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and so Abraham Joshua heschel in the
opening to his greatest book God In
Search Of Man writes like this
this is a quote
it's customary to blame secular science
and anti-religious philosophy for the
eclipse of religion in modern society it
would be more honest to blame religion
for its own defeats religion declined
not because it was refuted but because
it became irrelevant dull oppressive
insipid When Faith is completely
replaced by Creed worship by discipline
Love by habit when the crisis of today
is ignored because of the Splendor of
the past When Faith becomes an heirloom
rather than a living Fountain when
religion speaks only in the name of
authority rather than with the voice of
compassion its message becomes
meaningless
to me that is the truth of this
generation organized religion is
collapsing in the Western World
um fundamentally though human nature
hasn't changed and there's a massive
movement of people around the world that
are seeking spirituality seeking meaning
seeking a connection to God in the
crazier the mainstream world gets the
more the hunger grows and almost the
prophet spoke of our times around the
arugot farm with this message he said
one day I shall send a hunger into the
land not a hunger for bread nor a thirst
for water but to hear the words of God
says the hunger's not going to be for
religion
the hunger is going to be for a
relationship to hear the word of God for
people to hear God in their life that's
why the fundamental prayer of every Jew
is
hear o Israel the Lord is God the Lord
is one communication is the key to
relationship husband and wife parent and
child once the communication breaks down
it all breaks down to commune
communication it's the same word that's
why mashiach and Messiah
meaning the messiah messiah meaning
communication is the same word in Hebrew
it is literally the same word if you
write it down mem
and communication is the same word he
will be the great communicator that's
what we all need here and so no one in
this generation wants a religion they
want the Torah because the Torah is the
path toward the beauty of attachment the
depth of connection it's like we need a
deeper connection an emotional intimate
connection we need to feel the love the
Ecstasy of being connected to God it's
like my faith needs to help make me
dance my faith Journey should inspire me
to celebrate life it needs to actualize
my potential it needs to allow me to
grow Beyond Myself connect with my true
self it needs to touch
the essence of life so
my faith needs to go
Beyond religion
it needs to touch our hearts
it needs to allow us to live life to its
fullest
it needs to help us emotionally
psychologically spiritually it needs to
reveal our soul in the world that's the
hunger that's spreading throughout the
world people realize like ah I'm just
not happy I don't feel like this world
is working out there's something inside
it that is calling us for something
greater like that and like food is for
the body the purpose of religion is to
nourish our soul to allow it to grow to
flourish to shine it's like now
according to the Torah tradition we
cannot understand God even Abraham Isaac
and Jacob just like what Ari said they
weren't even privy to God's name they
were trying to seek after God following
God God's thoughts are beyond our
thoughts his ways are beyond our ways he
transcends reality and he's imminent
within reality he's Beyond us we will
never understand fully God in this
limited capacity but the biblical
promise is that as we develop our inner
world we can develop a relationship with
the divine and that relationship is to
have an inner tension a dynamic a living
relationship with who we are now and who
God is calling us to be
and if we can follow that little inner
quiet voice that emanates from our heart
we can walk in that direction
but once that relationship with the
Divine just becomes a religion a ritual
a theology it's over and that's why the
sages of Israel say the Torah can either
be an elixir of life
or a potion of death
