would you be able to tell if a shape is approaching you or moving farther away? Only by discerning whether the line (that is the other object) is becoming wider or narrower or more or less clear as the distance between you decreases or increases.

Now, let’s imagine that there are three dimensional objects existing concurrently alongside these two-dimensional shapes. How would a two-dimensional Flatlander perceive a three-dimensional object?

Try picturing an object high above the flat two-dimensional “board” of Flatland. Picture, for example, a hot, boiling tea kettle moving through the air. A Flatlander would hear its piercing whistle but since he can’t sense up and down, he would see nothing. All he knows is that he hears a sound and it’s coming out of nowhere!

Now, imagine that this tea kettle has actually landed on Flatland’s two-dimensional surface. How would a Flatlander perceive this three-dimensional object? First, as he approached, he’d see a silvery line, and the closer he would come, the more he’d feel its heat. As he would move around it, he’d see that it was actually a circle... a hot noisy silver circle.

If this tea kettle was able to pass through Flatland’s two-dimensional surface, he would see this round silvery metal circle change as different, three-dimensional cross sections of the kettle would begin to move through the single plane of Flatland’s two-dimensional surface... until finally, as the tea kettle completed its passage through Flatland, it would disappear completely into nothingness. Only its whistle would remain, hanging in the void.

All the inhabitants of Flatland would wonder at this strange phenomenon. They could see and touch part of it (ouch!) but since it didn’t compute with the “natural laws of Flatland,” they would have no idea of what they had experienced.

Even though we can’t fully wrap our head around these higher dimensions, we can still affect them.

In the same way, if we, in our three-dimensional world, were to encounter a higher dimensional entity, we too might hear sounds or feel sensations that would appear unattached to the reality as we know it. We too might experience things that cannot be explained by our natural laws. Since we only have certain, limited perceptual tools, we can’t understand phenomena that are based in higher worlds.

Even though we can’t fully wrap our head around these higher dimensions, we can still affect them.

Just imagine that Mr. Square takes out his two dimensional Black and Decker and drills a hole in the side of this silver circle, unleashing a flood of boiling water over the surface of his world. He, living in two dimensions, has no understanding of why this water suddenly appeared. To a three-dimensional being, it’s perfectly clear.

We three-dimensional beings can affect higher dimensions, even though we can’t fully perceive them. For example, it may seem, from our limited perspective, that all we’re doing is eating a meal of meat and potatoes, but the reality is that when the meat is kosher and the potatoes are served without butter, we are creating spiritual fountains of light that burst into the heavens like firecrackers in the night sky. Even though we can’t sense a thing.

The Torah gives us clear, detailed instructions for creating kingdoms of light in a higher spiritual dimension. Since we’re blindfolded down here by our limited senses, we don’t fully understand how these simple physical acts could possibly be the bricks and mortar of this higher reality. Ultimately, once we move on to the Next World, we get to see what we’ve created.

So while you’re here, grab those opportunities to make the world—both heaven and earth—a better place. Do a mitzvah and tap into the source of holy, heavenly light.

1. https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/united-airlines-found-loose-bolts-on-grounded-boeing-737-max-9-jetliners)
2. Yeshayahu 51:16
3. Rav Chaim Volozhin. 2009. Nefesh Hachaim 1:3