Who is Hashem?

6 Elul 5769

Before we get back to the topics we discussed two posts ago (ayein sham), an important word of introduction. I want to dispel a notion that I think is very prevalent amongst Jews nowadays. If you would ask your average Jew on the street "Who is Hashem and how does this teshuva thing work?", the answer would probably be something along the lines of the following:

Hashem is an all-powerful being, up in the sky. Invisible, of course, and everywhere - because, after all, He's God. Hashem has super powers - you know, like Superman - to do just about anything He wants. He sits up in heaven, on His throne, with a book open in front of him. Do a good deed, you get a check mark on the right side of the page. Do a bad deed, and you get an X on the left side of the page. When the checks outnumber the X's, you get reward. Yippee. When then X's outnumber the checks, you get punished. Which means Hashem is basically a super-accountant, keeping tabs on a world-ful of people, making sure everybody gets their just reward or due punishment. Now, that reward or punishment can be swayed by begging - a whole lot of begging - during the month of Elul and the first few days of Tishrei. Finally, after Hashem listens to more than a month of endless nagging, He decides to either change His mind, or not change His mind.

Sound familiar? Is that your basic idea of Hashem and how the Yamim Noraim work?

Well, no offense to public opinion, but that is a horrible and tragic perception of what's going on. Let's start with the first part of that paragraph, and we'll move onto the rest of it tomorrow (or the next day).

Hashem is not some great being up in the sky. That's Zeus. Zeus is up there (well, not really), hanging out with his pals, throwing lightning bolts at whomever he chooses like he's Amon Goeth in Schindler's List. My friends, that is not Hashem. Hashem is Ein Od Milvado - simply put, Hashem is this world. He is the source of this world's existence, the whole reason why it exists, the whole reason how it exists. This is a much longer discussion that needs to be explored in far greater depth, but let's tackle one concept within this idea right now.

When Moshe asked Hashem what His name was, so that Moshe could report it back to Bnei Yisrael, Hashem replied "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh" - or, "I will be what I will be." Meaning, Hashem is beyond time: the past, present, and future are all the same in front of Him. For example, picture in your mind a huge mosaic, the mosaic of world history. We are but ants on one small stone; we have a tiny limited viewpoint. Hashem can see the whole mosaic, the whole of history. He transcends time completely.

So Hashem is "I will be what I will be." In other words, Hashem is the ultimate Be-er - that's what He does. He exists; in the past, present, and future. So if Hashem is a Be-er - watch this, follow carefully - then we are human be-ings. Just like a painter makes a painting, a builder makes a building; the ultimate Be-er made a be-ing. That's us. Banim Atem LaShem Elokeichem - we are children of Hashem. We are creations of Hashem. We are the be-ings of the ultimate Be-er.

When you have that perspective, things start to get a little bit more rosy. How does a painter feel about his work? Or how does an architect feel about his work? If you've ever spent a lot of effort to create something, think about how you felt about that work. You love it to death. You cringe every time the table shakes, lest it fall off a table and shatter. You jump every time a baby goes near it, lest he spit up on it or something. You worry about it constantly, making sure it has a good spot in the house where both everyone can see it and nobody can damage it.

That is how Hashem feels about us. We are His children, his be-ings. And He loves us.

You hear that? Hashem LOVES us. We will discuss how this impacts our work in Elul in the next post, but for now, stop feeling bad about yourself and get your self-esteem out of the gutter. HASHEM LOVES YOU. HE CARES ABOUT YOU. HE IS WATCHING YOU - not with the angry glare of a taskmaster, but with the genuine love of a parent who watches his son/daughter. If you can internalize that, then you're well on your way towards true teshuva.

Hatzlacha Raba!