 One of the best known verses in the Torah is Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4, Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echode. Now this verse may be very familiar but it's not so simple to parse. Often it's rendered as hero Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Now Rabbi Norman Lamb has a wonderful book about this passage, about the Shema and in it he shares an intriguing take on this verse by Rabbi Adolf Altman and this is his spin. Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echode. Hero Israel, the Lord our God. Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Or here the Lord our God, oh Israel. Here the Lord our God, oh Israel, the Lord is one. Now according to this reading the message of the Shema is that we should always be listening to God. Why? Because Adonai Echode, because God is one. He is the only. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 35 says, ain't owed milvado. There's nothing else but him. There's nothing else in the world that really exists. There's nothing that has independent existence. God is the only. And therefore everything that exists in the world is an expression of God. Therefore he's always speaking to us. So listen, that's the message according to this reading of Shema Yisrael. Rabinachman of Breslov writes in his first Torah of Lakuteh Maran that we should always seek the divine intelligence, the divine wisdom of everything that exists. We should look beyond the external, fleeting aspects of reality and zero in on the eternal spiritual core that sustains everything. When humans make something like a table for example, the table will continue to exist long after the craftsman passes away. But God's creation is different. It is an expression of his will. If God removed his will for an instant from anything that was created it would simply cease to exist. And therefore everything in the world today only exists as a result of the divine spark that sustains it. If you look at the world through the eyes of your soul, you will be able to perceive godliness everywhere. King David wrote in the book of Psalms, chapter 104 verse 24. How many are your works Hashem? You made them all with wisdom. Mala Haaretz Kinyanecha normally translated the world, the earth is full of your possessions. But the Hasidic masters read this with an interesting spin. They took this verse to be saying, the world is filled with things to acquire you, not that the world is filled with your possessions, the world is filled with things that we can use to possess you God. God can be grasped through everything in the world. He used to say, I am constantly playing a game of hide and seek with God and I find him everywhere. The Kutzgerrebi famously asked his students, where is God? And after they gave many reasonable answers, the Kutzger said answering his own question, God is wherever we let him in. Now, God is much more likely to be encountered in the days of our lives and in the pages of history, more so than in works of philosophical speculation. We know that God sent Moses to tell the Israelites that he was going to redeem them from their bondage in Egypt. And Moses had a peculiar question for God. Moses asked God, what if they ask me your name? Here God is sending Moses. Moses, go tell the Jews that I'm taking them out of Egypt. And the big question is, not how are you going to do it? It sounds impossible. The big question that Moses is concerned about is, what if they ask me your name? And God answered Moses, I will be what I will be. Tell them I will be sent to you. Now in the Bible, names convey essence. Asking for God's name is really seeking to know who God is. And God says, if you want to know me, if you want to know who I am, I will be what I will be. That's God's answer. You want to know me? I will be what I will be. What is God saying? God is saying, you'll see. You want to know who I am? You'll see who I am. You'll experience me on the stage of history. And that's how you will get to know me. Psalm chapter 19 verse 2. The heavens declare the glory of the Almighty. The heavens disguise what we can see up there declares the glory of the Almighty. It screams it out. Do we hear this proclamation? Are we aware of it? Are we paying attention to the wonders all around us? The beauties and the majesty of the natural world are capable of taking away our breath. The Rambam writes that reflecting on the wonders of creation can lead us to a profound love and appreciation of the Tsuor Olamin, which you can translate as the artist of the world. You don't have to render Tsuor Olamin as rock of ages. Tsuor, Sayar, artist Olamin of the world. And that's how Maimanani says we can come to love God, is through looking at and appreciating his masterpiece, which is the world we're living in. The Maghreb Meserich, the great student of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Hasidic Revolution, writes that everything you see has been put before your eyes to remember God. He writes, look at everything you see stripped of its material veil and always ask yourself, where did this get its beauty from, if not from Hashem, if not from the Almighty? Rabbi Mordechai Dolinsky used to go for walks with Rabbi Avigdor Miller. And he eventually wrote a book called