Faith

Where is God today? Few question the existence or presence of the Lord in history. We speak of God as the Ultimate Creator.  God was the Source in the Garden of Eden. God was liberating force long ago in Egypt, the nexus of the event we celebrate each spring.

Moshe Rabbenu saw the shadow of God on Mt. Sinai. In the ancient ghettos of Venice or Rome the people knew God and accepted His Hand.  Throughout the breadth of personal and collective histories we can hear the plaintive voices of our bubbes and zaydes.

To see the power of God in history is not an achievement. We tend to question God's existence now, not retrospectively. People make demands of the present that have never been made before. For example, past queries would probe the notion of justice and challenge the belief whether what we were doing was what God really wanted us to do.

Our ancestors questioned of the interpretation of practices such as why tefillin be located so high on the forehead. They pondered issues like does God really intervene in our daily affairs? They did not, however, question the existence of the Deity. In short, their doubts centered around belief that God… Our questions revolve around believe in God.

Herein lies the basis for most of the existential woes of modernity.  We do not have firm roots. As a result, insecurity, doubt and fear are natural byproducts of us becoming arbiters of right and morality. Compounding the problem, we consider our value based on what others make of us and we are therefor frequently in trouble.

When we see others acting in ways that we believe to be inappropriate or wrong; when we do not get approval from people who we love; when someone does something hateful towards us, we take these as indications that define our value.

Were our self definition to be based on an unchanging, absolute belief our sense of self would be assured.  When I set my mind on the truths of God I am liberated from the roller coaster and begin to tread the road of selfhood, rather than engaging my worth from the approval of others. Boundaries are more firm when we stand on solid ground.

”You are my witnesses that I am God,” (Isaiah 43)

When you are with my witnesses, I am God;

when you are not My witnesses, I am –as it were – not God.” -Midrash