The Divine Plan, or B’Derech Hashem, is the way in which Hashem manifests Oneself in our universe. Our Kabbalistic sources teach us that creation is expressed in three dimensions: Olam (World), Shana (Year) and Nefesh (Spirit). In practical terms, we experience these dimensions as space, time, and human experience. Understanding how Hashem and Torah are expressed in these dimensions helps us to understand the purpose of the world and of humanity, and helps us to find our own place in it. By studying our social and historical context, we can locate ourselves on Hashem’s map of existence.

Olam

The environment in which we live constitutes Olam. On a micro scale, we live in the environment of our physical form, and much of our individual life experiences are regulated by genetics, our capabilities, and the limits of the human body. Understanding our biochemistry allows us to care for our bodies so that we may use it to interface with the world. On a macro level and meta level, we live in the environment of our tangible surroundings, of earth and air and water, and within the planetary ecosystem. Learning about these things may contribute to one’s appreciation for the beauty and complexity of the world Hashem has designed for us and to allow us to care for it.

Shana

Time is also studied on a micro, macro, and meta scale. Individually, we experience time in a linear fashion, such that we have memories of the past, experience in the present, and expectations for the future. Each individual goes through their own lifecycle, progressing from infancy to childhood and adolescence, adulthood and seniority linearly through the passage of time. As we see in Pirkei Avot (5:25), each phase of one’s life brings its own opportunities, and B’Derech Hashem can help guide us along that journey.

On a macro level, we tend to experience time as cyclical; we go through the cycle of a day, a week, and month and a year, repeating the same circadian rhythms, the same work and weekend schedule, and the same holidays over and over, reaching the end of the cycle simply to start again. By gaining a deeper understanding of these cycles, of what is represented by day and night, by each month, each season, each shmita cycle, we can relate more fully to the cosmic purpose and powers inherent in these times.

Taking a step back to see the bigger picture, we are able to see that time is neither linear nor cyclical, rather it functions as a spiral or helix: it revolves around and around, passing the same daily, weekly, yearly milestones as each previous round (cyclical), but with each revolution we move forward, progressing along a meta timeline (linear). Since Creation, the world has been repeating the seven day cycle so that not a week has ever gone by without a Shabbat, but surely Shabbat was experienced differently during the time of the Avot than it was during the time that the Mishkan was being built or as we experience it today. The sanctity of Shabbat has always been on constant repeat, but as generations came and went, humanity began to relate to that sanctity differently.

The Talmud teaches that, on a truly grand scale, the world is progressing from the creation of Adam until a definite endpoint, the Messianic Era. Everything we know as the human species is occurring between these posts of Year 0 and Year 6000, and the Talmud further specifies that this includes 2,000 years of Tohu, 2,000 years of Torah, and 2,000 years of Yemot HaMashiach (Sanhedrin 97a). At the end of this progression, the world will experience a seventh millennium of Shabbat, the time period after the revelation of Mashiach. 

As time marches onward, the world has gone through periods with various themes and developments, and the Kabbalists explain how these developments relate to the Ten Emanations, i.e., the Ten Sefirot. Each of the lower seven sefirot correlates to one of the millenia, adding up to 6,000 years plus 1,000 years of universal shabbat. These seven sefirot are: Chesed, Gevura, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. With sensitivity and understanding of the sefirot, one can plot the progression of time, with its developments and motifs, from an era of chesed through the era of yesod, the era in which we currently live. The significance of seeing this timeline is that  if we understand the manifestation of our meta-timeline, and if we can understand the themes of the specific millennia we find ourselves in, we can get a “workbook” of what we should be doing in each generation.

By understanding the characteristics of the sefirot, and then superimposing them onto our meta timeline, one can uncover a very defined understanding of the issues that will arise in each generation and what exactly we will need to work on to be successful in each time period.

Nefesh

The third aspect of study within the topic of the Divine Plan is that of humanity and its role. What is our purpose as human beings in this world? What are we here for? What exactly is the “success” we are striving for with each material manifestation and during each phase of the timeline?

One understanding, as taught in Kabbalah (and, in particular, by the Ramchal and the Vilna Gaon) is that when Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there was a “shattering of the vessels.” These “vessels” are considered to have contained God-clarity (Ohr Ein Sof), which, upon the destruction of i’s “vessels,” became “fragmented” and scattered throughout the world, becoming “trapped” in time and space. These “fragments” of God-clarity are called Netzotzei Kedusha, literally meaning “sparks of holiness.” Since then, humanity has been releasing and elevating these “fragments” of God-clarity with our activities. All of humanity, the nations of the world, the Jewish people, and every individual each has a role to play. Ultimately, when we release and elevate all of these fragments of holiness and God-clarity, the Messianic era will arrive.

The specific role of the Jewish people is to live Torah. This means that each Jew is to be a spiritual master, learning, practicing and educating those around us and all of humanity, facilitating the reunification of the Ohr Ein Sof.

We are to be of service to the world, shining Hashem into the world by way of conscious Torah study and practice to help usher in an era of universal Oneness.