Why Did God Create the World?

Three classical answers — the rationalist, the kabbalist, and the Hasidic — and why each is illuminating.

By The Editors

Diving Deeper · 3 minute read

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Summary. Why God created the world is among the oldest Jewish questions. The Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim) argued that the question is improperly posed: creation reflects God’s wisdom, not a need. The Arizal taught that creation arose through tzimtzum — divine contraction making space for finite being — and shevirat hakelim, the shattering of vessels whose sparks now await our gathering. Hasidism, especially Chabad, frames creation as “bishvil Yisrael” — for the sake of Israel and the relational possibility of love. The question is one a New Jew should sit with, not rush to answer.

The Rationalist Answer (Rambam)

The Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim III:13) argues that creation is the expression of God’s will; the search for a “why” imports human categories of purpose that may not apply to God. The world exists because God willed it to exist. The Rambam’s philosophical asceticism here is striking: the question is closed not by an answer but by a refusal to ask.

The Kabbalist Answer (Arizal)

Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534–1572) developed the most influential mystical account. Before creation, there was only Or Ein Sof — the infinite divine light, occupying all that is. For there to be a world of finite beings, God performed tzimtzum — a contraction, withdrawing the divine light from a “space” in which creation could occur. Into that space, God emitted divine light through a series of vessels (the kelim) corresponding to the Sefirot. The lower vessels could not contain the light and shattered — shevirat hakelim. The sparks of light scattered into the realms of impurity (the klipot). The work of every Jew, in every mitzvah, is birur — sifting the sparks from the husks and returning them to their Source. (See the Editor’s treatise on gilgul, reformatted in this Field Guide, for the soul-level extension of this teaching.)

The Hasidic Answer (Baal Shem Tov, Chabad)

Hasidism, particularly in its Chabad form, frames creation in relational terms. Drawing on the Midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 1:4, 1:6) that the world was created bishvil Yisrael — for the sake of Israel — Hasidism teaches that God created the world to have a finite being to love and be loved by. The very phrase Pri etz hadar (“fruit of a beautiful tree”) for the etrog of Sukkot is read as alluding to God’s desire (chemda) for relationship.

The Modern Question

Modern Jewish thinkers have continued the conversation. Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik in The Lonely Man of Faith reads the dual creation narratives of Bereshit 1 and 2 as describing two human archetypes — Adam I (the dignified master of nature) and Adam II (the covenantal partner with God). Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg in The Triumph of Life reads the entire arc of creation, revelation, and redemption as God’s patient self-effacing pedagogy training humanity into covenantal adulthood. None of these answers is final; all are conversations.

Where Denominations Diverge

Orthodox theology accommodates the rationalist, kabbalistic, and Hasidic answers all within its bounds. Conservative thinkers (notably Heschel, Borowitz, Greenberg) have continued the tradition with phenomenological and process-theological emphases. Reform classical theology was largely rationalist (in the Maimonidean key); contemporary Reform is more open to mystical readings. Reconstructionist theology, following Kaplan, often reads creation in naturalistic terms.

Sources

Rambam, Moreh Nevuchim III:13.

Arizal (via Chaim Vital), Etz Chaim.

Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 1:4, 1:6.

Baal Shem Tov, Keter Shem Tov.

Joseph Soloveitchik, The Lonely Man of Faith.