Not only goodness that exists.
Goodness that can be noticed, chosen, appreciated, received, and expressed without shame.
To understand why goodness can be hidden, we first have to understand what we mean by the Creator.
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What do we mean by the Infinite Creator?
The Infinite Creator is not a bigger being somewhere inside the universe.
He is not a body.
He is not an object.
He is not a force trapped inside nature.
He is not a larger version of a human personality.
He is the Source of existence itself.
Everything exists because existence is continuously being given by Him.
So suffering does not happen in a world abandoned by the Creator.
It happens inside a creation continuously held in existence by Him, while built in a way that allows finite beings to experience separation, choice, responsibility, growth, and relationship.
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Why is hiddenness necessary for relationship?
Hiddenness is necessary for relationship.
A relationship between the Infinite Creator and a finite person is only possible when the finite person can experience themselves as a real individual with meaningful choices.
If the Creator's infiniteness and goodness were completely obvious, there would be no meaningful psychological space for a person to experience:
“I can choose how I respond.”
Kingship describes this relationship.
The King remains beyond the subject.
The subject remains a separate person.
And the subject can still live before the King, understand what He wants, respond to His will, and build relationship through choice.
A relationship with a king begins with awe.
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Goodness also has to be received with dignity.
The Creator did not only create a world where goodness is given.
He created a world where goodness can be discovered, chosen, revealed, and received without shame.
Passive goodness is not the deepest form of goodness.
A world in which human beings participate in revealing goodness contains dignity, responsibility, partnership, and relationship.
Your choices matter because the Creator chose for your choices to matter.
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What do light and vessels mean in Chassidus?
Chassidus explains this through the language of light and vessels.
Light is not physical light.
Light means what the Creator wants to reveal.
Vessels are the capacities that receive and express that revelation.
Wisdom.
Understanding.
Kindness.
Strength.
Beauty.
Determination.
And the other qualities built into creation and personality.
A vessel does not create the light.
Its role is to receive it, hold it, and express it.
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Chassidus describes an early stage of creation called Tohu.
Tohu contained enormous intensity without enough cooperation between the different qualities.
Kindness did not properly combine with strength.
Strength did not properly combine with compassion.
Each quality expressed itself too separately.
That caused shattering.
The problem was not the light.
The problem was that the vessels could not yet hold the intensity together.
The shattered pieces became part of the spiritual structure of the physical world.
Chassidus calls the goodness hidden inside those broken patterns sparks.
Our world therefore contains goodness mixed with distortion, fear, shame, selfishness, confusion, and self-protection.
The goodness is real.
But it is hidden inside broken patterns.
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How does the nervous system build survival patterns?
Psychology explains part of this from the level of the nervous system.
The nervous system protects life.
When danger becomes overwhelming, the personality adapts.
Fight (which often shows up as narcissism) says:
“I have to overpower this.”
Flight (which is avoidance) says:
“I have to escape this.”
Freeze (which looks like inaction or shutdown) says:
“There is nothing I can safely do.”
Fawn (which is people-pleasing) says:
“I have to keep this person happy so I stay safe.”
Control says:
“If I control enough, I can prevent pain.”
Numbing says:
“If I stop feeling, I do not have to face this.”
These patterns are intelligent during danger.
They become unhealthy when the nervous system keeps using survival strategies in situations that require relationship.
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Chassidus explains the deeper root.
A created being experiences itself as separate from its Source.
That felt separateness creates the possibility of:
“I am alone.”
“I have to protect myself.”
“Everything depends on me.”
That is the root of ego-consciousness.
Psychology explains how fear, shame, attachment, and trauma operate inside the nervous system.
Chassidus explains why a finite being can experience itself as separate and self-protective in the first place.
These are two layers of the same human experience.
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The story of Adam and Eve describes this movement into hiding.
After eating from the tree, they become ashamed and hide.
The problem is not only that they broke a command.
Their relationship changes.
Instead of simply living before the Creator, they begin living through shame, fear, and concealment.
That same pattern continues inside human personality.
We feel shame and hide.
We feel fear and control.
We feel hurt and avoid.
We feel insecure and people-please.
We begin living as though we are alone with the problem.
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What is awe, and when does it begin?
Survival mode is not awe.
Awe begins when you become emotionally aware:
“I am living before the Infinite Creator right now.”
Awe contains wonder because His wisdom and the depth of reality are far beyond what you can fully understand.
Awe contains humility because you are not the Source, you do not see the whole story, and reality is not under your control.
And awe contains healthy fear because your choices are real and matter.