Walking with Rabbi Miller. And in this book he recounts the discussions they would have together during these walks. In one of the chapters he writes the following. On one of our walks, the Rebbe shared what he called the highest spiritual experience he had in his life. He described how when he was learning in Slavotka, Yeshiva in Europe during the summer break, he occasionally hiked in the Lithuanian hills and fields, indulging in the joy of coming close to Hashem's creation in its natural state. On one of these excursions, he sat and stared at a flower, analyzing its components, appreciating its beauty, and basking in the brilliant warmth of Hashem's infinite wisdom. Rabbi Miller explained to me that he sat preoccupied this way for an hour. Imagine a teenager sitting and staring at a flower for an hour. When he was finished, he had an awesome feeling of closeness with Hashem and saw the divine hand in creation to such an extent that it actually came close to prophecy. This contemplation, the Rebbe said, produced the greatest spiritual experience he ever had in his life, and it led him to supreme heights. The Talmud teaches us in Tractate Brachot 59A that thunder was only created to uproot the crookedness of our hearts. And Rabbi Yisrael Meir HaCoein of Radin, the Chavitzchayim, knew that God was always speaking to us. So when he heard thunder, the Chavitzchayim would say, Vos vildetata! What does our Father want from us? The Talmud in Tractate Brachot 58A teaches us that when we experience difficulties in life, hardships, we should examine our ways because they often serve as wake-up calls from God. Rabbi Yosef Dov HaLevi-Salavachek wrote in his essay, Kol DoDi DoFake, that the appropriate way of dealing with tragedies is not to focus on why. Why did it happen? But rather on what? What can I now do with my life in light of this tragedy? What should my reaction be? The Talmud in Bubba Metzia, Tractate Bubba Metzia 85A relates that a young calf was once being led to the slaughter and escaped from its handler and hid among the folds of the robe of Rabbi Yehudah Nasi, Judah the Prince. He looked up at Judah the Prince with eyes that must have been pathetic and the robb said to him, What do you want from me? This is what you were created for. The Talmud tells us that subsequently he began to suffer from terrible stomach pains that lasted for 13 years when one day his maid was about to hit some rodents with a broom to chase them out of the house and he stopped her and he quoted Psalm 145 verse 9 and said, God's compassion is upon all of his creatures and at that point his painful ailment ceased. He learned from his pain. Rabbi Yaakov Haber, an American rabbi was living in Jerusalem studying in Yeshiva after he got married. And by Chanukah they were expecting their first child. On the first night of Chanukah when they were about to light the Chanukah candles there was a knock at the door. They weren't expecting anyone. Rabbi Haber opened the door and was greeted by a disheveled middle-aged man with filthy clothing. Might you have a meal for me possibly? Rabbi Haber welcomed him and said, Look we're going to light the candles but right after that we're going to have our meal. Please join us. His name was Banish and Banish told them that he lived alone and he fell on some very hard times. When the meal was over Banish asked if he could come back and they said sure he could and over the next few weeks Banish began coming with increased frequency and they hosted him on Shabbos for Shabbos meals and they hosted him a few times during the middle of the week. Mrs. Haber washed his soiled clothing several times in the week when he would bring it over. Eventually the Habers were planning on moving to another neighborhood in Jerusalem because they would need a larger apartment when their child arrived. They needed a larger place which would be more expensive and this was going to be another neighborhood where the housing was more affordable. They didn't tell Banish they were going to leave and after they relocated they didn't see him anymore. A few weeks after their baby was born Rabbi Haber noticed a scorpion running across the dining room floor. He quickly took care of it but a few days later they saw a number of scorpions sprinting across the floor. Now there are many kinds of scorpions but the Palestine yellow scorpion could be lethal and the Habers were frightened. After all they had a young child and so they placed blankets over the baby's crib to make sure that no scorpions could crawl in. They ended up calling an exterminator who came several times but wasn't able to solve their problem and the exterminator finally said there was nothing more that he could do. This was obviously very upsetting to the Habers and the strange thing was that no one else on their block had this problem. The final straw came one Shabbos morning when Rabbi Haber was woken by his wife's screams. She was standing on a chair pointing to a corner of the room where scorpions were running along the baseboard. After Shabbos Rabbi Haber went to speak with his Rebbe Rev Chaim Pincha Scheinberg. He told his Rev about what was happening and their harrowing experiences and asked what was going on and what could they do about it. Rev Scheinberg said they should