I am G-d who rests amongst them, even amidst their failings”
This description of G-ds commitment to humanity means that no one can say, ‘I am too far gone to live a moral and spiritual life.” Regardless of how far a person may have strayed, regardless of how much a person may have rejected his spiritual self, like a parent his Creator never rejects him.
Rabbi Nahman wrote about the intensity of depression he experienced during his difficult life and stated that at times he felt he was in the very depths of hell, so crushed that he believed no greater abyss could exist. His only source of solace was the verse in Tehilim(139:8) “If I rise up to the heavens, You are there, and if I am in the depths of hell, You are there too.” Since there is no place devoid of G-d, one is never alone, even when one is in the depths of severe depression and despair, because his Creator is there, too.
In response to people who say, “I am spiritually beyond redemption”, G-d replies, “I am with you, even then”.
The Rabbi concluded, “you can be for G-d, and you can be against G-d, you just cannot be without G-d”, because even if man abandons Him, He never abandons man.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Shaul
