by Rabbi Rafael

'The kindnesses of the Lord I shall sing forever; to generation after generation I shall make known Your faithfulness, with my mouth. For I said, "Forever will it be built with kindness; as the heavens, with which You will establish Your faithfulness."' -- Psalms 89:2-3

The lessons of kindness coming from the scriptures are as boundless as the kindness Hashem used when He formed Creation. The midrash teaches us that the Torah begins with kindness (the clothing of Adam and Eve) and ends with kindness (the burial of Moses). It seems that chesed is a fundamental force of the universe.

Infinity.  Philosophers, mathematicians, physicists and theologians have tried for centuries to wrap their minds around this idea.  Symbolically represented as  ∞, the definition of infinity is "unboundedness", or something without end.  In Hebrew, it is called Ain Sof and has been the topic of many rabbinical discourses - all in reference to the Holy One.  What is it about infinity, or ain sof, that captivates us? And how is it that mathematicians are able to pull this symbol into equations of relevance?  How is it they and countless others harness this concept, dance with it, and return with something tangible? Whether we realize it or not, the Torah addresses this exact dance through Bris Milah, the Yoveil (Jubilee year), Shemini Atzeret, Chanukah, and the counting of the Omer into Shavuot.  Through these special times, we experience what humans have been driving towards since the dawn of time: a taste of the Divine as we slip into the intangible, sublime realm of infinity and back.