blogs/rabbi-ed-feinstein

On Shabbat, January 29-30, we will welcome Rabbi Arthur Green as our guest scholar. Rabbi Green, one of the leading thinkers and teachers in the Jewish world today, opens a door to the great mystical traditions of traditional Judaism. His latest book, Judaism's Ten Best Ideas, offers an outline of his remarkable vision. Here's an excerpt: What does it mean to believe in God?

How are we to understand Judaism's great proclamation of our monotheistic faith? Let us begin by asking a functional question, the most important question regarding human behavior. What difference does monotheism make? One god, ten gods, a thousand�"so what? We Jews seem to put so much store in the fact that we believe in one rather than many gods. Why? What is the payoff of the great monotheistic revolution?

The only value of monotheism is to make you realize that all beings, every creature�"and that means the rock and the blade of grass as well as your pet lizard and your annoying neighbor next door�"are all one in origin. You come from the same place. You were created in the same great act of love, God bestowing God's own grace on every creature that would ever come to be. Therefore�"and this is the key line, the only one that really counts�"Treat them that way! They are all God's creatures, just as you are. They exist only because of the divine presence, the same divine presence that makes you exist. Get to know them! Get to love them! Discover the unique divine gift within each of them as well as the common bond of existence that draws you all together. Live in amazement at the divine light strewn throughout the world. That's what it means to be a religious human being. Even if you do not take the story of creation literally�"and I, for one, do not�"seeing this amazement and wonder in all of existence is the beginning point of faith.

That is what the Shema‘ means by proclaiming God one. But how do we render that mysterious name Y-H-W-H, once badly reproduced in English as “Jehovah”? The mystical tradition within Judaism insists on translating God's name as “Being.” … The meaning here is profound. “God” and existence are not separable from one another. God is not some entity over there who created a separate, distinct entity called “world” over here. There are not two; there is only one. … God is Being when you see the whole picture, the way it all fits together, with the eyes of wonder. Of course we can't ever really see all of that big picture. The whole is infinitely more than the totality of its parts. Mystery remains….

To say you believe in one God, but then to depict that God as an old fellow with a beard seated on a throne�"or in any other single way, taken literally�"is just a concentrated form of idolatry. It's like the old story where Abraham says to his father, “The big idol smashed all the others.” You may remember learning the tale: Abraham's father Terah had an idol shop. One day Papa was called away for a while and left his son in charge. Abraham smashed all the idols except the largest one, placing an axe in its hand. When Papa returned and saw the damage, Abraham explained, “The big idol destroyed all the rest!” “Of course it didn't,” Papa is supposed to have said. “It's only an idol.” “Aha!” cried out Abraham. And that “Aha!” was the beginning of the monotheistic revolution. The same is true in each of our spiritual lives. If it's just about numbers, all you've got left is one big idol. Far too many people leave it at that. The real change has to be in the way you see existence itself.

Listen to one of the great sages, the Hasidic master Sefat Emet (1847�"1905), who let this secret out of the bag in a letter he wrote to his children and grandchildren: The proclamation of oneness that we declare each day in saying Shema‘ Yisra'el needs to be understood in its true meaning. It is entirely clear to me … based on the writings of the great kabbalists … that the meaning of “Y-H-W-H is One” is not that He is the only God, negating other gods (though this too is true!), but that there is a deeper truth: there is no being other than God. This is true even though it seems otherwise to most people.… Everything that exists in the world, spiritual and physical, is God Himself. It was only because of the contraction [tzimtzum], willed by God that holiness descended rung after rung, until actual physical things were created out of it. These things are true without a doubt. Because of this, every person can be joined to God from any place, through the holiness that exists within every single thing, even corporeal things. You only have to be negated (that is, to transcend the ego-self) in the spark of holiness.

Shema‘ Yisra'el, Y-H-W-H Elohenu, Y-H-W-H ehad! “Listen, all you who struggle, all you who wrestle with life's meaning! Being is our God, Being is one!”

Don't look beyond the stars. There's no need to stretch your neck. God is right here, filling all of existence with endless bounty. Look around you. Look within. Open your eyes. Find God's presence in each and every creature and in the unified, transforming vision of all that is. That's what it means to belong to Israel, the people who struggle with God.