Description: Defining Our Relationship with Hashem 02
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Volume I Pages 27-29
The Chafetz Chaim writes that the invention of new technology is for the purpose of helping us relate to spiritual concepts. We always knew that Hashem hears all our tefillos although He is in ‘shamayim,’ but when this belief became weaker, the telephone was invented. Now with cellphones, satellite tracking, videos, and so on, it has become a living reality that when we talk and walk anywhere on the globe, we are audible, viewable anywhere else on the globe and in space as well! We can interact with people and with objects anywhere, given the proper connection! This invention made us able to relate to ruchniyos concept of talking to Hashem.
Likewise, ruchniyos exists all around us, but we can’t see or feel it. But it has an effect on us. Once the microscope was invented, with each successive generation, more and more gets uncovered about the hidden world that lives all around us, and within us. There are living creatures flying in the air, living in our intestines, interacting with us, good or bad. The tiniest little virus can bring the largest elephant to its knees. An atom can destroy a whole city. With these discoveries - ruchniyos became a reality. We now have an appreciation that often what can’t be seen, has the most powerful affect on our life. In this way we are meant to internalize the reality that Hashem exists all around us and is very close to us!
In family relationships as well, we have witnessed amazing things. I remember reading about a son and mother who were separated in the holocaust and reunited 50 years later – and they lived a few blocks from each other! Now picture two families, two men, who live in the same building for many years. They are neighbors but not much more than that. They give each other the nominal nod while passing in the hall, and they attend one another’s life events, brissim, bar-mitzvah’s and the like. They would rate their association as ‘acquaintances’. But then they discover that they are cousins, not first cousins, but second cousins once removed. Ok, not so close, but wait – there’s a caveat. They have no other relatives – their families were killed in the war! They are the only relatives that they have in the whole world! All of a sudden, their relationship takes a dramatic shift. They have Chanukah and Purim together, they make an effort to have their children get to know each other, they share whatever family history and photographs they can find, and so on and so forth.
Here we have a situation, where the family relationship existed, but was not known to them. The lack of knowledge prevented the ‘kirvah’ from happening! They knew each other, even lived near each other, but didn’t develop a relationship because they lacked the real knowledge of the extent and depth of their connection. As soon as they became aware – it all changed.
Our relationship with Hashem is exactly the same. It has volumes of depth and closeness that exist already. We are His children, and He is our father. He is our ‘friend,’ standing at our side through thick and thin. We are ‘married’ to Hashem so to speak, as is expounded at length in Shir HaShirim. He is our master as well, and we are his servants. Think of what we say at every tefillah on Yom Kippur – ‘Ki anu amechah v’atah Elokainu,’ we are your nation and You are our G-d, and we go on with many different descriptions of our connection to Hashem. If we would be capable of actually ‘seeing’ this – discovering Hashem in a literal way, our relationship would envelop us and become our whole life – we would have suddenly discovered our long-lost father!
We can’t see Hashem though. ‘Ki lo yir’ani adam v’chay.’ A man can’t see Hashem while he lives. But we can work on feeling that relationship in our hearts and minds, and with the proper path – we can achieve a true closeness with Hashem.
If we don’t invest the effort needed in discovering Hashem – we will not come to learn who He is. We will know He exists, but won’t know or recognize Hashem. If a person does invest the effort and is zocheh to achieve a connection to his father in Heaven, he will acknowledge, that not only did he not feel that Hashem was so close to him previously, but he had no idea what it actually means that we are the ‘sons of Hashem!’ When we say the words of the Torah, ‘Banim atem l’Hashem Elokaichem,’ we don’t begin to fathom what this really means. It is so deep, so powerful, that the relationship of a physical father and son is only a mashal, a parable for comparison purposes, and doesn’t come close to what we have with Hashem. We can sit and try to explain this, but obviously, true appreciation comes when we feel it ourselves, and that requires thought and work!
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Volume I Pages 27-29
The Chafetz Chaim writes that the invention of new technology is for the purpose of helping us relate to spiritual concepts. We always knew that Hashem hears all our tefillos although He is in ‘shamayim,’ but when this belief became weaker, the telephone was invented. Now with cellphones, satellite tracking, videos, and so on, it has become a living reality that when we talk and walk anywhere on the globe, we are audible, viewable anywhere else on the globe and in space as well! We can interact with people and with objects anywhere, given the proper connection! This invention made us able to relate to ruchniyos concept of talking to Hashem.
Likewise, ruchniyos exists all around us, but we can’t see or feel it. But it has an effect on us. Once the microscope was invented, with each successive generation, more and more gets uncovered about the hidden world that lives all around us, and within us. There are living creatures flying in the air, living in our intestines, interacting with us, good or bad. The tiniest little virus can bring the largest elephant to its knees. An atom can destroy a whole city. With these discoveries - ruchniyos became a reality. We now have an appreciation that often what can’t be seen, has the most powerful affect on our life. In this way we are meant to internalize the reality that Hashem exists all around us and is very close to us!
In family relationships as well, we have witnessed amazing things. I remember reading about a son and mother who were separated in the holocaust and reunited 50 years later – and they lived a few blocks from each other! Now picture two families, two men, who live in the same building for many years. They are neighbors but not much more than that. They give each other the nominal nod while passing in the hall, and they attend one another’s life events, brissim, bar-mitzvah’s and the like. They would rate their association as ‘acquaintances’. But then they discover that they are cousins, not first cousins, but second cousins once removed. Ok, not so close, but wait – there’s a caveat. They have no other relatives – their families were killed in the war! They are the only relatives that they have in the whole world! All of a sudden, their relationship takes a dramatic shift. They have Chanukah and Purim together, they make an effort to have their children get to know each other, they share whatever family history and photographs they can find, and so on and so forth.
Here we have a situation, where the family relationship existed, but was not known to them. The lack of knowledge prevented the ‘kirvah’ from happening! They knew each other, even lived near each other, but didn’t develop a relationship because they lacked the real knowledge of the extent and depth of their connection. As soon as they became aware – it all changed.
Our relationship with Hashem is exactly the same. It has volumes of depth and closeness that exist already. We are His children, and He is our father. He is our ‘friend,’ standing at our side through thick and thin. We are ‘married’ to Hashem so to speak, as is expounded at length in Shir HaShirim. He is our master as well, and we are his servants. Think of what we say at every tefillah on Yom Kippur – ‘Ki anu amechah v’atah Elokainu,’ we are your nation and You are our G-d, and we go on with many different descriptions of our connection to Hashem. If we would be capable of actually ‘seeing’ this – discovering Hashem in a literal way, our relationship would envelop us and become our whole life – we would have suddenly discovered our long-lost father!
We can’t see Hashem though. ‘Ki lo yir’ani adam v’chay.’ A man can’t see Hashem while he lives. But we can work on feeling that relationship in our hearts and minds, and with the proper path – we can achieve a true closeness with Hashem.
If we don’t invest the effort needed in discovering Hashem – we will not come to learn who He is. We will know He exists, but won’t know or recognize Hashem. If a person does invest the effort and is zocheh to achieve a connection to his father in Heaven, he will acknowledge, that not only did he not feel that Hashem was so close to him previously, but he had no idea what it actually means that we are the ‘sons of Hashem!’ When we say the words of the Torah, ‘Banim atem l’Hashem Elokaichem,’ we don’t begin to fathom what this really means. It is so deep, so powerful, that the relationship of a physical father and son is only a mashal, a parable for comparison purposes, and doesn’t come close to what we have with Hashem. We can sit and try to explain this, but obviously, true appreciation comes when we feel it ourselves, and that requires thought and work!