Why Did Hashem Create Us?

Hello. I am 17 years old. First, I would like to understand why Hashem created us. In other words, why does He need us? Second, why did He create us with the evil inclination? After all, He could have made us perfect. Third, why do we need to pray to Him? He is so great.

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Hello Avi, and thank you for the important questions.

Well, Hashem created us to bestow kindness upon us. If there were no humans, there would be no one to benefit from His goodness. The Creator made us like a parent who has everything and brings children into the world to share His goodness with them. This is the most rational and expected act from a perfect being: to share His perfection with those who are not perfect. This is also the purpose of the entire creation - giving. For this reason, humans were created.

However, humans were created incomplete, because a true relationship requires two sides. If the Creator always gives and the person cannot choose not to receive His goodness, it is a gift of grace ("free gift"), and from such forced giving, one cannot truly love the Creator and receive His love. Only because a person can choose to rebel against the commandments and love of the Creator, can they also attain His infinite love. Hashem created us with the evil inclination so that we have the choice to receive goodness from Him and decide for ourselves whether to accept the goodness and love Him at all costs, or, heaven forbid, to rebel against Him.

This is why humans were created incomplete and subject to trials and temptations in this temporary world.

If we delve deeper, we see that Judaism teaches us that perfect goodness is, in fact, the closeness of the soul to the blessed Creator: the righteous enjoy the World to Come because their pure soul is close to divine holiness, while the wicked suffer in the World to Come because their soul has distanced itself from the divine light. Now it is advisable to concentrate:

The divine good is, in fact, closeness to Hashem. Therefore, in order to be close to Him and connect to His eternal and infinite goodness, a person must resemble Him! For this reason, a person is created with a soul that is a "portion of Hashem from above," and it is what gives them the choice to resemble Hashem. And if you ask, "In what way do we resemble Him?", the answer will be: through our power of love!

This is actually the meaning of life: true unconditional love. Just as Hashem loves man and gives him everything unconditionally (for Hashem receives nothing from man), so too is man required to resemble the Creator and love Him with all his heart, without seeking reward. Free choice makes a person greater than an angel, for only they are capable of resembling Him by choosing between good and evil, thereby attaining His eternal closeness. This is the true power of love.

This is what the holy Torah teaches us (Deuteronomy 6:5): "And you shall love Hashem, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might." This is also what our Sages teach us in Pirkei Avot (Chapter 1, Mishnah 3): "Be like servants who serve the master not for the sake of receiving a reward."

This is, as is known, the virtue of all the great righteous people. They perform and study "Torah for its own sake," meaning they love the Creator unconditionally, not out of fear of punishment in the World to Come, or in pursuit of the pleasures of the World to Come.

However, such a high level is not required of us at the beginning of our journey, and therefore our Sages said: "From not for its own sake, one comes to for its own sake." Every Jew must initially serve Hashem out of a desire to reach the World to Come and avoid punishment. If you want to taste more of this wisdom, it is highly recommended for you to learn the books "The Path of the Just," "Ways of the Righteous," and "Duties of the Heart."

From this comes the answer to your last question: Hashem certainly does not need our prayers, as He created the entire world and lacks nothing. Quite the opposite: we, humans, need the prayers, in order to draw closer to Him! Through prayer, a person understands that everything is given to them by the Creator. They turn to Him in speech and thought, and build a spiritual connection with the One who created them. In doing so, they draw closer to Him more and more, and merit the holiness and eternity promised to them.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Bels.