FINDING OURSELVES THROUGH OTHERS

By Sara Esther Crispe

There is a story of a teenage boy who was suffering from typical teenage angst and went to the Rebbe for advice. He was having a difficult time and kept slipping back into situations that he knew were not right for him. He asked the Rebbe: How come God didn't just create us as angels? If He had, we would be perfect and we wouldn't make such mistakes and create such problems.

God wants us to be unique individuals The Rebbe explained to him that God doesn't want us to be perfect, He wants us to be unique individuals who grow and learn from our experiences and mistakes. He asked the boy if he understood the difference between a photograph and a portrait.

When you want to capture a perfect replica of something you see, you take a picture. The picture can be beautiful and is exact to what you witnessed with your eye. Yet the typical photograph costs pennies to reproduce. A portrait on the other hand is something that is always filled with inaccuracies. It can never be a perfect reproduction of something like a photograph can. If anything, the better the portrait, the more creative license that went into it to bring out the meaning and color and beauty that does not always exist in the surface look.

Unlike a photograph, the portrait can sell for millions. People pay for the portrait because it is a reflection not only of the subject, but of the artist as well. That person's creativity is part and parcel with the portrait. The Rebbe explained that the angels are God's photographs. We, however, are God's portraits.

God Bless,
LJG/rECj