There has been a ‘controversy’ of sorts created by Chabad Rabbi Manis Friedman, who suggests that it is not just we who need God, but also God who needs us.
For a small glimpse of this debate:
From the perspective of Jungian psychology and Hasidic Judaism, the answer is both yes and no.
Using a metaphor, we can ask, “Does the ocean need the waves?” Similarly, “Does the collective unconscious need the conscious ego?” From one perspective, the answer would be no, but from another perspective, the answer would be yes.
To explain this concept using Kabbalistic terminology, after the tzimtzum and the Sparks’ descent into the world, they seek to reunite with the root through the sekel, the Neshama, or the rational soul.
The sparks want to join through reason.
the teachings of the maggid of meseritz and his CONVERSATIONS (1923) P.39
The Sparks are considered the Sons and/or Daughters of G-d, and they exist both within and outside of us in the world, they are the ‘hidden’ divine in creation.
The rational soul reveals the hidden divine, but it is also fragments of the Ein Sof itself. It is the infinite and the finite of the divine playing hide and seek – to put it simply. Does the infinite need the finite to be whole? That question is paradoxical. We, the finite rarefied being (which are parts of the infinite via our connection through sekel) need the infinite or we will cease to be, and rejoin the Ein Sof – the nothingness, or the collective unconscious. The Infinite needs the finite to discover itself in all its rarified forms in the tzimtzum.
Therefore, from a Jungian and Hasidic perspective, the statement made by Rabbi Manis Friedman can be seen as both correct and incorrect, as it depends on the perspective and understanding of the individual soul, and how close they are to the root.
G-d needs the human to give meaning to him on a human level; bringing together Haven and Earth.
Jung said something similar in “Answer to Job”; to paraphrase, that if there was no human, conscious ego to realize the divine, G-d or the numinous would be alone and outside His own creation – in unconsciousness.
From this Chabad Chasidic thought comes to G-d being vulnerable (of falling back into the collective unconscious; the Infinite/Nothingness/Unindiffereation):