It's not easy to worship a distant G-d. Often He feels so heavenly, so uncommunicative, so incompatible with mortals.
You might have never realized it, but when we reach out to G-d we always do it in one of two ways, what I call the "meaningful" and the "transcendental."
A meaningful religious experience is one that resonates with you as an individual. It could be words of Psalms that reduce you to tears, the shrill of a shofar blast that stirs an awakening inside you or a moment of ecstasy as you walk your child to the Chuppah. Meaningful moments are always inspired by some sort of understanding or general appreciation of what you are doing. The words of Psalms were apt to your life, or very beautiful poetically. The cry of the Shofar was chilling in its purity. And the marriage of your child was the culmination of countless hours of education and exhaustion, completing another cycle of Jewish transmission from generation to generation.
The problem with meaningful experiences is that they are extremely human. There's nothing wrong with that, but it leaves in the back of your mind a gnawing feeling of distance from G-d. As much as the Bible is filled with anthropomorphic metaphor, we are all acutely aware that G-d is very un-human. He created the world and He is also infallible, two things that none of us really relate to on personal terms. So however meaningful a religious experience might be, we remain acutely conscious of how far we remain from G-d.
That's why we all have an urge, from time to time, to transcend our mortal trappings and escape the constraints that stand like an iron wall between ourselves and our heavenly Father. That could mean meditating until you lose awareness of your surroundings, or doing a mitzvah with the awareness that its given reason does not define it, because it is the will of G-d. Transcendence can also be a philosophical experience, the realization that the mind cannot grasp G-d in any way and that any human activity is inadequate to contain the Divine.
These two paths -- of seeking G-d with the mind/heart or despite the mind/heart -- frustrate us as much as they satisfy us, because we always seem to be flipping from one to the other. Neither seems to work fully. As we narrow the chasm with acts of worship, we come to realize that it is a gap that can never be bridged. Narrowing it only makes it wider.
But there is a third way: Stop trying to connect; you are already connected. This notion of an infinite chasm between you and G-d is simply not true. It is not a vertical relationship of G-d up there in heaven and you down here on earth, but a horizontal one, because your own soul is G-dly. It is the same substance as the Divine.
Instead of looking to bridge a gap that isn't there, come to the realization that your very being is sacred. Meaningful and transcendental experiences are aimed at connecting the non-Divine with the Divine, but as soon as you recognize that you actually contain the Divine, you will see your connection to G-d as existential: your very being binds you to God. The simple fact of your presence testifies to His existence.
If that's the case why do we need to worship God? Can't we just be, and that's enough?
Remember this: Your being only provides your connection with God, it does not manifest that connection. And that's a problem because it imposes a limitation on your relationship, and, in a certain sense, projects a limitation on G-d. If your relationship only "existed" and it never "manifested" then it would send the message that things have to be that way. It would be as if G-d cannot connect with us openly and manifestly; it all has to be subliminal and existential -- which, of course, is not true. So while the greatest connection that you can have with G-d is through your being, it helps when that essential connection begins to manifest through overt, conscious connection -- and that's where meaning and transcendence come in. They are not a substitute for your existential connection; they are the manifestation of it. And, of course, a manifestation is always something of a failure; it never fully brings to light what lurks under the surface, which is why you get frustrated.
But when you realize that the shortcomings of your religious experience do not really cripple you -- they do not compromise your existential connection with G-d in any way, they are just an inherent limitation in the power of manifestation -- you might just want to dance for joy. Your connection is always absolute, and all your attempts to manifest are really the icing on the cake. Quite important icing, mind you. It's the reason why you're here in this life, to ice your cake. But you can't fail. You can only make a delicious cake even sweeter.
This column originally appeared on Chabad.org and is based on a discourse from the Lubavitcher Rebbe on his birthday in 1978.
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This is a concept from Kaballah. Israel’s Kaballah (mystical tradition) is divided into three parts: theosophy, meditation and practical. Once you learn the basic metaphor Kaballah is addictive. It acts like a switching station between eastern mysticism, the Biblical tradition and philosophy.
Try it, you'll like it!
Reb Harmona paced his study pondering this sentence muttering to himself, "what is this (p'til) thread?" And as he paced back and forth he pondered its meaning, "why do these two divine names require a thread? Are they not sufficient and complete and whole. Why would they be lacking in any way and require this p'til this thread?"
A wind arose from the open window and blew the pages of the tome. Reb Harmona awoke from his trance and stared at the open page. "The shemaya (heavens) comprise the attributes of fire and water. One extinguishes the other or boils it away. How is it possible that these two opposites coexist as the woof and warp of the firmament? It is this invisible thread that tightly bounds the two. And so it is with our world that the heavens mirror. For here too the incompatible qualities of love and hate, greed and charity, and judgment and compassion coexist."
Reb Harmona danced in jubilation fore he understood the depths of the saying, "l'mala l'mata (so above so below)."
