On the 210th anniversary of the death of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, our author Tomasz Wiśniewski pays tribute to the great tzadik and author of astonishing literary parables—by writing his own literary parable of similarly unsurpassed spiritual depth.
In a certain small town, which no longer exists, lived a certain fearful man. One time he noticed a strange light coming from the synagogue. He went closer, and in the doorway he saw
There are as many gods as there are accounts of divine lives. But they all have one thing in common – childhood.
The God of monotheistic traditions, being absolute and infinite, has no biography. This God has no childhood or adolescence, for he does not exist in time but in eternity. He has no parents on whom his birth depends; he is born of himself. In fact, he has no conceivable body. According to logic, God/the Absolute should not have any individual features, with the exception of abstract attributes such as omniscience, omnipotence, and so on. Sacred Muslim art, the most consistent in this form of depiction, is dominated by near-abstract mosaics, geometric ornaments, and patterns with a beauty not of this world.