That is awe.
Distance does not automatically become awe.
Fear does not automatically become awe.
Sadness does not automatically become awe.
Awe begins when the reality of the Creator becomes felt.
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Trust changes how awe feels.
If you experience the Infinite Creator as cruel or unpredictable, awareness of His greatness produces fear and distance.
When you trust that He is good, awe becomes the beginning of intimacy.
You can feel:
“I do not understand the whole story.”
“I cannot control reality.”
“My choices still matter.”
“And I am living before Someone whose purpose is good.”
Trust does not remove awe.
Trust allows you to remain inside awe without needing to run from it.
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Appreciation deepens both awe and love.
You begin noticing not only the Creator's greatness, but His goodness.
Life.
Ability.
People.
Opportunities.
Beauty.
Meaning.
Moments of care.
Things that worked out.
Things you depend on but did not create.
Appreciation gives the nervous system evidence that goodness is already present.
That deepens trust.
It also deepens awe because you become more aware of Who is giving.
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Love grows inside that relationship.
Love contains joy because some of the Creator's goodness and closeness are already revealed.
You feel:
“I am grateful for what I already receive.”
That intimacy also contains sadness because His goodness can always be more revealed.
You feel:
“I want to know You more.”
“I want to feel Your closeness more clearly.”
“I want more healing.”
“I want more of Your goodness revealed in my life and in the world.”
That sadness becomes longing.
Longing is one of the raw ingredients of love.
Sadness also deepens awe because it makes you look more carefully at the Creator, His purpose, what your choices mean, and how you can help reveal more goodness.
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What does healing actually build?
Healing is not only learning to feel better.
Healing increases the personality's ability to live in relationship.
It teaches the nervous system how to feel fear without letting fear control everything.
How to feel shame without hiding.
How to feel sadness without collapsing.
How to feel anger without becoming cruel.
How to care without people-pleasing.
How to set boundaries without dominating.
How to experience uncertainty without trying to control reality.
Healing builds stronger vessels.
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In psychological language, healing means learning to notice protective patterns without treating them as your whole identity.
In IFS language, it means relating to frightened, controlling, numb, angry, or people-pleasing parts with compassion instead of allowing them to run the entire personality.
In Chassidus, it means becoming less trapped inside the experience of separateness and more capable of living before the Creator.
That is the movement from survival mode into relationship mode.
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The transformation looks like this:
Fight becomes courage, leadership, and compassionate boundaries.
Flight becomes determination, focus, and healthy action.
Freeze becomes awareness, patience, and presence.
Fawn (which is people-pleasing) becomes empathy, fairness, and genuine care.
Shame becomes self-compassion and responsibility.
Control becomes trust and boundaries.
Blame becomes ownership.
Numbness becomes the practice of feeling.
Isolation becomes the practice of connection.
The survival pattern was not meaningless.
It contained a strength that had not yet learned how to live in relationship.
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This requires awareness, compassion, boundaries, self-forgiveness, and responsibility.
Awareness helps you notice what is happening.
Compassion lets you listen without attacking yourself.
Boundaries let you care without abandoning yourself.
Self-forgiveness allows you to begin again.
Responsibility lets you choose what you want to do next.
These are psychological skills and spiritual skills at the same time.
They make more of the personality capable of living before the Creator without shutting down.
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Suffering can therefore become wisdom.
Not because suffering is the goal.
Because healing transforms what suffering taught you.
Someone who healed people-pleasing can teach genuine care with boundaries.
Someone who healed control can teach responsibility without domination.
Someone who healed shame can teach compassion without denial.
Someone who healed numbness can help other people find words for what they feel.
Darkness becomes useful when it is transformed into goodness.
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This transformation also happens across generations.
Families pass down beliefs, emotional habits, fears, relationship patterns, and ways of responding to stress.
Children learn from the nervous systems around them.
So healing one person's patterns changes what can be passed to the next generation.
A nervous system that learned:
“Hide.”
“Control.”
“Please.”
“Do not feel.”
can learn:
“Notice.”
“Speak.”
“Set a boundary.”
“Repair.”
“Ask for help.”
“Begin again.”
That is how humanity becomes able to hold more goodness.
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What is the messianic era moving toward?
This explains the direction of the messianic era and the world to come.
The goal is not only that goodness exists.
The goal is that goodness becomes openly known and experienced.
Human beings become able to recognize the Creator's goodness instead of experiencing hiddenness only as abandonment, chaos, or meaninglessness.
The light does not become better.
The goodness was already there.
The vessels become more able to receive and express it.
