Experience of God vs. Belief in God
Our relationship to God is one of extremes. God knows everything about you, and you know nothing of the "reality" of God.
And yet we pray to God, we talk about God, we make all sorts of decrees and even wars in the name of God.
Some people choose therefore simply not to believe in God, which seems to them the only rational way, and who can blame them? When the name of God is so ill defined as to mean... whatever you want it to mean, then how should we expect one who does not know of God to come to belief?
And trying to define God.... that's what creates so much confusion in religion.
There is another way of knowing God, however.
It does not even depend really upon scholarship, but it seems to be true that the more we know with our mind, the better our mind works with rational thinking, the more capable we are.
We may not be able to define the Holy One, but we can know whether or not we feel that He is real. Here - and Now. We see it. We build this instinct by developing our mind's sensitivity to our soul, and in the daily events of our lives we see the clear hand of God.
Religious fanaticism, which almost always develops into violent acts, is a sure sign that the person does not see God, but rather is only imagining - a reflection of their own state of mind and heart, their real beliefs (despite their claims) and their true intent - now matter how loudly they proclaim "Deus vult!"
Rambam tells us that in order to develop prophecy, the initiate had to perfect both their intellectual knowledge of Torah (as well as the natural world); but perhaps more importantly they also had to perfect their character.
He explains that even minor blemishes of character created "veils" that occluded the prophet's awareness of the Divine.
What was true then is still true now, even if we are not prophets. Still, our minds, character and behaviour determine the clarity of our perception.
The Hebrew word emunah, usually translated as faith, means much more than intellectual "belief."
Emunah is not at it's core an issue of belief but rather attachment.
The root of the word emunah is the same as mother, and nursing. To have "faith" is not to simply "believe" in God intellectually as it were, but to allow for God to be in one's thoughts in "real time."
Emunah is a great accomplishment, and the steps to climb this mountain are many. They are the applications of what you know to be true - to the challenges of your life. To live, in real time, attached to God.
How is one to know if they are "really" living with God or simply deluding themselves?
How do we know anything is real? Through our experience of it. In an age of miracles it becomes the common communal reality that God does indeed exist, and is the Power of powers. In our time and place, it is more difficult. But each individual can become sensitive to the miracles in their life.
Those miracles are God - sending Angels your way. As our Sages teach:
"הבא לטהר מסייעין אותו"
"One who comes to purify himself—they assist him."
(Yoma 38b)
And yet we pray to God, we talk about God, we make all sorts of decrees and even wars in the name of God.
Some people choose therefore simply not to believe in God, which seems to them the only rational way, and who can blame them? When the name of God is so ill defined as to mean... whatever you want it to mean, then how should we expect one who does not know of God to come to belief?
And trying to define God.... that's what creates so much confusion in religion.
There is another way of knowing God, however.
It does not even depend really upon scholarship, but it seems to be true that the more we know with our mind, the better our mind works with rational thinking, the more capable we are.
We may not be able to define the Holy One, but we can know whether or not we feel that He is real. Here - and Now. We see it. We build this instinct by developing our mind's sensitivity to our soul, and in the daily events of our lives we see the clear hand of God.
Religious fanaticism, which almost always develops into violent acts, is a sure sign that the person does not see God, but rather is only imagining - a reflection of their own state of mind and heart, their real beliefs (despite their claims) and their true intent - now matter how loudly they proclaim "Deus vult!"
Rambam tells us that in order to develop prophecy, the initiate had to perfect both their intellectual knowledge of Torah (as well as the natural world); but perhaps more importantly they also had to perfect their character.
He explains that even minor blemishes of character created "veils" that occluded the prophet's awareness of the Divine.
What was true then is still true now, even if we are not prophets. Still, our minds, character and behaviour determine the clarity of our perception.
The Hebrew word emunah, usually translated as faith, means much more than intellectual "belief."
Emunah is not at it's core an issue of belief but rather attachment.
The root of the word emunah is the same as mother, and nursing. To have "faith" is not to simply "believe" in God intellectually as it were, but to allow for God to be in one's thoughts in "real time."
Emunah is a great accomplishment, and the steps to climb this mountain are many. They are the applications of what you know to be true - to the challenges of your life. To live, in real time, attached to God.
How is one to know if they are "really" living with God or simply deluding themselves?
How do we know anything is real? Through our experience of it. In an age of miracles it becomes the common communal reality that God does indeed exist, and is the Power of powers. In our time and place, it is more difficult. But each individual can become sensitive to the miracles in their life.
Those miracles are God - sending Angels your way. As our Sages teach:
"הבא לטהר מסייעין אותו"
"One who comes to purify himself—they assist him."
(Yoma 38b)