look at the Perak Sheira. The Perak Sheira is an ancient work it's either two or three thousand years old and it basically lists 85 different things in the creation and it shares the song of each of these things and the song is a verse from the Bible. So this book it's not a very big book it's very short but it shares with you the song of the son and the song of the cat and the song of the dog. It lists many many things that are created and Rabbi Scheinberg says let's see what is the song of the scorpion. So they looked in this work the Perak Sheira and they found the scorpion says God is good to all and his mercy is upon all of his handiwork against Psalm 145 verse 9. Rabbi Scheinberg said to Fallon we don't know the purpose of scorpions and even though some of them are lethal God has compassion on them and supplies them with food and with what they need to survive and Rabbi Scheinberg turned to his student and said perhaps you fail to show compassion to someone. Rabbi Haber was shaking suddenly things became very clear to him. They had abandoned Benish. Rabbi Haber left his Rebbe's apartment and knew he had to find Benish. Now he knew Benish lived in the Ga'ula neighborhood of Jerusalem so he went there immediately and walked around and around and around and he couldn't find Benish and he was frustrated and he came back several times and he walked around Ga'ula not able to locate his old friend and the scorpions were still invading his apartment. One day he was on a bus in the middle of Jerusalem and he spotted Benish at the window of the bus. He immediately got off the bus and he ran over to Benish who was walking aimlessly around and he said Rebbeinish Shalom we missed you when can you visit us again? And Benish says you know I missed you as well let me know when and where and I'll come over I'd be happy to come. So Rabbi Haber gave him his new address and Benish came that night for dinner and he once again began coming regularly and the scorpions were gone. Not one returned. Of course God is always speaking to us through the Torah and we have to reflect not just on the overt teachings and commandments of the Torah that's the simplest level but we have to try to discern what is the message that the Torah has for us. For example there's a custom that when we take off our fillin the leather boxes that we wear on our arm and our head that have passages from the Bible inside the custom is to remove them with our weaker hand if you are righty you remove them with your left hand. Why? Because we are trying to show that we're not anxious and we're not eager to remove them we're not taking them off with our strongest hand and in the same way after we finish praying the custom is to walk back take steps back three steps back from our presence with God. When we pray we take three steps forward and we take those three steps beginning with our right foot because as we approach God we want to start with our strongest foot and when we walk away from God we're taking our leave we take our steps back beginning with the left foot to again show we're not anxious to leave God's presence we're not leaving with our strong foot forward. That's a practice but what's the message? And there are people who might observe these traditions and these rules but not give too much thought about what it's for and what is God speaking to us through these teachings. Perhaps if people really heard the message of why we take our filling off with our left hand perhaps it would affect how quickly they pray. Maybe people wouldn't rush through their prayers if they understood the purpose of that practice. A negative example there was a man once who berated his wife on a Friday night when he came home from synagogue with a guest. He berated her because she didn't have the table ready with the khalas the special Shabbat bread covered. Now what's the purpose of having the khala covered? So normally a meal during the week is begun with bread that's how a normal meal starts. Normally during the weekdays we don't start off the meal with wine with kiddish. On Shabbat we start the meal with the toast we toast the Shabbat with a cup of wine. So on Shabbat we pass over we skip the bread and we're going to go first to the wine and so the tradition is that the wine might end up embarrassing the khala. The khala is going to see that it's being passed over and they're starting the meal with the wine or the grape juice so in order to spare the khala from being embarrassed we cover it. It sounds cute but there's a message there and this husband clearly didn't get the message because he was so concerned that the table be set and the khala is covered so that these khalas wouldn't be embarrassed and yet he had no compunction about berating his wife in front of a guest and embarrassing her. So people need to hear how God is communicating with us through the commandments of the Torah through the Torah practices. Another thing that we have to realize is that God speaks to us through the things that we see during the day. Every day we see so many things. The Baal Shem Tov once saw a person who was desecrating the Shabbat and he was shocked and pained by this. Not only because of this person's disregard for the holiness of the Shabbat because the Baal Shem Tov believed that whatever