Para Gabriel.

Our tradition recognizes that often the way we relate to faith is not always rational but emotional. For example, a breathless look at nature or an unexpected act of kindness that touches us in a profound way, represent those moments of spirituality that fill our soul.

Sometimes it is the birth of a child. A child emerges into the world and despite the presence of nurses, doctors, machines, family members and all the elements that intervene in a modern birth, we know deep down that we are witnessing a miracle. We look at our child and recognize that all the biology books in the world cannot explain this new beginning. We hold in our arms not simply another person, but a being with infinite value and enormous potential. We hold a part of ourselves and know that if we are lucky, this part of us will outlive us. Suddenly, we have a little piece of immortality. And we ask ourselves: Who will remember us? How will he remember us?

The question “Do you believe in God?” is not a central question in Judaism. Not that one cannot ask it. But Judaism puts the emphasis on another point, not so much on believing but on having faith. It is not so much about proving the existence of God, but on feeling the presence of God. Not so much on philosophical arguments about God but, as the great philosopher and rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, on experiencing those moments of “awe and wonder,” moments where God suddenly seems to be very close.

Judaism does not seek certainty in our effort to know God. What it seeks is that closeness to God that gives us refuge, it is that feeling of the Divine presence, it is a glimpse of God’s love. The path to finding God is not an easy path, nor is it predictable and certainly not without obstacles, but it is open to all, to those who believe and to those who do not.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: God was not in the fire, the search for a spiritual Judaism by Rabbi Daniel Gordis.