Do you ever question your beliefs about Your religion? Do you question God’s word, the value of the commandments, the teachings of the forefathers, the meaning of the rituals and prayers?

They say the Jewish people are God wrestlers. We don’t always accept God’s word or anything to do with our religion without questions, without wanting to understand why, without pondering the value, the validity, the truth of what we are told or asked to do.

Yet, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or some other religion, sometimes we get stuck in fear—fear that if we don’t listen to God’s word, believe every single word we hear and do as those words command—something bad might happen. We might be struck down by lightning, fall from grace, not live another year, not receive God’s goodness. Then we stop wrestling with God.

It takes a lot to move out of that fear and to begin questioning again, wrestling again.

I was pleased this week to find a current example of someone who moved through that fear and began God wrestling—and did so in the public eye. I read in a JTA article that Chassidic reggae musician and singer Matisyahu publicly shaved off his beard and peyes and uploaded a picture of himself clean shaven on Twitter on December 13. Along with it, he posted this message:

“This morning I posted a photo of myself on Twitter.

“No more Chassidic reggae superstar.

“Sorry folks, all you get is me…no alias. When I started becoming religious 10 years ago it was a very natural and organic process. It was my choice. My journey to discover my roots and explore Jewish spirituality—not through books but through real life. At a certain point I felt the need to submit to a higher level of religiosity…to move away from my intuition and to accept an ultimate truth. I felt that in order to become a good person I needed rules—lots of them—or else I would somehow fall apart. I am reclaiming myself. Trusting my goodness and my divine mission.”

The next day, December 14, the JTA ran another story. In it he explained this decision in more detail during an interview WNYC’s Soundcheck. He began growing his beard when he became religious. The decision not to shave was based on a teaching from Kabbalah that the beard is a manifestation of the 13 divine attributes of mercy, he explained. (Learn about the 13 Attributes here.) He feared that if he were to shave the beard, he would no longer be privy to those blessings of mercy.

Recently, however, he asked himself, “How can [God’s mercy] possibly be connected to me shaving or not? And I began, over the last few weeks, I went through a pretty major transformation, probably bigger than any in my life, due to several things, but a lot of revelations and a lot of realizations started coming clear to me, and I realized just like these fears that I have, the idea that God’s mercy is connected to whether I shave or not is ludicrous. And I just need to trust myself, and that if I’m deserving of God’s mercy, I’ll get it regardless.”

That’s a big jump…to trust your own goodness and to trust God to be merciful whether you follow His commandments or not. Orthodox, or observant, Jews, live within the confines of God’s laws, God’s mitzvot. They offer structure. They offer a way of life. They offer a means by which to be a good Jew, a mensch.

Yet, here we see someone coming out of that world and saying, “I think I can be a mensch, I think I can be a good person, a spiritual and religious person deserving of God’s grace and mercy without observing every single mitzvah—every commandment.”

And haven’t those of us who are not that religious wondered what would happen—in the reverse—if I suddenly became more observant? Would God be more gracious, more merciful? Would my prayers be answered?

But maybe it’s simply about being a good person, about being deserving—beard or no beard.

What about you? Do you wrestle with God? Do you question your beliefs? And do you occasionally shave  (or have you ever shaved) your beard—metaphorical or real—to see what might happen?

Have you ever had a time in your life when something just felt like a struggle? You thought you were on the right path, but obstacles just kept rising up in front of you and causing you to question if you were doing the right thing?

I had a time like this just this past month, which has been one reason I haven’t been posting much. Then I asked for a sign…and I received one.

I’ve been in New York City chaperoning my son, Julian, for a summer dance intensive. Prior to this, however, he was at the School of American Ballet (SAB), also in New York, for a five week chaperoned ballet intensive. At the end of the intensive,  Julian was accepted into SAB  for the winter term but they had no room in the dorm AND there was a possibility that the Professional Performing Arts School (PPAS), the public school he would attend, had no room for him in the senior class.

