Having a Relationship with God

so getting to know god is the beginning of the relationship we usually hear talk about believing in god that everything starts with belief but that's not a relationship belief in god is a default position i'm the creation so he's the creator that's not a relationship getting to know god is something i don't know if more or less something different from believing believing and knowing are two different things in fact belief should be reserved for those things that are not knowable anything that is knowable we should work hard and get to know it if it's unknowable well we have tools for that too and that tool is called faith but to believe something that is knowable is just lazy it's not real faith it's just mental laziness so for example uh is there life on other planets you believe there's life on other planets don't don't don't introduce belief this is not a subject for belief if there's life on other planets go find it send a camera do whatever it takes to find out to know is there isn't there life on other planets but to say i believe there is that that's that's nonsense you reserve belief for things unknowable now it's also really interesting that what was unknowable a hundred years ago is now known we found out we thought it was unknowable we thought it was beyond reach well it turns out that it's not so yesterday's belief becomes today's knowledge and with every passing year we get to know more and more about god about his creation about his torah about his purpose beginning to know it and i just believe it for example i was at the ohio yesterday and a man there told me that he has started coming to the oil since his daughter had a serious medical problem for which the doctors had very little hope and he came asked the rebel at his grave site for a blessing and uh driving home from the oil the doctor called him and said it's benign nobody could believe it in fact they insisted on doing a second biopsy because it was so unbelievable that this thing was benign but it was so he says from now on he says i was never a believer now i'm a believer so you're not a believer you haven't gained faith you've gained an experience that the rebels blessings that the nebuchadn can respond to your request and give you a blessing you've had the experience that's not faith you now know don't call it faith if your mind can can absorb it so we reserve faith only for the unknowable or at least what we think today is unknowable eventually we will know everything there is to know and then we will use faith properly for that which is permanently unknowable so how do we get to know god because there is so much to know the first thing is the world has a creator is that a matter of faith or is that knowable in other words let's work our way up from the bottom we start with what we know we know that there is a a universe we know that we exist we also know that we didn't always exist if we didn't always exist there must be a dramatic cause that brought us from non-existing to existing you want to call it a big bang you can call it that you want to call it a miracle you can call it that call it whatever you want but let's stick to what we know we know that this world is a creation because it once did not exist and therefore if this is a creation there has got to be a creator we know this it's very logical what would such a creator be like what do we know about a creator well we know a creator doesn't have the same limits as his creation which is why he can create it he doesn't have the limitations that the creation has you see a beautiful painting and you know that someone painted it there's the painting well then there must be a painter and what do we know about the painter before we even meet him well we know he's alive he's not another painting because a painting can't paint so we know that the painter is more alive than the painting we also know that the painter is disciplined because you can see in the painting a great amount of discipline we also know that the painter was intentional he had a definite vision of what he wanted to paint and that's why the painting is coherent so we know a lot of things about the painter just by looking at the painting by looking at the world we know many things about god first of all we know that he's eternal this world is a creation because it wasn't eternal the creator therefore must be eternal the creator can't also have a creator because then the creator is a creation so the creator has to be eternal does not need to be created we also know that the creator has to be infinite because what stronger power could possibly impose a limit on the creator there is no stronger force there's no force at all there's just him eternally so we know that he's eternal and we know that he's infinite we also know that there is only one one god how do we know because to have two gods means that neither of them is infinite because to have two gods one has to end so that the other one can begin otherwise how do they become two so all of this is just simple basic logic there's got to be a creator a creator can't be a creation so he's got to be eternal and if he's eternal then there is no power that can possibly impose limits on him so he must also be infinite and therefore you must also be the only one we haven't used faith at all in fact even evolution has has a god evolution believes in god just not the god of israel evolution believes that subatomic particles created the universe which means that subatomic particles are god the god of evolution the god of israel has a little more personality next if god is eternal god is infinite god is unlimited he is almighty all-powerful and all-knowing why would he create a world why well before we get to the answer of exactly why we've already learned something else god created the world because he's after something he's not completely content if you're content you don't create a universe there's something that god is after there's something god wants to accomplish that involves creating an entire universe must be something really significant so the next thing we know about god is that he's on a mission if he creates the world is because there is something really important to him that will that will become reality through creating a universe so the creation is meaningful to him important essential has to be it's not a frivolous activity it's not that god creates a world for no reason that of boredom whatever no god creates a universe because to him a universe must be now the question is for what so really the only question we need to hear from god the only answer we need to hear from him which means faith is why we can't understand the why we can never guess the why how do you guess why god does what he does the only way we can know what god wants is to believe him he has to tell us and we believe him because we can't wrap our heads around it god wants me to eat kosher i can't figure it out why would he care what difference does it possibly make and even if kosher is important why is it important that i keep kosher how did i become significant how could it possibly make a difference to him whether i keep kosher or not this involves faith that he's after something this i can tell from creation the fact that he created but what exactly he wants there's no way i could tell from looking at creation so here i have to come to revelation if god reveals his purpose then then i and i'm aware of it if he doesn't reveal it i'll never figure it out and that's why the event at sinai is called revelation the revelation at sinai what was revealed the details of god's purpose what does he need from his creation so