Chapter N – Judgment and Kindness

Why can't a completely perfect world exist?

"In the beginning it arose in thought to create the world with the attribute of judgment; He saw that the world could not endure, so He joined to it the attribute of mercy."

In Neo's meeting with the Architect, the Architect tells him that the creation of the "Matrix" was really done in partnership with the Oracle. He confesses to him, with great difficulty, that in the first attempts he did indeed try to create it alone, but because of his limitation – stemming from his precise mathematical thinking (law and order) and his confinement to parameters of perfection – he did not succeed. Smith, in his conversation with Morpheus, confirms this history that preceded the present Matrix and tells him that entire crops of souls placed in this first world did not accept the illusion and woke up from it. They could not live inside this "radiant" world of kindness and perfection. So the Architect re-examined, and for the creation of the present Matrix he brought in the Oracle, who "specializes" in the human soul. She advised him to create a less "perfect" world, with tests, problems and struggles, in order to give the souls playing in it an illusion of choice. This world most souls were already willing to accept, because they felt it was more real (more similar to the original).

Folded into this creation story is one of the foundations for understanding the forces of which the reality we live in is made. The Architect and the Oracle are parables for the two fundamental forces that exist in the world: the attribute of Chesed – kindness, love (which bursts and breaks through all limits); and the attribute of Din – judgment, law and limit, awe.

The Me'or Einayim explains one of the famous sayings of the Sages: "At first it arose in the thought (of the Creator) to create the world with the attribute of judgment; He saw that the world could not endure, so He stood and joined to it the attribute of mercy (kindness)." He explains that this sentence must be read with different punctuation: at first it arose to create the world with the attribute of judgment – why? – because He saw that the world could not endure (with the attribute of kindness alone). Therefore judgment was needed: the contraction of the great light of kindness, which is beyond every limit and end, so that the existence of a world and of creatures with limit and end would be possible at all. And this is called the attribute of mercy (rachamim) – a partnership between kindness, which is infinite light, and laws and limits (judgment).

This explanation fits very beautifully with the parable of the Architect and the Oracle. The Architect is the symbol of law – the balancing of mathematical equations down to the smallest parameters; precision and perfectionism. The Oracle, by contrast, symbolizes the love that breaks through the limits of order – her role is to bring things out of the cold mathematical balance.

The first Matrix was an attempt to create with the attribute of kindness – a world of perfection. It did not last. People could not stand the light of the great kindness. Only a contraction of this light, and the creation of a world in which kindness is hidden and, because of this concealment, there is seemingly pain and suffering, gave the creatures a place and a possibility to exist in it.

What can we learn from this story? The Me'or Einayim continues and teaches that from this a person should understand: just as in the creation of the world the Creator had to contract the light of kindness and love in order to give room for the world and the creatures to exist – without which they would have been nullified in His infinite light – with the aim that through this contraction they would exist and be able in the end to recognize His love and greatness; so too in the life of the individual person, the difficulties and sufferings are also a contraction and a preparation that he must go through in order to receive the great light prepared for him, awaiting him at the end of the test.

Here lies the secret of the Matrix.

The world is an illusion, a concealment of the light of truth, whose purpose is to serve as a training platform for discovering it and cleaving to it. A concealment whose purpose is revelation – a living union of complementary opposites. The Creator concealed so that we would reveal. Had He not concealed, we could not see. The Sages compare this to looking at the sun: it is impossible to see it without a filter that conceals it. To see it and look at it, one must conceal it.

In photography we see a parallel example. For a good picture to come out, and for the light not to burn the film, before opening the lens one must first set the aperture (tzamtzam – the same word as contraction): reduce (contract) the amount of light coming in to the level the film can cope with (the sensitivity of the receiver). Then one can open up the light of kindness, which will wash over the film in the desired measure.

Whoever understands this idea and internalizes it is the happiest of men. He understands that all the bad traits in him, all the misfortunes that happen to him and all the "bad luck" that is his lot, are all contractions of the light of the infinite kindness and love with which the "Supreme Planner" loves him – meant to prepare him for the opening of his personal lens and for receiving the light in the measure and sensitivity for which he is ready. The very acceptance of this is the vessel through which the infinite abundance will flow to him. This acceptance creates the vessel for containing that light.

The Netivot Shalom teaches that this acceptance of all the tests sent by the loving "Programmer," with the recognition that His intention is good, awakens, measure for measure, the "Programmer's" acceptance of you back to Him, in whatever state you may be – and this is the secret of happiness and fulfillment.

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Translated from the Hebrew chapter "דין וחסד" by Roni Ayalon-Hirsch.