Julian, of course, wanted to attend. This was a huge opportunity that most ballet dancers would love to have offered to them. It’s also expensive any way you look at it–dorm or no dorm. (No dorm means the need for an apartment.) It also meant changing schools his senior year–if there was a school for him to attend; with no school, he’d be looking at finishing his high school degree on line (not a great choice). And for me it meant the possibility of picking up and moving to NYC for a year to chaperone him, since he couldn’t be in the dorm–and Julian, my husband and me living in a one bedroom apartment. Blech.

I got a call from PPAS telling me there was, indeed, no room in the senior class for Julian.

I looked at some very dismal one-bedroom apartments in the $2000 or under range. Some were smaller than the loft we were staying in. Some were dingy and dirty. Some were a five-floor walk up (with computer, groceries, dance bag…).

When I was just about to give up and say, “This is just too difficult. It must not be meant to be,” I turned it over to Something Bigger Than Me. A Higher Power. I asked my angels, guides and God to show me that Julian was supposed to be in New York and attend SAB and PPAS. “If it’s meant to be, show me the way. Give me a sign. Make it easy,” I said.

That was on August 11th.

On August 12th, in the morning, I got a call from SAB’s registrar. “I’ve got good news for you,” she said. “Julian has a spot in the dorm if he wants it.” It seems they had decided to squeeze three boys into a two-person room.

“That’s great!” I replied. “Let me tell my husband and Julian!”

I did just that. And while Julian was talking to my husband, Ron, on his own cell phone , my cell phone rang. It was the parent liaison from PPAS. “I’ve got great news for you,” she said. “I just spoke with my principal and we have a spot for Julian in the senior class.”

“That’s wonderful,” I replied.  “Don’t give it away!”

A sign…clear and simple.

A miracle? I guess you could call it that.

It’s amazing what happens when you ask and then stay open to really receiving and seeing or hearing the signs.

Today we signed the papers, paid the money (Ouch.) and registered my son for a year in New York City. I’ll miss him, but I feel fairly certain this is the right move for him.

How often do you ask God, a Higher Power, your angels or guides, for a sign or for guidance? And have you received signs when you did?

Sometimes life just hands you situations and you simply do what’s necessary. Or at least you begin taking steps to do what you think might be necessary. Then you watch, wait, listen to see if the pieces fall into place.

A friend reminded me of Angeles Arrien’s teaching: Show up. Pay attention. Speak your truth. Stay unattached to the outcome.

I’m trying to do that right now. My son was asked to study ballet in New York this school year. I’m not sure that’s the right thing for him to do. We’ve asked some experts for their opinion. We are waiting for their feedback. In the meantime, we’ve started taking steps to try and make it happen for him. We’ve spoken our truth about if we think it should happen and how we think it should happen (if it should). Now we are paying attention…staying unattached (as much as possible), paying attention. And I’m showing up as the person to apartment hunt and chaperone–if that is meant to be.

That’s what may be necessary.

Did I think I’d be living in New York City next year? No. Have I done it the last three summers? Yes. Was it necessary then? Yes.

Could this be an opportunity of some sort ? Yes. For all of us.

I’ll show up. I’ll pay attention. I’ll speak my truth. I’ll stay unattached to the outcome.

I’ll do what’s necessary. Not always easy.

My husband and I were discussing how we react to things that happen in our lives. We have very different approaches to what could be seen as “irritations” that occur. I tend to take what I call a more “spiritual” approach; he tend to take what I call a more “reactive” approach.

I’m not saying I don’t even get upset or angry over things that happen, but I try to switch gears quickly, problem solve and stay pretty positive and grateful. My husband, on the other hand, tends to just get angry and upset and to feel like a victim to circumstance. It becomes hard for him to see anything positive–any upside or opportunity.

So, for example, when our state tax refund showed up just in time to pay for the property taxes and my son’s summer dance program (both of which we were going to have to pay for out of our savings account), he saw that as something about which to be upset rather than happy. The money that we had just received went out the door as fast as it came in.

And when my old car died just as we were about to get our federal tax return, which we hoped to save, again this was something about which to feel angry.

