 Hi, this is Ruth Guggenheim with GPS for the Jewish Soul. We'd like to welcome Rivka Makka-Permon today from Wow in Baltimore, Maryland. Hi. Hi, Rivka, thanks so much for joining us. I love it, my pleasure. You know, I wanted to discuss today building a relationship with God. How do we go about that? You know, as Jews, we were already saying shema, and it says that we should love God with all our heart, might, and soul. How do we do that? That's a good question. You know, I'm speaking to young people all the time, and the most common thing I hear right before that question is I don't even know if I believe in God. You hear that sometimes? I hear it all the time. All the time? Very good. You know, we must all of us go through this period in our lives where we're not sure ourselves. Is there really a God? Is God hearing me? Does God listen? Yeah. How do we get through that barrier? Yeah. Have you found a way? Have I found a way? Well, there was a turning point in my life, and I'll tell you in terms of my relationship with God, and I really would like to share that with you. But before that, I just want to say, don't worry about whether or not you believe in God. He believes in you. He believes in you. He's there. Don't worry about believing in Him. I'm confident that all of us have a sense of otherness. You don't even have that sense of awe when you're sitting at the beach and you see the sunset and you see the waves and you're just, oh, you know, or you hear a great piece of music or you just have the most wonderful connection with friends and you feel this energy. Something else is happening. It's not just conversation. You know what I'm talking about? That's the taste of God. Yeah, that's the taste of something else. We think of God as, like, up there. Well, I can't make a relationship with something that's up there, far away, looking down at me. That's not God. God is inside of us. God is what powers the whole world. It's something so infinite. You can't feel it. You can't feel it. But we all experience it. So I just want to qualify my answer by saying let's throw out the word God and what should we call this infinite source of energy? Love. Love. You know, I think God is truly unconditional love. It's the ability for all of us to feel without any strings attached. Certainly that God hears us on a day-to-day basis. Yeah. Do we matter? Do we matter? Yeah. I had a personal turning point in my life. I grew up with a belief in God, definitely. But it wasn't until I opened my mouth outside of synagogue, outside of a prayer book, and started talking to him that I really started developing a relationship with him. You know, if someone's here, you're going to talk to him. This is, what's the proof that I believe in you, Ruth? I believe that you're here. I'm talking to you. If not, I'd be a crazy person talking to myself, right? When you open your mouth and just start talking to God as awkward and silly as that sounds, you begin to develop a relationship. You know, it reminds me there is a story of the altar rabbi, the founder of Hasidus, where he yells out, he literally yells out and he says, I don't want to know about your garden of Eden. I don't want to know about the world to come. I want to know you, God. What would you recommend should be the first step when someone is looking to consider if there's a belief with God, yeah? I could say what worked for me. That's all I could say. Yeah, of course. You know, maybe the first step is different for everyone, but I think gratitude, you know, whatever this loving being is, is sending us gifts all day long. The gift of friendship, the gift of eyesight, the gift of warmth, a house, a connection, a job, a great conversation. We're being showered with gifts, you know, and if we walk down the lonely road and don't address the source of the gifts, then it's not only the problem that we take them for granted, we don't get to develop a relationship. So I would start with a gratitude list and not on paper. The same way as an email is not the same thing as a face-to-face coffee day. I say, open your mouth and say thank you. And try that. Try saying thank you for five things. You know, I'll tell you something. This was a great night for me. I was waiting for my daughter to get off the bus and this bus was so late and coming and I was waiting in my car and I just was getting so impatient. So it was a good moment. I don't always do this, but I said, you know what? Instead of being impatient, I will sit in this car and say 50 things I'm grateful for. Maybe by 50 she'll be there. 50? 50! It was a memorable night. That's how it starts. That's where it starts. You know, Rivka Malka, I would like to thank you so much. I think if all of us took your idea and sat down on a daily basis and thought of five things, five things every day that we know that God has given us, that's a way of starting that relationship. I'd like to thank you for joining us, Rivka Malka and everybody else. See you next time.