More than Existence

I remember the first time I met Hashem at the Kotel. It was the scariest moment of my life. It still is. I was a Returnee to the faith and everything was new and exciting. I became engrossed in my prayers to the point where I felt I was no longer in this earth. It was such a free and joyous feeling to connect to Something so wonderful.
 
I saw a man next to me. He was praying with the same fervor. The look on his face said that he was feeling exactly the same. The man was “Haredi.” He had a long beard, payot, and was dressed in a black suit.
 
I took three steps back in fright.
 
I thought it was due to what he was wearing. It took a while to realize that it had nothing to do with it. It was something deeper. In directing every area of his being to the service of G-d, he answered a general question with pinpoint precision:
 
Does G-d exist?
 
The modern era is fixated on this question. What I felt that day at the Kotel, coupled with this man’s attire gave me a very straightforward answer:
 
G-d exists, but knowing it makes little difference than thinking that He doesn’t.
 
The Torah tells us that G-d is more than existence – He is alive. The first law of Emunah states that:
 
I Believe with complete faith that the Creator, Blessed is His Name, creates and guides all creatures, and that He alone made, makes, and will make everything.
 
If G-d only existed, then there would be no consequences to our actions. We could do whatever we wanted to do in the playground He made for us called life.
 
For G-d to be what the Torah says, He has to be a part of everything we do. He has to create and guide all creatures. His signature has to be everywhere. The Universe which He created is a staging ground for performing His mitzvoth. That is the primary function for this reality. At every turn we have to see Hashem. We need to be inspired by Him, to be in awe of Him, to be reminded that He gave us a job to do.
 
The world cannot be something He created before He walked away and said, “Have fun kids.”
 
It is easy to say Hashem is not watching. That’s how we follow up Shabbat observance with a six hour James Bond marathon. That’s how the world convinces us that it’s perfectly fine to go out with Jane on Monday and then Julie on Tuesday. It is even more convenient when we justify it with the conviction that we acknowledge His existence.
 
To connect to Hashem we need more. We need to internalize that He is with us at every moment. He supervises everything in His world therefore we must supervise everything in ours.  There are consequences to every choice we make so we must constantly strive to make the right ones.
 
The Hellenists tried to convince us that, yes, there is a spiritual world out there, but no, we need not concern ourselves with it. They tried to sever the ties between spiritually powered growth, and physical existence. Before thousands of Jews, they succeeded in marginalizing G-d to mere existence.
 
The Maccabees fought to restore the connection. They stood up to the world in the name of all the opportunities we have to involve Hashem in all that we made, make, and will make in life.
 
This is the battle we face in our time as well.
 
If G-d only exists then we only exist.
 
When we praise the living G-d we accept all of the consequences, both good and bad, in every action that we take. We include Hashem in every facet of our daily lives filling our being with Divine Energy. In developing a Supernal awareness of how to make our every deed holy we grow at every moment. We are constantly becoming better people, improving ourselves towards His Light at every turn.
 
Just like our Father, we transcend existence.