I wasn’t pleased about spending the money we could have saved, but in both cases I simply accepted the fact that we had expenses–and we had been provided with the means to meet them. I felt grateful that we didn’t have to go into debt or deplete our savings. I also didn’t spend a lot of time getting upset or angry about the situation–or shaking my fist at God.

Rather I felt as if God were acting as my partner. As always, I believed in some way shape or form God’s hand was in all of this. I knew I just needed to trust that everything was okay and would be okay. I knew I just needed to feel connected.

Interestingly enough, this morning after more discussions with my husband about new cars and money, I got an email from one of my favorite rabbi–a man and teacher who has helped me with my own writing projects and who put me on the Jewish mystical (and Jewish spiritual) path. I took the time to visit Rabbi David Cooper’s website and found a post there that spoke to this point (and inspired my post today). In reading Rabbi Cooper’s words I was reminded how hard we must work every day to stay conscious and connected to Source, to not react to what we are presented with in our lives each day but instead to respond. That’s why we must stay on the spiritual path no matter how hard that feels, engaging in some sort of spiritual practice. And, and I’ve said before, it does take practice to stay conscious and connected. It doesn’t happen without effort and daily–almost hourly or minute-to-minute–sessions.

Rabbi Cooper writes:

The purpose of spiritual practice is to gently and consistently move us from our place, where we normally “hang out” in our day-to-day behavior, to a mind state of greater refinement. In this context, refinement is connected with our conditioning, our normal reflexes and responses to situations that arise every day. Through practice, we begin to reflect and react in different ways. This change in our behavior actually causes many significant results.

Spiritual practice, is this context, has a series of tiny ekstasis that arise when we behave out of place of our normal reactions. We must keep in mind that “normal” for most of us is quite different from “natural.” Normal is how we are conditioned to respond. Conditioning develops from the time we are conceived; some say that our propensities to be conditioned go back into our genetic dna. But the spiritual principal at the base of many traditions is that our natural inclinations arise when we fully recognize the basic nature of our own minds and thereby gain greater ability to resist conditioned reactions.

Through our spiritual practice we learn to respond rather than react, to stay connected and conscious. Another of my teachers, author Stuart Wilde, says this is like spiritual weight lifting. We become stronger, more able to change how we react to the irritations in our life–the situations that arise–by constantly practicing remaining conscious and connected no matter what arises–in spite of what arises–in our lives. Life becomes our training ground, our gym, our practice field.

Little by little, day by day, hour by hour we change simply by living. As Rabbi Cooper writes:

Skilled practice results from an ongoing engagement in the mystery of what everyday life presents. As we never know what life will bring, we need always to be prepared to meet this unknowable reality with our highest potential. Thus, to the best of our ability, we continuously are challenged to bring our awareness to the many opportunities that present themselves as a series of invitations for manifesting enlightened actions. Each and every time we succeed, we change the world.

I’ve still got a long way to go–a lot of practice before I become truly “awakened” or “enlightened.” I still react more than I’d like; I still get irritated by the irritations. I notice this when I angrily respond to the fact that my son forgot an essential item that prevented him from taking dance class–after I drove an hour and a half to take him there, the shelf in my living room has not been replaced by my husband after five months or the insurance agent takes two hours to ask me questions I already answered once before. So, you’ll find me in my spiritual gym on most days lifting weights in an effort to become more awakened.

As Rabbi Cooper explains:

The highest teachings are explicit in describing the idea that our most enlightened opportunities occur in the ordinary daily life we now experience. The difference is that one who is awakened recognizes the essential nature of what is happening while one who is not awakened is easily overwhelmed by an ongoing flow of “self” induced dramas.

To rid ourselves of this sense of drama, Rabbi Cooper says we must rid ourselves of the belief that we are separate. When we do so, we also lose many of the harmful actions, false beliefs, negative reactions, confusion, irritation, and suffering that go with it.

Instead of believing we are separate–something most of us have believed for a long, long time–we must remember we are connected and always have been. Connection is our normal state of being. We only think we are separate from the Source; the thought doesn’t happen to represent truth.  It’s a meme, a thought given to you by someone else that you adopted. You can choose to adopt the thought that you are connected instead, but knowing and feeling this connection comes with spiritual practice.

