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The Case of the Hidden Saint

By Avi Lazerson

The answer is yes and no.

True a tzaddik nister is deceiving us by presenting himself as a simple Jew instead of a great scholar and miracle worker capable of bringing miracles to the population, but it is just because he conceals himself that he is able to do such things. Had he revealed himself he could not reach such great heights in service to G-d. Just the opposite would happen: he would become arrogant due to his great stature and arrogance is one of the worst character traits that a person can have. Arrogance and service to G-d are opposites. Once a person possess arrogance G-d will not allow him to draw near so it is just that cloak of humility that enables this tzaddik to reach the level of being a tzaddik.

Similarly, the revelation of G-d being the Almighty power who exists in the past, present and future all at the same time would not allow a created being to exist since a created being in limited in time and space whereas G-d is not. Therefore G-d as yud hai vuv hai can not reveal Himself to the limited man as He really is. G-d can only reveal Himself to us as Elokim, the powers of the world since we can relate to that name.

So it would be that there are really two levels of truth; one that we can fathom and one that we can not fathom. We can fathom G-d who works His wonders in the world and that is true but the real concept of G-d being HaShem Hu HaElokim is true and correct independent if we can understand it or not. It is just G-d's way of lowering Himself into the limited world.