we see has a message for us specifically for us and that if we are seeing someone desecrating the Shabbat the Baal Shem Tov believed that on some level we are guilty of the same thing. We must be guilty of desecrating the Shabbat if we are seeing someone desecrating the Shabbat. The Baal Shem Tov racked his brain. When did he ever treat the Shabbat with a lack of respect and he pondered this for days and he couldn't think of anything and he finally recalled a teaching of the Zohar. The Zohar refers to a Torah scholar as Shabbat. A Torah scholar is referred to as Shabbat and he recalled that there was once a time when on his level he hadn't accorded the proper honor to a certain Torah scholar and he felt that seeing this desecration of the Sabbath was a message from Hashem, a message from God that he had something to fix. He immediately jumped out of his seat and headed straight to the court of that Torah scholar in question and requested to be allowed to light his pipe as an act of paying respect and honor. The famous work Avost Ribi Nassan which is a version of Pirke Avost's Ethics of the Fathers in chapter six tells us a story of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva at the age of 40 was an ignorant shepherd who couldn't even read the olive bet and one day we're told he stopped to get a drink at a stream and he saw water that was dripping on a rock and he noticed that a hole had been chiseled through the rock where this water was dripping and he sat and he pondered this interesting sight that he's been seeing and he wondered what message might this have for him. He believed that whatever you see in life could be a message from God and so he said to himself you know if this water that's dripping on the rock, the water which is very soft, if it's able to penetrate a rock which is hard, then the Torah which is as hard as iron must be able to penetrate my heart which is soft and on that day he resolved to study the Torah and he became the great Rabbi Akiva who was just about the greatest Torah scholar in the history of Judaism. There are other ways in which God speaks to us. The Talmud teaches in Pirke Avost Ethics of the Fathers chapter six Mishnah two that every day a heavenly voice, a botkhol, issues forth from Khorrev from Mount Sinai and says woe to the people because of their insult to the Torah. There are other places in the Talmud that say that every day a botkhol, a voice comes out of heavens and begs us to return to God and the Baal Shem Tov asked the question what is the purpose of this divine voice coming out of heaven if no one hears it? What good is it to have such a botkhol, a divine voice? And the Baal Shem Tov said you know what? We do hear it because at times each day in quiet moments undisturbed by the distractions of this world our soul shakes because at that moment we feel a pang of remorse and we hear an inner voice that says I should try to be more obedient to God. I should try to be more faithful to God. I should try to have more control over my desires and impulses. I need to improve in my Torah learning and my study of Torah. I need to improve in my doing of Chesed, doing loving kindness to other people. I need to work more on my character traits to try to improve my personality. I need to concentrate more during prayer. And these impulses are from that heavenly voice. The Baal Shem Tov said that when we have a pang of conscience it's not coming out of nowhere. It's a result of our soul hearing that voice coming out of heaven. Revtsadik Hako'in of Lublin writes in his Tsitkas at Sadik chapter 222 that God's way of calling out to us is to implant in our minds every day thoughts of yearning for God. And we simply need to become more sensitive to these messages and to be more attentive to them. We know the story in the Torah of Jacob, Jacob's sons, Joseph and his brothers who did not get along that well. And we know that finally the brothers decided to kill Joseph and to say that a wild beast had devoured him. But the Torah tells us that at that point, that Ruvane heard, and he saved Joseph from their hands. And Ruvane tells his brothers, don't kill Joseph. Let's just simply put him into one of the pits that we have here. And Ruvane intended to return later to rescue Joseph. But the Torah says Ruvane heard and he rescued him from their hands. What is it that he heard? The Torah never tells us what he heard. But we know that he heard the voice of God. We know that he had a stab of conscience and he became attuned to the will of the Almighty. He heard this and he acted. And therefore the Baal Shem Tov advises us that every day after you've prayed, he says, sit quietly for a while and wait to hear what God is saying to you. You've just finished praying. You've been speaking to God. The Baal Shem Tov said, now you sit and try to listen to what God is saying to you and that God is going to send you thoughts since you've become aligned with him. We know, of course, that sometimes God speaks to us through dreams. Now, not all dreams are meaningful, but sometimes they are. And our sages tell us that dreams can be one sixtieth of prophecy. Here's one such story. In 1991, Deborah Robinson, not her real name, was dating Ed Wilson. I actually happened to know who the real people are. I