Some people end up feeling too irritated, too angry, and they fall off the spiritual path before they can change their reactions or thoughts. They leave the spiritual gym seeing no results from their efforts. They feel alone in their work there and without a personal trainer. They don’t feel connected, so they go off alone blaming the gym and it’s Proprietor for their failure. They don’t realize that if they don’t stay in spiritual shape, bit by bit, parts of their life start feeling harder and harder. Without connection and consciousness, everything begins to feel like an irritation and a struggle.You get stuck reacting to irritations in your life in the same old way you always have.

Is that what you want? I don’t. So I look for “enlightened opportunities” as they occur in my ordinary daily life to respond in conscious and connected manner. I lift spiritual weights daily. Sometimes I’m not strong enough to do all the sets, but I keep lifting.

How do you react to the irritations in your life?

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, usually falling near the end of summer. Based on a lunar calendar, the dates of Ramadan vary, moving backwards about ten days each year. This year Ramadan begins on August 11th and continue for 30 days until September 9th. In North America, it begins on August 12th. The holiday’s start depends upon “sightability” of the new moon.

During Ramadan Muslims participating in the holiday refrain from eating from morning until evening – in other words they fast each day. They also refrain from drinking and behavior that is in excess or ill-natured. For 30 days Muslims ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance and help in refraining from everyday evils, and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds. More specifically, they are expected to put more effort into following the teachings of Islam and to purify both thoughts and actions. The fast is intended to be an exacting act of deep personal worship in which Muslims seek a raised awareness of closeness to God as well as a purification of themselves personally.

Muslims are expected to put a lot more effort into the teaching of Islam in general–primarily into the worship of God, into their prayers and into purifying themselves. Yet, it’s just as important to be helpful to and caring of others, which is why they are extra charitable with their time and wealth during the month of Ramadan. It’s a time of reflection and a time of God consciousness and when Muslims give whatever they have and the best of what they have.

While observing these traditions during the month of Ramadan represents a Muslim tradition, the rituals and practices actually are pertinent to anyone from any religious or spiritual background–even Jews. In fact, many of these practices are similar in nature to Jewish practices during the Jewish High Holy Days. Here are five ways that people who don’t follow Islam can take this month-long religious observance and use its principles or practices in their own life.

1. Use the month-long spiritual observance idea. Anything you do for 30 or 40 days helps you develop a new habit. So, if you want to develop a new spiritual practice or to deepen your spiritual practice, doing something for 30 days will help you achieve that goal.
2. Review a sacred texts. Jews, Christians and Muslims do this. Jews read the whole Torah each year. Muslims read the whole Quran during Ramadan. Studying sacred texts is a great way to deepen connection to God, to your religion, and to learn about your spiritual and religious beliefs. Rereading these texts over and over again allows you to learn something knew each time. Each reading you see something knew, find a new teaching, get a new insight, read from a new perspective. So, the text speaks to you differently each time…God speaks to you differently each time.
3. Take on a practice related to charity or giving for 30 days on a daily basis. We could all use a reminder to be more charitable and giving; Ramadan offers that reminder. Actually giving charity or performing acts of giving time and energy on a regular basis, as in daily for thirty days is a great idea. Again, doing this for 30 or 40 days will make it a habit, will put it into your consciousness so you hardly think about it. Obligatory giving is an interesting concept…to do it because you are supposed to—not because it makes you feel good, because it’s the right thing to do, because you’ve been commanded to do so—not because you are going to get something. Islam also teaches that when you give you get…you will be rewarded. That’s another reason to give. Additionally, Islam teaches that giving deepens your faith in God and your belief that God provides–especially if you give even when you aren’t sure you have enough yourself.
4. Make time for personal introspection, prayer, review of your life, deeds, relationships, etc. This is a wonderful practice. It’s great to do it more than once a year. You can do it on the secular New Year, at the New Moon, on Ramadan, on the Sabbath, every Wednesday…or pick a month any month. Just pick a time and do it…Jews do it for 10 days. Muslims do it for a month, which seems like a long time. If you don’t think you can do it for that long, do it for a weekend. But do it.
5. Fasting if you are physically able. Many people do find this very cleansing on a spiritual level. Focus all your thoughts on spiritual things and not on the physical. Jews do it from sundown to sundown. It’s much easier to do from sunup to sundown like Muslims. Some people allow themselves water. Pick your method. But try it. You might find it quite cleansing and purifying. Many spiritual traditions use this ritual or practice.

