G-d: Right Where You Want Him - Rabbi Akiva Fox

there's a story told about one of the great Hasidic masters leaders who had a young son and he asked a question to his son now the great Hasidic leaders and many great rabbis and sages a lot of times when they asked a question they weren't looking for the answer they were posing the question perhaps to sharpen the skills or to sharpen the mind or to inspire the child or the student to think that was something that the sages and that Sadiq him the righteous people have done in the past and often they still do so he said to his child he said where is a sham where is God and his son answered wherever you let him in wherever you want him to be it's a very telling answer it's a very powerful answer we know we believe that God is everywhere from the young age of two or three one of the famous Jewish lullabies & kids songs that they sing in all the kindergartens and that they sing in all the pre 1a is Hashem is here a sham is there a sham is everywhere a sham is everywhere male caller I Lanka boy day the world is filled with god's presence he is the world but if you want to see him if you want to connect him if you want to relate to him then you have to want him to be there then you have to open the door you have to allow him in so in our search and our quest learning about emunah learning about faith betta home and trying to connect to our shipment to connect to God the first thing we have to do is look search girisha is the quest and the second thing we have to do is we have to open up doors we have to allow him into our life one of the ways and we've been discussing in this series we've been discussing the different ways that are taught to us how we can see God's presence in the world one of the ways we spoke about introspection with each other we spoke about learning about Hashem through the Torah learning about a Shem through his brilliant wisdom that he has instilled or that he has implanted in nature another way is also by focusing on god and what he does for us god in our daily life sometimes we don't want to see sometimes we would rather be blind because in truth if you find out and you discover how much God is involved in our lives and we're not talking about in the big picture like when we make the millions I've been there already I've got the money but we're talking about in the day today second to second when you discover that it comes with a price because now you realize wow I'm not alone I'm living with God the first 'cimmanon shelf Inara the first page in the chahun arm which is the laws of day-to-day Jewish life speaks about how a person has to act and dress modestly and to recognize that he is constantly standing in God's presence and remember that it's as if he's standing in front of the king and he should dress and act accordingly and just like if he was standing in the presence of a king he wouldn't speak a certain way he wouldn't act a certain way he wouldn't do certain things even when he's in a hidden room in the back of his house and the lights are off he's got to remember I'm still with God because I xem is there with us for us literally and everything so one of the ways to realize that one of the ways to come to relate to them and to connect to it is to look for God is to look fresh em in everything we do there was a boy I don't remember his name I believe it was a BRI his father was Irish they were Jewish father was a convert and they spoke both of them together spoke at a retreat for cancer warriors the high life line organization had a retreat in Israel called wish at the wall and they get together a lot of families whose children suffer or have suffered in the past from cancer and they have a israel trip so I was very honored to be invited and I was sitting there as the father spoke and he said his son asked him dead why do we cover our eyes when we say the Shema that's what we do we cover our eyes we say shema israel so the Sun asked him dad why do we cover our eyes when we say shema and the father said I don't know and the son said I'll tell you what I think he said because that's what the world would look like without God it would just be dark like walking with her eyes closed if we would live in this world without God in our presence if we would live in this world without God guiding us in our day-to-day lives and everything we do that doesn't said before it doesn't just mean the big stuff it means the little things there's a bra there's a blessing that a Jew makes after he uses the bathroom the bra I share yachts Irish em we thank you God for creating mankind with different limbs and with different sinews and with different arteries and veins and intestines then hush em you have created them and you control them breathing is in your hands the opening and closing of the doors inside our body we don't even know that it exists we don't even know that it's going on but if it would stop for one second if one of our intestines god forbid would close stop working stop functioning or if one would open up when it's not supposed to we could die god forbid people that have had their appendix ruptured scientists may not know why a person has his appendix but people have seen their appendix ruptured and it has Cobb caused the poisoning of the blood septic shock and death if it opens or closes for whatever reason a person is at risk but God runs a person's body at all times and we say in this blessing we say in this bra kigali via duaa the faith he say hi dekha it is revealed in front of you Hashem it is revealed to you in front of your throne of glory that if one of our limbs or one of our intestines would open or close we wouldn't be able to stand in front of you and bless you why do we mention the throne of glory because yes even in our lowest moments like going to the bathroom even in our very finite existence Hashem is with us watching us observing us and guiding us he runs our life he is with us and he does everything for us we don't even know if you would like to see God stop breathing try 10 15 20 seconds 60 seconds if you're Houdini for two and a half minutes and then your body starts breathing again and you can't hold it in why but i want to but my knowledge wants me to i want to control myself right but god has a different plan for you God wants you to breathe how about try and stop your heartbeat it goes without you it's not dependent on you of course person god forbid can do terrible things to himself but God wants you here God wants you to live God runs the things in your life that you don't even know about so if you want to discover God if you want to relate and connect to God first search look second open your heart open your mind and seek the awareness that there is so much that God does for me in my day-to-day life and my day-to-day living and all I have to do is open my eyes and I'll be able to see God is with me you