Today I struggle with doing enough. As the war for the soul of Israel rages I know I should do more, but what, when, how? I can't get away from the thought that ultimately good must prevail. G-d is goodness and He is the one who created everything, the good, the bad and the ugly. Evil is something He uses for a higher purpose we can't understand.
Therefore in the meantime what do we do? I think about trusting Him, and I do. I think about loving Him, but how do I show it?
As I thought about this I thought about how I'd love to reach out and touch Him. To show in my most human way that I love Him. I would love to hug G-d. It's how we show we care. I'd love to go cook Him dinner or buy Him groceries or make Him a present. It made me very sad to think that I can never touch Him.
But then it dawned on me and we've all heard it a million times before, but the Truth isn't hard, it's always right in front of us, precisely within our reach.
We CAN touch G-d. We can hug Him, shake His hand, show Him we care. We can go buy groceries or bake a cake... any number of creative ways that we can think of to show that what is happening matters to us and that we want to make a difference.
You guessed it.... Ahavas Israel ..... Ahavas Ha Olam
The person sitting next to you, your next door neighbor....whomever it may be. It sounds old and worn out, but that is how the Creator set it up. He wants us to love him by loving those we can touch.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Ground Troops
I have struggled for a long time with the concept of freewill. If G-d is in charge of everything and controls everything, then where is the freewill in that.
In my most cynical days the concept of freewill sounded like a way to give G-d the credit for all the good stuff that happens while blaming us for all the things that go wrong.
But while talking to a friend recently about the many ways that G-d works in our lives, Hashem had mercy and finally put this image in my mind... a soldier flattened against the ground while elbowing his way through the thick underbrush. Hidden by his camaflauge, the sweat pours down his face in the hot jungle... he reaches for his radio. He is in enemy territory.
Then it hit me. This is life. This is how it works. Of course Hashem controls everything, He made everything. But to every soul, Jews and non-Jews alike He gave a mission that literally only that person can complete. The mission is critical and must be carried out. Lives lay in the balance. The stakes are very high.
Hashem is our radio tower, our intelligence officer. Only He can tell us where the enemy is and how to avoid the traps that have been laid for us. Only Hashem can tell us the direction to go for supplies and ammunition. Step by step He will guide us. And that is where the law of freewill kicks in. Only if we choose to use our radios, (you guessed it... prayer, along with teshuva to keep the lines of communication open), to ask Him for those directions. IT IS THAT SIMPLE. If we choose not to ask for help we have turned our very existence into a suicide mission. Our souls WILL die.
Ultimately Good will triumph, Evil cannot win. But in the end G-d doesn't want even ONE soul to be lost to the enemy. He has provided us with ABSOLUTELY everything we need in the power of freewill to make sure that never has to happen. It really is up to us.
Is your radio on?
In my most cynical days the concept of freewill sounded like a way to give G-d the credit for all the good stuff that happens while blaming us for all the things that go wrong.
But while talking to a friend recently about the many ways that G-d works in our lives, Hashem had mercy and finally put this image in my mind... a soldier flattened against the ground while elbowing his way through the thick underbrush. Hidden by his camaflauge, the sweat pours down his face in the hot jungle... he reaches for his radio. He is in enemy territory.
Then it hit me. This is life. This is how it works. Of course Hashem controls everything, He made everything. But to every soul, Jews and non-Jews alike He gave a mission that literally only that person can complete. The mission is critical and must be carried out. Lives lay in the balance. The stakes are very high.
Hashem is our radio tower, our intelligence officer. Only He can tell us where the enemy is and how to avoid the traps that have been laid for us. Only Hashem can tell us the direction to go for supplies and ammunition. Step by step He will guide us. And that is where the law of freewill kicks in. Only if we choose to use our radios, (you guessed it... prayer, along with teshuva to keep the lines of communication open), to ask Him for those directions. IT IS THAT SIMPLE. If we choose not to ask for help we have turned our very existence into a suicide mission. Our souls WILL die.
Ultimately Good will triumph, Evil cannot win. But in the end G-d doesn't want even ONE soul to be lost to the enemy. He has provided us with ABSOLUTELY everything we need in the power of freewill to make sure that never has to happen. It really is up to us.
Is your radio on?
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