I think any of these rituals or practices can be adapted to someone’s existing religious or spiritual tradition. Some of these may exist in your religious tradition already because they are fairly universal, but Islam gives a few of them a unique twist. In any case, we can see how much the Islamic observance of Ramadan (or almost any religious holiday) can teach and offer all of us.

Have you ever heard the saying, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it”? Sometimes the wish is fulfilled in usual ways. You have to be open to seeing the wish fulfilled no matter in what form it appears and to receive it even if it comes in a shape you didn’t expect or in a manner you might not really want. After all, a wish granted is God’s hand at work in your life. It’s not much different than a miracle performed.

At the beginning of the Jewish New Year I said I wanted to pursue my spiritual studies by attending a weekly Torah study class. However, my life, or rather my schedule, once again did not allow this to happen.

I have recently cut back on how much nonfiction book editing I am doing; I’ve hired a staff of editors to do it for me, so I can pursue my writing. Recently, though, a manuscript came across my desk that I knew was meant for me to edit. It’s a year’s worth of Torah commentaries.

Each year Jews read the whole Torah. We also read commentaries on the portions for each week. We study them. We figure out what they mean. We try to apply them to our lives. This book has a special focus on applying the teachings of each Torah portion to our lives.

This book offers me a way back into my religious and spiritual study. I wished for it. I got it…even if it means taking on the editing myself.

Have you wished for something and gotten it?

Ahad Ha’Am said, “More than Israel has kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept Israel.” Great wisdom can be found in that statement not just for Jews but for anyone who wants to strengthen their religious or spiritual practice. Indeed, a full day spent in worship can do amazing things for your soul and for your commitment to your faith.

All Abrahamic religions, such as Christianity and Islam, observe a Sabbath as well, but Jews are stringent about their 25-hour Shabbat. They have many rules—at least the very observant Jews, such as no work, no spending money, no driving, and of course, attending services Friday night (the beginning of the Sabbath, Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon. Then Saturday night a Havdallah service often performed at home to mark the distinction between the Sabbath and the ordinary week. The lighting of Shabbat candles on Friday at sundown and lighting of the Havdallah candle at sundown on Saturday night serve as bookends to the most important holiday of the year—the one that comes each week.

A full day of devotion to God and to remembering—or experiencing—the difference between the sacred and the profane allows you to experience the extraordinary—God. Giving up the things you do during a normal day also makes you more aware of the difference between the Sabbath and the other days of the week.

You don’t have to be Jewish, to observe a full-day Sabbath. Some Muslim’s do the same, and Christians can take this tradition and make it their own a well. Many other traditions, such as Wicca, have Sabbath rituals of some sort or another, and although they may differ in the day or the amount of time the Sabbath is observed, they all come from the same origin. Additionally, anyone can decide to adopt Sabbath rituals for themselves, creating a Sabbath on any day of the week—“a sanctuary in time,” as Abraham Joshua Heshel called it.

Think about having one sacred day of the week devoted to prayer, rituals, gratitude, and remember God and the sacred in everything. Consider creating your own rituals, prayers and ways of observing this day if you don’t want to go to a temple, mosque or church

If you go to a mosque or church for services, consider extending your worship or observance to a full day. Do something different, new, more…See if keeping the Sabbath doesn’t help you keep your faith and your religion.

Many religious traditions honor their ancestors. In Judaism, we honor them, but unlike other traditions we don’t make altars to them or pray to them to help us. Indigenous religions spend a lot of time actually praying to the ancestors and trying to connect with them, feeling they are close at hand and always assisting and guiding those of us on the Earth plane.

