B. According to the Midrash Tanchuma (Parshat Nasso), G-d wanted "a dwelling place in the 'lower worlds.'" The "lower worlds" is our physical universe (in contrast to the "upper" spiritual worlds). G-d wanted a physical universe to exist in which He could be seen only with the mind, not with the eyes. He wanted Man to find Him, and make the physical universe a spiritual place--a "dwelling place for G-d"--where G-d would be obvious to all. And that's why He gave the Torah--so Man would know how to make the physical, spiritual.

C. That's the simple part of the answer. Now that you know that G-d created the world because "He wanted a dwelling place in the lower worlds," here's where it gets complex: why did G-d want a dwelling place in the lower worlds? Why the need?

1. Universe Creation 101

The subject of the creation of the world is one of most explored subjects in the vast world of Chassidic philosophy. As explained at scholarly length in dozens of books, a spiritual evolutionary process was put in motion for the physical universe to come into being.

He wanted Man to find Him, and make the physical universe a spiritual place... that's why He gave the Torah--so Man would know how to make the physical, spiritual

G-d first created a hollow space, a vacuum, within His infinite Light into which he injected a metaphoric "laser beam" of spiritual energy containing highly coded information--the DNA of the spiritiual and material universes and everything in them. This laser beam then formed a sphere at its tip, like the huge glass bubble at the end of a glassblower's tube, containing Atzilut, or Emanation, the first of four energy zones. A second laser beam burst from the sphere's inside surface and shot shortly towards the center, only to stop shortly and form a second, smaller sphere within Atzilut. This was Briah, or Generation, the second energy zone.

In like manner were Yetzirah (Formation) and Asiyah (Creation) formed in succession, each contained within the one above it like the layers of an onion. And within the zone of Asiyah, the final evolution of G-d's pure energy crossed the barrier between spiritual and physical and manifested itself in what's called Asiyah Gashmit--Physical Creation. Asiyah Gashmit is the physical universe as we know it. ¹

2. Perfectly Imperfect

In the spiritual zones beyond our imagination, G-d is Reality. In Atzilut, Briah and Yetzirah, there is only Light. Everything is perfect. Only in Asiyah Gashmit--here on good ol' Earth--are there opposites: Light and Darkness, Good and Evil, Happiness and Pain, Life and Death. We are here to make the dark light. To turn the pain into happiness. To transform the very evil into good. Above us, it's already done. Here, we have to do it. That's why we're here. To make this imperfect world, perfect.

3. Couldn’t He Have Done It Himself?

Yes. But he wanted free-thinking creatures--us--to arrive at His doorstep from our own intellectual conclusions, and to choose to spend our lives building Him a home rather than aimlessly livin' it up. It would be no big deal for G-d to make a world where He is obvious. But it is a big deal if we do.

So He created a world to give us an opportunity to create. But why did He want to give us that opportunity? Ultimately we can keep asking "Why?" And here our minds simply hit their limit: we don't know why. Because it's not only complex; it is beyond human understanding.