How to Experience G!d
It is important to realize that G!d is to be experienced. It is equally important to understand that G!d cannot be captured in any one thing, nor reduced to a single moment or phenomenon.
We sometimes think we can contain G!d in a thing, and thereby G!d is with us. For example, some put a little statue or a small box with a religious symbol on the dashboard of their car–and think they have captured G!d, and thereby G!d will protect them. Is this not naive? For what can save a person if they drive carelessly?
Some think they can represent G!d in a religious symbol and place this symbol on a string, and tie it around their neck and that thereby G!d will be with them in person. But thinking this through, how can this symbol of the Divine protect us from an illness, for example, if we do not take the normal precautions of rest, proper diet, and good health?
Some think they can take a sacred text about G!d and put it into a small box and nail it to the doorpost of their home–and thereby G!d will always protect their home. They do not consider the importance of maintaining their home properly in accordance with laws and guidelines to prevent fire, mold, or insect infestations.
Some even believe that they can put G!d in a box in an Ark, or store G!d up in an altar–and there G!d will be. We do not truly understand that these are merely the symbols of G!d’s moral and ethical teachings.
I am not trying to impugn the value of tefillin, a mezuzah, a Torah scroll–or any other object. I am objecting to people mistaking that thing’s religious and symbolic value for some guarantee of G!d’s protective Presence at all times. And I am objecting to anyone considering any of these things a relationship with G!d.
A carriage driver once came to the Chassidic master Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev with a serious religious problem. He explained, “Rabbi, I would like to come to synagogue more often and be in the Presence of G!d. But, unfortunately, my business keeps me so busy carrying others that I have little time to do this. Perhaps I ought to change my job.”
Reb Levi responded, “When people come to hire your carriage do you charge everyone the same price?
“Yes,” the carriage driver responded. “Of course, I treat everyone alike.”
“Well, sir, what do you do if they are poor?”
“Rabbi, if those cases, I do not charge them at all.”
Reb Levi Yitzchak exclaimed, “My friend, without even realizing it you are already living in the Presence of G!d.”
While we might sense G!d’s Presence attending synagogue services on Shabbat and holy days, we realize, of course, that we might experience G!d anywere, because of course G!d is everywhere. It is not a matter of reciting a specific number of prayers that somehow summons G!d into our Presence. Rather, we try to live prayerfully–with the values of love, kindness, gratefulness, and hope that our prayers inculcate and reinforce within us.
The Talmud states[1] that
Where people gather for worship, where judges sit as a court, and where
even one person engages in study, the Presence of G!d is there.
We would surely add that where people engage in kindness, where one lends support to another in need, and where people stand up for justice, G!d’s Presence is there.
Let us treasure our symbols–as symbols. May we see them and be reminded of the important values by which we strive to live. And then may we humbly live in such a way that renders G!d’s Presence in our lives not a question but a response.
Rabbi J.B. Sacks
[1] B. B’rachot 6a.