met them over at Shabbat table. So they were dating Deborah and Ed. They had been seeing each other for over three years. And although he had popped a question several times, she had avoided giving him an answer. Fearful, conflicted, and anxious about tying the knot, she kept on stalling. And as a result, she was tormented and miserable. One night, Chuck Anton, an old friend of her deceased father, Wayne Robinson, had a dream. In the dream, Wayne Robinson said, Chuck, do me a favor. My daughter, Deborah, is going out with someone, and this person is her destined one. Please find her and tell her that she should marry him and that she's going to have a wonderful life. This match has my blessing, and for once she should listen to her father. Chuck Anton woke up with a muffled scream. He hadn't seen Deborah Robinson since her father had died 10 years earlier. Shaken, he aroused his wife and told her the dream. She told him, look, it's ridiculous. And advised him just to go back to sleep. So he followed her advice and soon forgot about the entire episode. But a week later, Wayne Robinson reappeared in a new dream. Chuck, wagging an accusing finger, you didn't do what I requested. How many times do I have to ask you to please tell my daughter to marry the young man she's seeing? Once again, Chuck awoke with a start, but this time he resolved to consult his priest. Look, the priest said, find the girl and ask her if she's currently seeing anyone seriously. If she isn't, don't say anything. If she is, you have a responsibility to deliver her father's message. The following Sunday, Deborah Robinson lay on her bed weeping. Why? Because the night before her younger sister Susie had gotten engaged. Although she was happy for her sister, the engagement had undeniably served to accentuate her own sense of aloneness and her anxiety about her relationship with Ed. Deborah was in agony and she cried out, God, please help me figure out what to do. I beg you, please send me a sign. At that precise moment, the telephone rang. Deborah, this is Chuck Anton. Three months later, Deborah and Ed were married and they've been living a fairytale life ever since. Judaism believes in Hashgah Pratit, that God guides our lives and speaks to us through the people we meet and through the things that happen to us every day. The book Small Miracles was written by Yita Halrestam and by Judith Lowenthal. It's all about coincidences in everyday life. But of course, these coincidences are not just coincidences. They're God's way of telling us that He's in our lives and that He's giving us messages. Rabbi Pesach Eliyahu Fulk tells a story of an orphan boy who was studying in the Yeshiva in the land of Israel. All his friends were getting married. But without parents, he did not have the funds he needed to enter into Shiduchim in order to find an appropriate match. His friend assured him that he and others would raise money on his behalf and sure enough, he was introduced to a fine girl, also an orphan, and they wanted to get married. Unfortunately, they did not have money for a wedding or for an apartment. Once again, his friend reassured him that he would commit to raise money for them to be able to get married. However, hard as he and his friends tried, they couldn't raise any more funds. Nothing worked. They did more than the ordinary amount of effort, but to no avail. Finally, the orphan said to his friend, enough, don't try anymore. I'm going straight to God. I don't want help from anyone else. He went to the Western Wall, the Coastal, that Friday morning and turned to God and said, God, she and I are both orphans. You are our father. Please help us to get married and to start a family. He took out a book of psalms to heal him and started reading from the beginning. He completed the entire book and then he turned to Hashem to wait for his salvation, but nothing happened. Hashem, he said, I'm not turning to any more human beings. I'm turning only to you and he began reciting the entire book of psalms again. A short while later he felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned around. You look depressed, the stranger said. Is there any way I can help you? No, thank you, the young man said. I'm talking to God. He's going to help me. For the third time, he looked up and spoke to God. God, please help me. We are orphans. We want to get married and I do not want to leave here until I see your salvation. Just then he felt another tap on his shoulder. It was the same stranger. Your salvation is here, the man said. I will take care of everything you need. I just arrived in Israel this morning. I had a major court case relating to taxes and if I had lost, I would have been left in poverty. I told God that if I win the case, I will find an orphan boy and orphan girl who need help to get married and pay for their wedding and continue caring for them after their wedding. I won the case and I came here looking for people that I can help. I heard you talking to God and you're the person that God has sent me to. Everything that happens in our life is a message from God. Everything that happens in our lives is arranged by God. There are no coincidences and if we were only to open our ears and listen carefully, we will always be able to hear the voice of God.