Some people believe that God created us, but then left us to live our own life. This is called "deism" which means people believe in one God who created the world, and now has nicely remained for people to live on their own. Other people believe in [the outlook of] Baruch She-amar, which means that certain people believe that God is always active in our everyday personal lives, as the active verbe in Baruch She-amar emphasize. I personally agree with this prayer because I do not believe that God created us and then left us. I believe that if God created us and made us, then he would not just leave the people to do whatever they want to do. God is in our everyday lives, watching us in very step that we take. He knows that we do wrong things and because of that, we have to pray to him to forgive our sins. There is a reason why Jewish people and I pray in the morning. And this reason is to pray to God, which is a chance for us to talk to Him by ourselves. Also, people pray if you know you did something wrong and you want to talk to God for forgiveness. God is part in our everyday personal lives and if He was not, then there would be no reason for the Jewish people to do certain events that happen.
I do agree and connect with Baruch She-amar more than "deism" because I know that God is with me and if I have a problem He will try his best to fix it for me. The way that I feel God is connected to me the most is when I pray. It does not matter where or when, all that matters is that I pray to talk to God individually. When I pray it makes me feel happy because I believe that God can hear me and that he hears me talking to him and saying what is on my mind. There are two specific parts in the prayers that connect me to God the most. One is the Shemah because for this prayer, you have to close your eyes and when I close my eyes, I do not pay attention to anybody else except to talk to God and to pray for Israel. Another prayer is the Amidah. When I take those three steps forward and three steps backwards, it connects me to God. Since the Amidah is mostly silent I get to pray to God better and concentrate on what I want to tell God. These two prayers connect me most to God and make me feel better.
In my own life, I feel God in many ways. When something amazing happens to me, I feel that God is looking down on me and looking out for me. When I am depressed from a loss, I will pray to feel connected with Him. He will look out for me, even though sometimes God can not make things better. God will try to help you and will feel the pain that you have inside your heart. I also feel God in many other ways. I think that God is always with me no matter what, and is right by your side all the time.
(-Kitah Het student)
I agree with the idea that G-d still acts. I think that if G-d would make the world he wouldn't just leave. If G-d was going to leave, what would be the point of making the world?
ReplyDeleteI agree that g-d did not leave us when he created us. If he left us the why do people pray to him?
ReplyDeleteI agree with this because G-d would never leave the people that He entrusted the Torah and the promised land with. G-d also has answered our prayers in the past and hopefully will do so in the future which means he has definitely not left us yet. Like Jacob asked why would we pray to G-d if he left us? Well, we just wouldn't. If G-d left us there would be no apparent reason to pray to Him. Therefore we still do pray to Him because G-d did not leave us yet. If G-d left us I think that we would have found out in someway. Also G-d created the world and we are still getting all the wonderful resources. G-d is still here too because he has been continuously repeating the miracle of keeping Israel and the Jewish nation still alive today.
ReplyDeleteI agree that G-d did not leave us, because if he left then who are we praying to and why are we praying? Also, G-d wouldn’t just leave the place that he created; wouldn’t you want to observe or see what happens to it?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Josh - if you build something, why would you ditch it?
ReplyDeleteI have an interesting opinion. I half agree with one and half agree with the other. I think that god exists but did not create the universe and is inactive in our everyday lives. I believe that god led Moshe and the Jews through the desert and helped the Jews in ancient times. I do not think that God necessarily helps us in everyday life now, but I think that He watches over and forgives for sins. In addition, I always like to go with the scientific explanation, and I do believe the scientific laws of how the Earth was created over the traditional "On day one God created . . . and so on." So that being said, I disagree with the Baruch She'amar approach, although I somewhat experience God personally. (-Kitah Het Student)
ReplyDeleteMy personal belief in God is a very strange one. Rather than believing in the traditional God who is there for us to pray to and helps us, I believe that he is simply there, similar to deism. However, I also do not believe in an omnipotent, perfect God who plans many actions. For example, the saying, “God is not in the accident; He is in the ambulance” is something I disagree with. If He is in one, He is in both; however, I believe that he is in neither. While I do believe in a God, I do not believe in worshipping to the “ever-present Rock of Israel.” I believe that God is simply there as a reassuring figure in people’s lives, and while I do not discredit His existence, I am not sure how much I believe in Him being a powerful Lord who is active in our lives, as Baruch She'amar says.
DeleteI believe that God influences the Earth in an indirect way, that science is a result of his makings. For example, in fifth grade our class learned about a scientific explanation of the ten plagues, on that I believe more than any other theory. I think that He originally started off chains of events that now continue today, and that he no longer directly influences the Earth. In terms of people, I believe that He made people a certain way, with tendencies for good and for evil, and that every person has complete free choice in choosing what path he/she follows. Menachem Mendel Schneerson was not born any worse than Adolf Hitler, who was not born any worse than you and I. These three different types of people are differentiated by the choices they make and what choices others make in terms of interaction toward them.
A follow-up:
DeleteI was walking my dog this past Friday night, with a flashlight. We were under a short extension of my roof, so I shone the flashlight on that. I saw brown followed by a large extension of blue. I was confused, as our roof did not extend that far. Then I realized (stupid me for not realizing it immediately) that it was the sky.
It then occurred to me that ultimately, the sky is like a roof. As a child progresses, say, from one classroom to a different one the next year in school, he/she is sheltered by the roof of the school. However, out in the world, as a person progressed from home to home, workplace to workplace, city, state, country to another, the overall roof is the sky.
This helped me realize an answer, however vague, to some of your questions (all according to my beliefs, of course). While God rarely intervenes with the happenings in the world, He is watching over us at all times. If absolutely necessary, He does get involved, mainly by sending someone to help fix the world.
One example of this is Moses. The Jews had been unjustly enslaved for 400 years by Egypt, and God finally decided that it was time to change this abomination. So He sent Moses to set the people Israel free and once again have the Jewish people prosper.
I would agree with "theism." I feel that theism is correct because there are examples of God’s activity every day from simple miracles, waking up in the morning, to amazing miracles, child birth or when someone’s life is saved.
ReplyDeleteFor these reasons, I feel that Baruch She-Amar is correct in saying that God is active in our daily lives. I am not saying that people that say that God has left us to take care of ourselves because there have been cases where I feel God could trust us to take care of ourselves then something bad happened and he felt the need to come and take care of us again. Instances of this was the Holocaust, 6,000,000 Jews died but then God came back and helped the allies defeat Hitler and then God helped the Jews get Israel back in the war of Independence. Another example is 9/11, thousands of people died but it brought us together and made us stronger and finally we took out Osama bin Laden.
I feel like God is truly active in my life every day. In my life, God helps me to have the power to get up. I also feel like a lot of times he will answer my prayers and help me figure out how to deal with any problems I may have. I also experience God when I use technology because I feel as though the technology we have is a miracle because it gives us the chance to connect with our friends and family.
I agree that every miracle that happened G-d did, and also that every disaster and bad thing that happened G-d also did. I would like to think that if there is a good person that deserves a good thing G-d will give it to him, and that the same goes for bad people.
Delete(-Andrew)
I also think that God is responsible for the good and bad things in our lives. He can make miracles and he can destroy things. But he'll always watch over Jewish people.
ReplyDelete