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"Each species has its unique ecological niche, a distinctive role it plays in sustaining and enhancing life on our planet. By fulfilling its role, each species does all it can to sustain, increase, and evolve its own kind.... The curious thing is that we seldom apply these insights to our own species - as if humanity might be an exception to the rule, as if we are purposeless visitors in a meaningless world or as if we can take any ecological role we want. But as a species, we, too, have a distinctive niche in the community of life, a particular potential, a role that evolution has shaped us to occupy. Most of us are just not at all sure what that might be. Or perhaps we don't even consider the question. " [Bill Plotkin, The Journey of Soul Initiation, 2021, New World Library, Novato CA. p. 6-7]
Q. What is our (humanity's) ecological niche? What is our place and role in this world / universe?
מָקוֹם
Makom / place
The original, or origin of, Makom:
וַיִּפְגַע בַּמָּקוֹם (בראשית כח, יא), רַב הוּנָא בְּשֵׁם רַבִּי אַמֵּי אָמַר מִפְּנֵי מָה מְכַנִּין שְׁמוֹ שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא וְקוֹרְאִין אוֹתוֹ מָקוֹם, שֶׁהוּא מְקוֹמוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם וְאֵין עוֹלָמוֹ מְקוֹמוֹ, מִן מַה דִּכְתִיב (שמות לג, כא): הִנֵּה מָקוֹם אִתִּי, הֱוֵי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מְקוֹמוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם וְאֵין עוֹלָמוֹ מְקוֹמוֹ...
“He encountered the place and spent the night there because the sun had set; he took from the stones of the place, which he placed beneath his head, and lay down in that place” (Genesis 28:11).“He encountered [vayifga] the place” – Rav Huna said in the name of Rabbi Ami: Why do they change the name of the Holy One blessed be He and call Him the Omnipresent [hamakom]? It is because He is the place [mekomo] of the world, and His world is not His place. From what is written: “Behold, there is a place [makom] with Me” (Exodus 33:21) – the Holy One blessed be He is the place of the world, and His world is not His place....
Imitatio Dei
האדם ראוי שיתדמה לקונו: הָאָדָם רָאוּי שֶׁיִּתְדַּמֶּה לְקוֹנוֹ וְאָז יִהְיֶה בְּסוֹד הַצּוּרָה הָעֶלְיוֹנָה צֶלֶם וּדְמוּת, שֶׁאִלּוּ יְדֻמֶּה בְּגוּפוֹ וְלֹא בִּפְעֻלּוֹת הֲרֵי הוּא מַכְזִיב הַצּוּרָה וְיֹאמְרוּ עָלָיו צוּרָה נָאָה וּמַעֲשִׂים כְּעוּרִים. שֶׁהֲרֵי עִיקָר הַצֶּלֶם וְהַדְּמוּת הָעֶלְיוֹן הֵן פְּעֻלּוֹתָיו, וּמַה יוֹעִיל לוֹ הֱיוֹתוֹ כְּצוּרָה הָעֶלְיוֹנָה דְּמוּת תַּבְנִית אֵבָרָיו וּבַפְּעֻלּוֹת לֹא יִתְדַמֶּה לְקוֹנוֹ.
Chapter 1 - That it is fitting for a person to resemble his Creator: It is fitting for a person to resemble his Creator and then he will be [configured] in the secret of the Highest Form, [both] in image and likeness. As if he is alike in his body but not in his actions, he betrays the Form; and they will say about him, "A lovely form, but ugly deeds." As behold, the essence of the Highest Image and Likeness is His actions. And what will it benefit him to have the structure of his limbs like the Highest Form, but not resemble his Creator in his actions?
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"... human actions are responsible for drawing down the sustaining energy of the Divine - or, God forbid, for drawing down the power to destroy all of Creation. This is, of course, the awesome responsibility of being human...." [From: Ira Stone, Beulah Trey, In search of the Holy Life: Rediscovering the Kabbalistic roots of Mussar. iUniverse, 2019].
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... the place may even be felt to be the source, the primary power that expresses itself through the various events that unfold there.
It is precisely for this reason that stories are not told without identifying the earthly sites where the events in those stories occur. [from: David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous. Vintage Books, NY, 2017 [1997]. p. 162 . italics in original]
עשר ספירות בלימה בלום פיך מלדבר ולבך מלהרהר ואם רץ לבך שוב למקום שלכך נאמר והחיות רצוא ושוב. ועל דבר זה נכרת ברית:
Ten Sefirot-Without-What: Withhold your mouth from speaking and your mind from pondering. If your mind should run, return to the place of which thus has been said, [Ezekiel 1:14] “And the living beings were running and returning.” Upon this matter the Covenant was founded.
"...At the end of a meditation, Abulafia thus advises the initiate to "eat something, drink something, smell a pleasant fragrance, and let your spirit once again return to its sheath".
[From, Aryeh Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah -The Book of Creation: In Theory and Practice. (revised edition). Red Wheel/Weiser, Newburyport, 1997. p. 67]