One of the roles of the faculty at Sci-Tech is to give an iyyun, or thoughts on prayer, as part of the Friday night service. I thought that I might share one that I wrote two years ago, and shared on the first Shabbat of camp:
Let’s talk about the Sh’ma. It is a Biblical text that we recite in each of our services: Sh’ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. “Hear, O Israel, the Adonai Your God the Adonai is one.” There is a way to approach it even if you don’t believe in God.
The first word is often translated as “Hear” – but it could also be translated as “Listen” or “Pay heed.” That means: don’t just hear it, but stop thinking about something else, and really listen. This is important. Are you fully present? Are you fully engaged?
Listen, Israel. Adonai, your God.
You could think of “Adonai” as the name for the creative force in the world, the energy that drives evolution forward, that allows chemical reactions to become life. You could decide to say “Adonai” instead of “blind chance.” You are naming a process here; it does not have to be a person.
Adonai is one.
The point of saying “one” here is the idea that God is absolutely singular. By singular we mean unique, unlike anyone or anything else. Extraordinarily different. Transcending time and space, beyond our definitions of it, more than our imaginations allow.
This might not seem like a particularly important point, but it is actually most crucial. When we try to define God – when we try to tame our God-concepts so that they might be comprehensible – we imagine things that are not God.
It’s like creating a small box and asking God to step inside so that we might carry God around with us like a good-luck charm. God isn’t our own personal wizard.
God is so much bigger, and grander, and wilder than our charms and incantations. What most folks call “God” is just a tiny subset of the whole.
If you are having trouble believing in God, think of it this way: every human being is created in the image of God. Imagine, then, that it says, “Listen, O Israel: every human being, your fellow-humans, every human being is singular.” Take that message to heart and act upon it.
In other words: if you find it too much, to grand, to foolish to contemplate God, the universe, and everything in the macro scale, then think about God in the microcosm. Value human life, each individual you meet. Listen carefully when people talk. Put down your phone, put aside your distractions, stop thinking about what you are going to say next, and listen. Every human being is singular, created in the very image of God. Listen.
Rabbi Kari Tuling
Faculty Dean, Sci-Tech