walk and think; because if you only think you won't get anywhere

There are things beyond our grasp. Not only those things which are beyond our grasp simply because of the monumental effort necesary to achieve them; (naming all the animals in a forest) nor those things which lack a sufficiently clear definition. (counting all the grains of sand on a beach--where does the beach end and the ocean floor begin?)

There are things that are more basic and more impossible to understand. Take randomness as an example. Human beings are very poor at recognising randomness, why? Because our every neuron is designed to weed out the random in favor of patterns. By our nature, randomness is extremely difficult (for us) to grasp.

Yesterday's Tanya discusses our inability to grasp or understand God. He says that a brilliant person is no different than a simpleton when it comes to believing in God. Believing in God is a realm entirely beyond the realm of understanding God. A simpleton will sacrifice his life in God's name just as quickly as a very learned person. More than that, the Baal HaTanya explains, the act of sacrificing yourself in God's name is irrespective of your knowledge--even the learned man throws himself into the fire not because of his ideas or his knoweldge, but because of the deep ingrained truth in all of us, that God is the Master of the world.

For the second time in less than a week, the Baal HaTanya is undermining my whole world view. So, we might be tempted to throw out any rational thought if it doesn't help in the pursuit of God. Of course, it's not that simple. One of the most important things in problem solving is knowing your limitations. If you know your limits, then you have freedom of creativity to experiment within those limits. By finding the boundaries we expose all the potential that does exist. It is precisely this potential that God wants from us. While we are limited physical beings, there are things about the physical world that themselves defy logical inquiry. Xeno's paradox isn't flawed. In a sense it is impossible to get anywhere. We confound logic every time we do get somewhere. This is because actions in this physical world clothe God's infinite light. This light within us, vested in our actions, gives us the ability to overstep the limitations of logic/reason and act. Our actions, because they are already beyond knowledge and understanding, allow us to cleave to our infinite and otherwise unreachable Creator.

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