Meaning us.
Our minds.
Our emotions.
Our relationships.
Our communities.
Our choices.
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That is why repairing relationships is central to human purpose.
Not only relationships between individuals.
Relationships inside families.
Communities.
Nations.
Every act of repair teaches the world how to hold more goodness without turning it into control, shame, hatred, avoidance, or exploitation.
The goal is not only to receive goodness.
It is to become a person who can recognize goodness, receive it, appreciate it, and pass it forward responsibly.
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This is also why the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe matter so much for this generation.
Chabad Chassidus has spent more than 200 years developing detailed explanations of the Creator, creation, hiddenness, the soul, emotions, choice, and relationship.
The Rebbe developed those ideas across tens of thousands of pages of teachings and applied them to ordinary life.
His teachings explain how deep ideas about the Creator change the way a person thinks, feels, prays, relates, chooses, and takes responsibility.
That is why his teachings continue to guide this generation.
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Underneath all of this is an even deeper structure.
Creation is not only made of physical objects.
Life contains processes:
Pleasure.
Desire.
Emotion.
Understanding.
Choice.
Pleasure is the experience of goodness.
Desire reaches toward goodness.
Emotion is how that movement feels from the inside.
Understanding helps us recognize what is true.
Choice allows us to decide how to respond.
Human beings are not created only to react.
We are created to understand and choose.
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What does it mean to be created in the image of G-d?
That is part of what it means to be created in the image of G-d.
It does not mean the Creator has a body like ours.
The Rambam explains it through the human capacity for intelligence.
We can recognize patterns.
We can search for truth.
We can question our first reaction.
We can understand meaning.
We can choose differently.
Human beings therefore have two extraordinary capacities:
To understand.
And to choose.
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Creation was built for conscious relationship.
Awe lets you feel Who you are living before.
Trust lets you remain in relationship with Someone infinitely beyond your control.
Appreciation helps you notice His goodness.
Joy lets you enjoy the goodness already revealed.
Sadness can make you desire more goodness to be revealed.
Longing deepens love.
Love creates the desire for greater closeness.
Choice gives that relationship a physical form.
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So the goal is not merely that goodness exists.
The goal is that goodness becomes recognized.
Chosen.
Appreciated.
Shared.
And received without shame.
Creation exists so finite beings can freely live in relationship with the Infinite Creator and help reveal His goodness inside the lowest and most ordinary parts of life.
People-pleasing, control, avoidance, aggression, numbness, and shame all grow from the same basic experience:
“I am alone, and I have to protect myself.”
Healing teaches a deeper truth:
“I am a separate person with real choices, but I am not alone.”
That is where survival becomes relationship.
That is where hidden goodness becomes revealed.
And that is how the personality becomes a vessel for intimacy with the Creator
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Visit the blog for more spiritual and psychology education.
Related guides:
Psychology of healthy prayer explained.
How are jewish beliefs psychologically more healthy then all other belief structures?
Questions people ask
Why would the Infinite Creator hide His goodness?
Hiddenness makes real relationship possible. If the Creator’s infiniteness and goodness were completely obvious, a finite person would have no psychological space to feel, “I can choose how I respond.” Existence is still continuously given by Him, so suffering never means the world was abandoned.
What do fight, flight, freeze and fawn mean?
These are survival patterns the nervous system uses to protect life. Fight says, “I have to overpower this.” Flight says, “I have to escape this.” Freeze says, “There is nothing I can safely do.” Fawn (which is people-pleasing) says, “I have to keep this person happy so I stay safe.” They are intelligent during danger.
Which emotional skills turn survival mode into relationship?
Five emotional skills carry the change: awareness, compassion, boundaries, self-forgiveness and responsibility. Awareness helps you notice what is happening. Compassion lets you listen without attacking yourself. Boundaries let you care without abandoning yourself. Self-forgiveness lets you begin again. Responsibility lets you choose what you want to do next.
Can suffering become something useful?
Suffering is not the goal, but healing can transform what it taught you. Someone who healed people-pleasing can teach genuine care with boundaries. Someone who healed control can teach responsibility without domination. Someone who healed shame can teach compassion without denial. Darkness becomes useful when it is turned into goodness.
Explore the NextSelf Blog. Start with this post explaining the world of souls. And my Youtube.
The blog lists all the difference patterns to study, understanding patterns is how one can develop 'Daas' [felt knowing].
Update: As awe, trust, and love deepen, they can allow greater openness and intimacy with the Creator. That intimacy can include sadness when you notice how much more of His goodness can be revealed.