2008 Woodie Awards
Man in Search of God
Olivia Wiznitzer
Issue date: 4/15/08 Section: Opinion
There is a lot that is beautiful at Yeshiva University. There is so much that I enjoy here, so many people from whom I learn and whose company strengthens me, so many wonderful sights that I see every day. It is a pleasure to walk into Golan Heights and see men debating the proper blessings to make over certain items of food, or to ride the shuttle uptown only to hear students gladly discussing their classes here. And of course, there are elements of disagreement, of people who avidly don't support each others' views, but their disputes occur for the sake of the Torah and for the sake of God. And that too is a kind of beauty.
Except there are times when it is not so. These are the times when we are stung, or someone has hurt our pride, slighted us or otherwise mocked something that is deeply important to us. And so we respond spitefully or angrily and we engage in a sort of battle, and we become entrenched in these feuds, unable to look at any claim outside the prism of the subjective box into which we have placed ourselves. And it is at this point of time that we forget God, if ever we knew Him.
For, why are we here? Is it not to quest for God, to search Him out and find Him, to create and forge a relationship with Him, to come ever closer to our Creator, striving to reach Him and to do His will?
What does it mean to be a Jew? Can one be a Jew without God? God is the one who created us; He is our source of blessing, the one to whom we turn in prayer. And yet, when it comes to the way we act in our everyday lives, although deeply involved in promoting the good and welfare of others, engaging with our community and otherwise reaching out to our world in a desire to make it better, it seems that we are able to forget God. And that is strange, considering that He is what we have in common, no matter the clothing we wear, the ideals to which we hold, the train of thought that we see as being ours. God is God, and He belongs to us all.
In Sichot HaRan 7 by R' Nachman of Breslov, we find a little of the way in which we may model our relationship to God. "You are children to God your Lord" is a verse in Deuteronomy 14:1. As children, R' Nachman explains, we are permitted to express our thoughts and troubles to God, in the same manner that a child speaks to his father. There is no person too evil to communicate with God; "Whether good or evil, you are always called his children" (Kiddushin 36a). And so that is one manner of searching out God, of striving to act as a child before his Father, awakening our hearts to love Him and speak to Him in this manner.
Except there are times when it is not so. These are the times when we are stung, or someone has hurt our pride, slighted us or otherwise mocked something that is deeply important to us. And so we respond spitefully or angrily and we engage in a sort of battle, and we become entrenched in these feuds, unable to look at any claim outside the prism of the subjective box into which we have placed ourselves. And it is at this point of time that we forget God, if ever we knew Him.
For, why are we here? Is it not to quest for God, to search Him out and find Him, to create and forge a relationship with Him, to come ever closer to our Creator, striving to reach Him and to do His will?
What does it mean to be a Jew? Can one be a Jew without God? God is the one who created us; He is our source of blessing, the one to whom we turn in prayer. And yet, when it comes to the way we act in our everyday lives, although deeply involved in promoting the good and welfare of others, engaging with our community and otherwise reaching out to our world in a desire to make it better, it seems that we are able to forget God. And that is strange, considering that He is what we have in common, no matter the clothing we wear, the ideals to which we hold, the train of thought that we see as being ours. God is God, and He belongs to us all.
In Sichot HaRan 7 by R' Nachman of Breslov, we find a little of the way in which we may model our relationship to God. "You are children to God your Lord" is a verse in Deuteronomy 14:1. As children, R' Nachman explains, we are permitted to express our thoughts and troubles to God, in the same manner that a child speaks to his father. There is no person too evil to communicate with God; "Whether good or evil, you are always called his children" (Kiddushin 36a). And so that is one manner of searching out God, of striving to act as a child before his Father, awakening our hearts to love Him and speak to Him in this manner.
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