The Teachings of Rebbe Pinchas of Koretz and His Disciple, Rebbe Raphael of Bershad
ON THE IMMANENCE OF G-D
R’ Pinchas said: “‘If a man fulfills the commandments of the Torah, such as the commandment of the phylacteries, and says the formula prescribed by the Kabbalists, namely, “In the name of all Israel [I am doing this]” then he lifts up the whole universe to its “root” above, for the world is really G-d Himself, like the locust whose clothing is part of its own self [i.e. its own wings garb its body]. Therefore, he annihilates [by his action] the [outward] existence of the whole universe. And if we see that in spite of all this the world is still there, it is because the vital energy of G-d is always active and the world is incessantly renewed.’ In contrast, then, to classical Kabbalistic theurgy, where mitzvot transform the G-dhead’s inner state, for Hasidism, mitzvot transform the worshipper’s field of vision” *
*Midrash Pinhas, 1872, 9b, 60 (A), cited in Devekut, or communion with G-d, by Gershom Scholem, in Essential Papers on Hasidism: Origins to Present, edited by Gershon David Hundert, p. 296 (B)
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