Insights of the Mekubalim: The Unwritten Book
Yet to be Written in the Shadows of the Night
Seriously, I think by now that "G-d" has become just another spelling of God. Aside from that it was an interesting post.
one rejects a god made in the image of man and the other worships a god made in the image of man.
some day one by one they will figure out that there is no such god they are rejecting or accepting.
there never was such a god and there will never be such a god. but they will keep right on rejecting and accepting such a god until; ok it will be a surprise for them. a surprise of the greatest of value.
a value much greater than religion or scientism. much greater.
Teacher/Messengers were "associateÂd" with religions because that was the forum available to them (e.g., no mass education, no wide-spreaÂd scientific community.Â) Additionally, religion is ubiquitous and its "methods" more universal, as distinct from science. The Teacher/Messengers may have used terms for which we are uncomfortaÂble, if our orientatioÂn is toward science. However, all religionists are probably equally uncomfortaÂble with the characteriÂzation of their "heaven" as "simply" another consciousnÂess-dimensÂion. Nevertheless, the "rules" of religions constitute the ABCs of that dimension. Goodwill, love, selflessness, etc., are the disciplined "means" of "at-one-ment" - the essential meaning of atonement - with that dimension.
So redefining the problem in this manner is a starting point since it offers something for many in the form of compromise. It offesr, if you will allow, a bridge.
Wayne
As wanderers in the Guttenberg Galaxy lost in the written word we forgot that not so long ago our ancestors told and listened to stories. For in these tales some of these worlds are revealed or at least a hint of their shadows is discerned between the words spoken. We have forgotten how to listen.
In the Shadows: Tales of Ashik
Ashik Jaya
In heaven is where he doth trod
Now you tell me he's here
Whispering in my ear
One of these two is a fraud.
I see the Bible's cycle as Ecclesiastes 1:9 states, what was before Genesis 1 will return and after Revelation 21 this civilization again. Civilization cycles like a day. Genesis 1:1-2:3 is first light until sunrise, 2:4 is the beginning of sunrise and Noah's flood its completion. Revelation 19:21-20:15 is sunset to dark with chapter 21 being dark's civilization. Thus, reincarnation is the law until we metamorphosis into eternal beings.
During night civilizations our energy or spirit acts as the body is why there's no birth and during the light civilization we don't recognize our spirits. During this light civilization we long for our energy, god, until we have metamorphosed. Jesus said we all must be born again (John 3:1-8) to "see the kingdom of god" within while Paul say we become a new creations, metamorphosed. What happens is we integrate our energy [femininity] and flesh [masculinity (Genesis 2:24) and recognize our god nature as we become whole.
The rituals of the various religions are but pacifiers but since we're nearing the harvest time the longing is greater, especially in the "true" Jews to survive the termination of civilization. Most people are still content with traditions and the things of the world because they are not "the remnant of god's people" to be harvested or saved.
As an atheist I read that statement as stop attempting to work out the problems for God's existence and just accept that he exists. Closing your eyes to the gap between God and reason doesn't make the gap go away. You're just equipping yourself with denial and submission.
Yet maybe theists read this differently. Acceptance without evidence is still called submission, and what you end up submitting to is a vacuum. You cannot have absolutes without the evidence to sustain it. You cannot claim you have an existential connection without demonstrating that connection. Otherwise it's not existential, and you end up stating your belief in God is the evidence for God, which isn't a realization at all.
Earth was a formless wasteland and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters. Then God said: "Let there be Light" and there was Light. God saw how good the light was, God then separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called " night" Thus evening came and morning > followed-the first day. We got our days backwards. Night comes first, then first Day. Evening came, and morning followed -- the first day. Then God said Let there be a dome in the midle of the waters, to -separate-one body of water from the other.Interesting..
The dome separates, the dome is the sky. . Evening again came and morning followed again.
The sun, moon were N0T created till the >Fourth day. Interesting? God was not talking about the Sun light, moon light, was not at all what God created on the first day, but a whole different superior -Light. Light refers to Wisdom.
First day. Interesting also I did not know, evening came first, the day followed > evening darkness. How could I have missed that? Day does not come first, but evening comes first, then day.
I think you can draw any you want conclusion from these texts. Doing so had created the likes of Harold Camping and Co., Westboro Baptist Church, the Branch Davidians, etc. However what wisdom are you referring to if the light that God allegedly created was not physical light? Is it even possible to create wisdom without humans around to perceive it?
Insights of the Mekubalim
A book yet to be written
One of the 12 tribes (one son of Israel (Jacob) was called Judah-thus the name Jew came from.
There was also., Dan, Levi, Benjamin, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali, Gad, Reuben, all given a large part of land in what was has been Named Israel, which was much larger then today. Iraq, Turkey etc were once all part of it. Dan> Denmark , have to look up where there land was in that time, where names of theses nations also came from etc. Remember all were later taken as slaves also scattered through out the world. We too can be Israelites then ? . Interesting.