The Third Path of Thought in Times of Crisis: The Illusion of Materialism

In the holy Zohar it is written: “A person’s prayer is a spiritual service. It rises through heavenly secrets, breaking through atmospheres and firmaments, opening gates, and ascending upward. Yet people don’t realize that human prayer pierces the skies.”

The Talmud states: “Rabbi Yitzchak said: Four things tear up a person’s negative decree- charity, heartfelt outcry, changing one’s name, and changing one’s behavior.”

The “outcry” refers to sincere prayer from the depths of the heart. In the book Nefesh HaChaim, it is explained at length how prayer spiritually repairs the upper worlds. This explains why, as our sages taught, G-d desires the prayers of the righteous, because their prayers cause spiritual repair above and bring divine abundance to those in need. As the Zohar explains in Parshat Toldot, this is what happened with the prayer of Yitzchak.

This is the deeper meaning of the verse in the Midrash: “Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; though I have fallen, I rise. Though I sit in darkness, G-d is my light.” Our sages taught: From anger comes mercy, from darkness comes light, from hardship comes relief, from distance comes closeness, and from falling comes rising.

Every hardship contains the potential for great good to emerge. This perspective can help a person find joy even in suffering, recognizing it as part of a greater good.

The Third Path: The Illusion of the Material

This path of reflection may appear lofty but is in fact simple and truthful. Often, sadness stems from material losses such as missing out on a job, financial setbacks, broken valuables, unreturned loans, or failed business ventures.

It is important to understand however, that everything material is a tangible illusion, suited to our physical senses. Physicists know that all matter is made of invisible atoms, each with a dense nucleus and fast-moving electrons circling it. These electrons create the appearance of solid matter- much like a fast-spinning fan appears as a disc. Trillions of these atoms together create what we perceive as solid objects.

To put it in perspective: within the tip of a needle are trillions of atoms. The space between the nucleus and the electron cloud is, proportionally, like a small box in the middle of a giant stadium. What we call “matter” is essentially a collection of imagined boundaries and empty space.

Scientists do not know what sustains the energy that keeps these electrons in motion. And should they stop, the entire material universe would collapse, disappearing in an instant, leaving behind only a minuscule speck of matter.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah however, we are assured that this won't happen, because true reality is spiritual.

As a Father Has Compassion

A person who internalizes the temporary and illusory nature of the physical world, and understands that the eternal reality is spiritual, can better answer the painful question: If G-d loves us, why is there so much suffering in the world?

While Kabbalists have long explained this through the concept of reincarnation, where souls return to rectify past wrongs (e.g., perhaps a Nazi war criminal is reborn and now suffers deeply), the question still arises when someone close to us suffers deeply: How can G-d allow such pain?

One who rises above material perception and sees the body as a temporary outer layer will understand that true reality lies in the spiritual dimension. What we see as suffering may only be temporary and subjective, and does not reflect the eternal soul's reality.

Indeed, in this physical world we are commanded to show compassion and assist others, and to care for their material needs with sensitivity. This is part of our spiritual mission. As one sage put it: “The wise person builds his next world through the physical world of his friend.” That is, we earn eternal merit by helping others in their physical needs, just as the Torah commands in its many laws of kindness and compassion.

However, when suffering is divinely decreed, it is never out of cruelty. From the higher, spiritual perspective, it is an act of good that benefits the eternal soul, which is the true self.

Since matter is an illusion, physical pleasures (and pains) are both temporary and imagined, while spiritual pleasure is real and eternal.