Faith can remain theoretical 🌀 or faith can infiltrate your entire being and impact your mindset and actions.
The thief 🕵️ who prays for success obviously believes in G-d, for if not, why pray? However, that faith hasn’t fully penetrated his heart and therefore, it doesn’t affect the way he leads his life.
It remains theoretical, like all those other things _you know about_, but whose knowledge hasn’t led you to change your habits…
Living in accordance with your beliefs is challenging!
In our history as a people, there were just a few lofty souls who lived in complete and exclusive harmony with their beliefs.
These were our holy forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose entire lives were focused solely on serving G-d. They had no desire to do anything else.
For this reason, our sages state that _*The forefathers are chariots*_ 🛺
A vehicle has no opinion. It carries its passengers wherever they want to go without interfering with the planning of the route or destination.
In this same way, our forefathers lived with complete dedication and ~submission~ to G-d’s will. _*Throughout their lives, there was never a moment where they stopped connecting their minds and hearts to G-d*_
In this merit, they opened the channel ➿➿➿of dedication and submissiveness to G-d for all their descendents.
All the Jewish prophets, each according to his own level, with Moses at the forefront, completely ~surrendered~ themselves to G-d. They became known for dedicating their very beings to fulfilling and spreading G-d’s word.
There was one moment ☝️in history where all the Jewish people entered into this state of complete ~nullification~ and surrender to G-d: when standing before Mount Sinai ⛰️ to receive the Torah. The entire nation, irrespective of spiritual status, experienced unity with G-d where they felt part of Him and not as beings separate from Him.
But it came at a price:
They couldn’t tolerate this level of surrender to G-d.
Their bodies could not contain the intense divine light and revelation. Their souls kept leaving their bodies, returning to their original source and so G-d had to continuously revive them.
In order for this experience to continue influencing the Jewish people in a tangible way and not just that they continued with their regular lives, G-d immediately afterwards told them to build a temporary temple, a Mishkan (Tabernacle) in the desert, where they could serve Him. A number of years after arriving in the Land of Israel, the Jews converted their temporary temple into a permanent home for G-d when King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem 🕍.
For about 1,500 years, there was a place in the world where G-d’s presence rested in a revealed, palpable manner. Three times a year, all Jews would embark on a pilgrimage to the Temple in order to internalize the feeling of connection with G-d and draw it into their homes and daily lives.
But what after the Temple was destroyed 🤔❔
To be perfectly honest:
We can never attain this level of absolute surrender to G-d…
Surrendering to G-d is an unrealistic expectation ☹️. It’s not where we’re at. We’ll never be like our forefathers because we don’t even get Who and What G-d is. You can’t surrender to something that you have no clue about!
So how can we make Him a home down here ⬇️in this world and even more so, within ourselves??
The answer is: By studying Torah.
_*Since the destruction of the temples in Jerusalem, G-d does ❌not have a dwelling place ❌other than where Jewish law is studied*_
For this reason, it’s vital to find find windows of time 🪟🪟 to study Torah yourself and see to it that your family members - and every Jew - learn Torah, too.
Knowing that you are engaged in the only possible activity that enables you to host G-d within yourself leads to great joy and satisfaction!