what do we know about god well we know some technical information just factual stuff he was not created he is eternal he is infinite he is all-powerful and he is the only one only one god we also know that he wants something what it is he wants that's not technical information that's personal so if i looking at the universe i can tell certain things about its creator but reading the torah reading what the torah says or what god says in the torah that gives me intimate information god is the creator yes he's the creator of the whole universe he's everybody's creator but in the torah god is telling us what unique relationship we have with him and he with us this is where the information becomes really crucial for the relationship i can i can i can recognize that god is the creator and that he's infinite and eternal and i'm completely cold and indifferent to the whole thing well good fun so what it hasn't touched me i may be even impressed like einstein who was humbled and in awe of whoever made this magnificent universe but it didn't change his life when you look in the torah when god says this is what i need from you speak to the children of israel and tell them that i need them to remember when i took them out of egypt so celebrate pesach eat matzah now we're getting personal or he's getting personal he's telling us something about himself that we would never know could never know who would have suspected that god is really really uncomfortable with eating bugs he finds it abominable who would have thought that something so insignificant would bother him to put it in dramatic terms what we know about god is that he's not content he's god all-powerful all-knowing almighty he's not he's not content because a content god does not create a universe now we get to know god step by step layer by layer by studying his mitzvahs he needs us to keep shabbos what does that tell you about him well it tells you that he keeps shabbos and it's really lonely to keep shabbas by yourself that's just putting in a simple language so god wants us to keep shabbos with him so the important thing is being with him not being religious so if you were keeping shabbos but he wasn't then it's not a mitzvah because now you're not with him you're just practicing your own religion so what is it that god wants when he asks us to keep shabbos not that we become religious but that we stay on the same page with him on shabbos he doesn't create then we shouldn't either it's like a husband has off on shabbos so on shabbos he stays home but his wife goes out to work that's not being on the same page the important thing is we can have a relationship with god because he initiated one if he doesn't initiate a relationship we can't have one we can't just invite ourselves into a relationship we have to be invited and we are so let's use a little a little illustration here mother asks her son to bring her tea every day three times a day the son brings his mother tea every day three times a day for 50 years and then at the end of 50 years he discovers that his mother never drinks tea she doesn't like it she doesn't need it she doesn't drink it so he asks her what was that all about you have me making tea bringing you tea you don't drink so the mother says of course i don't drink it this is not about tea this is our relationship i asked you to bring me tea to give you the opportunity to get closer to me sound good actually it's terrible terrible if she doesn't drink tea and tea is not meaningful to her it doesn't mean anything to her then he hasn't gotten any closer there is no closeness there the opposite is true by keeping him busy making tea she has kept him far away from herself because t means nothing to her and she kept him busy with something that means nothing to her how was that closeness so it's either just a mistake or a malicious joke if i want to keep somebody out of my life but the man is a nude nick what do i do i ask him to run me run errands for me to do me favors that i don't really need just to get them out of my out of my sight to get them out of my hair so go go make tea that way i get you out of my house i get you out of my presence not closeness there is of course obedience if he brings her t for 50 years he's obedient he's devoted he's loyal close no closeness and to prove the point imagine that this guy has a brother and his mother asked the brother to bring her coffee three times a day every day because she loves coffee now you see the difference the contrast the son who brings her coffee is very much part of her life the son who brings us who brings her tea has been left out of her life now what's the story with the mitzvahs god asks us to do mitzvahs keep kosher keep shabbos honor your parents gifts study torah when we do that are we being obedient or are we getting closer well that depends is the mitzvah shabbos kashus is it to god like tea that he doesn't drink so he wants us to keep shabbos just for the discipline of it for the obedience obedience is good it's not the objective it's not the goal the goal is to get close obedience is always from a distance you obey people you can't get close to so obedience is a relationship from a distance we want a relationship up close so all of the mitzvahs all the commandments are to god absolutely indispensable it's his coffee not his teeth so when you do something so close to god's heart so indispensable to him you become as close to him as the mitzvah itself as the shabbos and the kashmiris and so on to put it in simple terms and this is the conclusion getting to know god involves recognizing that he is the needy one and not us we are not the needy one our needs they come and go and if i don't get what i need no big deal even if i do get what i need i'll only be here for 100 years after that i'm gone needs are over after 100 years 120 years i don't need a house i don't need food i don't need drink i don't need anything so all of these needs are temporary and maybe even frivolous there were things i thought i needed last year this year i realized i don't need it that's pretty shocking because for all of history humans were told that they are needy they need they have to have they must to suddenly realize why must i i don't have to i don't need it well if you don't have it you might die yeah so do i need life i like it not complaining but do i need it what do i need it for nobody asks to be born because nobody needs to be so we're here only to serve him but in order to serve him he has to have needs if he has no needs how can i serve him so somewhere at mount sinai god revealed to us his needs speak to the children of israel and tell them to observe this holiday that's what he needs from us is it beneficial to the person doing the mitzvahs do i benefit from doing the mitzvah i wouldn't be surprised after all i'm doing something for god what do you expect of course it will bring a blessing even without being told so a relationship begins with knowing and knowing in this case means looking past the obvious god is infinite he's perfect he's invulnerable now that's on the surface deep down inside god is the needy one god is the one who initiates this relationship we just have to respond questions we are actually out of time and we need to go to our next lecture so i'll have to take your questions next time but thank you all for joining us today i hope you all have a beautiful weekend and a good travis thank you guys bye everyone thank you all adios

Channel: Rabbi Manis Friedman

Views: 12,196

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Id: yhFLp0u31wA

Length: 30min 52sec (1852 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 10 2021