Menachem Mirski
Thoughts on Parashat Ha’azinu
God sends us messages and gives signals that He is taking care of us. But He will not “break into our homes” and our life uninvited. In this way God is more loving than just. There are times when we feel His presence very close but there are also times God seems very distant. The latter feeling has one of its expressions in our parasha for this week:
The Rock!—whose deeds are perfect,
Yea, all God’s ways are just;
A faithful God, never false,
True and upright indeed.
Unworthy children—
That crooked, perverse generation—
Their baseness has played God false.
(Deuteronomy 32:4-5)
It is the stark contrast between God and His People, as they are portrayed in this passage, that makes God feel exceptionally distant. What can we do to “make God” less distant? We need to invite Him to our life.
How do we do so? There are multiple ways to do that. The first and perhaps the most obvious is through prayer. The first and the main goal of prayer is not to ask God “to do us favors”. Although the petitionary prayer has its place in our spiritual tradition (praising, expressing gratitude and making petitions are three fundamental forms of communication with God), the main goal of prayer is to invite God to participate in our individual and communal life, to create and maintain a community with Him. Everything else is a result of it. By inviting Him to participate in our lives, in both spiritual and practical aspects, we expand His presence in the world. But this is not the end, it’s just the beginning. To invite God into our life means to act as His agent in the world, to fulfill the duties that He imposes on us: to live according to the Jewish law, to live morally, sensitively, responsibly and to grow spiritually. Only then we really do get closer to God. Prayer alone does not bring us close to Him permanently, only temporarily. That’s the reason we should pray regularly, not just ‘once in a while’. Prayer is a source of inspiration for our actions and the source of strength if they require it. Using modern language from the field of computer science, prayer can be understood as a form of self-programming and providing energy for proper operation.
If prayer, however, does not entail proper action, it often becomes futile or irrelevant. In such a state we can still communicate with God, but we should not expect that it will have a particular impact on our lives. By action I understand both, actions aimed at real changes in the reality around us, as well as “internal”, spiritual and intellectual activities aimed at our spiritual development, improvement etc. Activities of both kinds should be coordinated with one another with a proper balance between both realms. If we are focused ‘too much’ on our spiritual realm and neglect real actions in the world, we may grow spiritually, but our practical life may become miserable. And vice versa, if we are exclusively focused on the external, practical reality and neglect the spiritual side of it, we may have a decent life and be spiritually miserable, which will make us too much dependent on external factors – circumstances, other people, current job or even our habits.
The more devoted we are in terms of implementing the Divine laws, principles and wisdom of our tradition the more close God becomes to us. God is present in every mitzvah we consciously perform, in every blessing we say and in every Jewish ritual we are involved in. If we do all of that He will always be with us, especially in times when we really need Him. That’s why it is very important to find the proper balance between the spiritual and the practical: if we do, the first will reliably guide us throughout our entire life and the latter will let us taste all its fruits. If there is a particular Jewish recipe for happiness that’s probably it.
Shabbat shalom,
G’mar Chatima Tova!
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