Finding God

Sometimes we get carried away with ourselves.  Sometimes we get lost and forget about what is happening around us.  Perhaps that is what happens with Jacob when he wakes from his famous dream of ladders and angels in this week’s parsha. 

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner suggests:

The verse literally reads, "Surely God was in this place and I, i did not know." The sense is "...and me, I didn't know." But the "I" (in Hebrew, Anochi, אנוכי) seems to be redundant. Unless, of course, you assume, as Jews have done for millennia, that God does not waste words.

The simple "extra I" (which the school of Kotzk identifies as ego or conceit) leads Pinchas Horowitz...to an important insight. "It is only possible for a person to attain that high run of being able to say, 'Surely God is in this place,' when he or she has utterly eradicated all trace of ego from his or her personality, from his or her sense of self, and from his or her being. The phrase, 'I, i did not know,' must mean, 'my I - i did not know.'"

The beginning of true piety is not so easy," whispered the Kotzker. "You must subdue your ego and call yourself a liar. It could make you lonely and a little crazy. A crazy man about God. You understand me?"

"Yes, I think so. God was here all along, and the reason I didn't know it is because I was too busy paying attention to myself."

Religious life demands constant vigilance against the schemes of our egos (the little is) to supplant the Divine.

So the question becomes, how will you shift your focus to God?  To the outside world?  How will you find God in the place you find yourself?

Shabbat Shalom

Mary Freedland                                Mother of Curtis Freedland

Aaron Goldner                                  Grandfather of Carolyn Fink

Nettie Spevak                                   Aunt of Karen Borden

Scott A. Mackler                               Brother of Harvey Mackler

Sam Goldberg                                   Father of Sandy Wainberg

Nathan Pearlman                             Grandfather of Nathan Pearlman

Bennett Breger                                 Uncle of Marc Rosenwasser

Nissen Adelson                                 Father of Rita Herson

                                                                Grandfather of Carin Herson

Edwin Strauss                                    Father of Beverly Stevens

Gloria Fink                                           Mother-in-Law of Beverly Fink

                                                                Grandmother of Joshua Fink

                                                                Grandmother of Matthew Fink

Lena Daniels                                       Grandmother of Alan Daniels

                                                                Great Grandmother of Lisa Caine

                                                                Great Grandmother of Stacy Gad

Marlene Rivkin Hyman                   Cousin of Deborah Greenberg

Eva Perlman                                      Mother of Sheldon Abramson

Leon Ritter                                          Grandfather of Sylvia Richman

Tzipora Berkovits                             Mother of Michael Berkovits

Louis Kasoff                                        Grandfather of Randie Specter

Samuel Kalter                                    Grandfather of Craig Kalter         

Albert Goldsmith                              Father of Lisa Teblum  

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