Why did God create the world and/or humanity? There are verses in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) which some take as alluding to a reason, but nowhere do we find a paragraph that really addresses this.
However, in Judaism we don’t restrict ourselves to the Bible alone. We understand that our Bible was transmitted side by side with an oral tradition. We call this our Torah she’be’al peh תורה שבעל פה, oral law. So we asked our Jewish friends: according to our wide ranging traditions, what reasons have been offered for why God created the universe
Alec Goldstein (*) of Kodesh Press offers a masterful range of answers:
• Why did God create the world and/or humanity? There’s a lot here. Obviously if you have an Aristotelian/Maimonidean conception of God, the question is absurd.
• Some Jewish mysticism views the matter differently. They would say that on some level God needs us.
• In the ancient Near East, man was created to do the work of the gods (Enuma Elish and Atra Hasis). Our biblical account blows the pagan idea up in subtle ways.
• Some creation is an act of altruism/grace/chesed. See Emunot ve-De’ot 3 (intro), Derech Hashem 1
• Man was created to be purified – Midrash Genesis Rabbah 44:1, Midrash Leviticus Rabbah 13:3 among others
• We were created to know God – see Abraham Ibn Ezra’s commentary to Hosea 6:3, and RambaN (Nahmanides) to Exodus 13:16
• To follow the Torah – Pirkei Avot
• For God’s glory – Isaiah 43:7
• Man was created to populate/civilize the world – lo lo-tohu vera’ah
• Socrates says that the highest good man can achieve is virtue (Apology 37e-38a) (a slightly different point but worth considering. (Yes, not technically a Jewish answer, but much of the Jewish tradition respects and quotes Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.)
• Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik would say – we just don’t know.
• Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson says God created it to create a dirah ba-tachtonim, based on (midrash) Tanchuma Naso 16
• Some creation is an act of altruism/grace/chesed. See Emunot ve-De’ot 3 (intro), Derech Hashem 1 (*)
The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, Emunot ve-De’ot, is a book written by Saadia Gaon in 933 CE. It is the first systematic presentation and philosophic foundation of the dogmas of Judaism.
Alec has smichah from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at YU.
Beyond these fabulous ideas brought forth by Alec. our friends have pointed out many more possibly unexpected and yet evocative possible answers:
Rabbi Shimon Shkop writes in his introduction to Shaarei Yosher.
Praised shall be the Creator, and exalted shall be the Maker, Who created us in His ‘Image’ and in the likeness of His ‘Structure’, and planted eternal life within us [i.e. gave us the Torah], so that our greatest desire should be to do good to others, to individuals and to the masses, now and in the future, in imitation of the Creator (as it were.)
For everything God created and formed was according to His will (may it be blessed), [that is] only to be good to the creations. So too God’s will is that we walk in His ways. As it says “and you shall walk in His Ways” (Devarim 28:9) – that we, the select of what He made – should constantly hold as our purpose to sanctify our physical and spiritual powers for the good of the many, according to our abilities.
Other ideas:
God was lonely. This idea appears again and again in Kabbalah.
According to Elie Wiesel, God made humans because God loves stories.
The prophet Yeshayahu (Isaiah) notes that ultimately God’s intentions and thoughts are beyond human ken. See Isaiah 55:8
כִּי לֹא מַחְשְׁבוֹתַי מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵיכֶם, וְלֹא דַרְכֵיכֶם דְּרָכָי–נְאֻם, יְהוָה.
כִּי-גָבְהוּ שָׁמַיִם, מֵאָרֶץ–כֵּן גָּבְהוּ דְרָכַי מִדַּרְכֵיכֶם, וּמַחְשְׁבֹתַי מִמַּחְשְׁבֹתֵיכֶם.
For My plans are not your plans, nor are My ways your ways, declares the Lord. But as the heavens are high above the earth, so are My ways high above your ways and My plans above your plans.
(*) Alec Goldstein received his rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and his B.A. in French Language and Literature from Yeshiva University. He is the founder of Kodesh Press.
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