Yet, we gain much from our ancestors. Not only can we look to science to see that we get our genetic traits from our ancestors, but we also have our traditions handed down to us from those who came before. These may be religious or ethnic traditions. The Jewish world is ripe with such inherited traditions and rituals.

I thought about this today as I read through the this week’s Torah portion, Pinchas, which speak a lot about inheritance. I think we inherit much more than land and money from our ancestors. We inherit a sense of who we are, where we came from and how we should behave or act in the world. We inherit morals and mores. We inherit rituals, prayers, spiritual traditions, beliefs, customs, languages, stories, and so much more–things of much more value than money or land.

This week, think out the inheritance you’ve received from your ancestors and thank them. Offer up a prayer of gratitude to those who came before.

Judaism has a lovely tradition of lighting candles on Friday night to welcome in the Sabbath. I consider this a spiritual practice that creates sacred space and invites in the Divine Spirit. Thus, the ritual can be used by anyone at any time.

In Exodus 25:8-9, God says, “Build for me a sanctuary (mikdash), and I will dwell among you.”  In this one verse from the Torah, or Old Testament, lies an invitation for each of us.  We are asked to create a sanctuary in which to join together with God.  An extremely detailed description of how to build the mikdash, which also is called a mishkan, or tabernacle, follows this verse.  I don’t believe we need to go to such great lengths to create a sanctuary within which we can spend time with God.  If we have the appropriate intention, the desire to invite God into the space we design, and we pay close attention when creating sacred space, we can build a sanctuary without needing wood, stone, gems, or precious metals.

In fact, we can do so with two simply candles, a match and our voices. We can do so with a candle-lighting ritual used every Friday night by Jews all around the world, and people from other religious backgrounds or spiritual traditions can adapt this for their own use.

Although many Jewish men and women don’t take the time to perform this ritual at home, the Shabbat (Sabbath) candle-lighting ritual represents one of the quickest and easiest, and, therefore, practical spiritual practices I know.  You need only clear off the kitchen or dining room table, place a pretty table cloth upon it to prepare your “temple” for Shabbat, or the Sabbath. Even a few small actions will create a mikdash ma’at, a small sanctuary, in your home on Erev Shabbat, the evening Shabbat begins, on Sunday morning or anytime you want to perform this ritual. Then put your candles on the table as well, take a deep breath and allow your Inner Priestess or Priest to light the candles and say the blessing.

Jews have a special blessing to say and a particular order in which the candles are lit and the blessing is said. A traditional hand movement is made around the candles as well. However, if you are from another tradition, you can create your own blessings or prayers and rituals. By simply lighting the candles and invoking the diving into the space, you will, indeed, have created sacred spaced and invited the Divine into it.

Speaking of Shabbat candle lighting as a “spiritual practice” seems like odd terminology. Most Jews have seen this ritual not as a spiritual practice but as a commandment. Yet, I have found that by approaching it as a spiritual practice, I have been able to deepen both the meaning and the spiritual connection I feel when I perform this ritual.  Each Friday night when you begin your spiritual practice, use kavanah, or intention.  Each time you begin to light candles, say, “I intend to create a sacred space and invite the Divine Spirit into that space.”

Synagogues, churches, prayer circles, and other spaces used for spiritual rituals tend to invoke a spiritual feeling even when no rituals are being performed within them. They become vortexes of spiritual energy, and it takes little effort to recreate the sense of sanctuary and to invoke the Divine into that space.  When we create sacred space in our homes on a continual basis, these also become vortexes of spiritual energy. Eventually, just entering the space and performing a small act, such as saying a prayer or lighting a candle, draws the Divine into the space with us.  This represents the beauty of creating sacred space and using it for spiritual practices or rituals on a regular basis.  The more we create and use the space, the stronger become our spiritual experiences in that space.

You can see your home as a sanctuary and create sacred space within it on a weekly basis. Over time, your home will become a vortex of spiritual energy, too, and you can live constantly with God in the mikdash you have built. As promised, when you build God a sanctuary, God dwells with you. As you use your houses more and more often as a sanctuary, then by merely lighting candles, saying a blessing or performing any ritual, you once again draw God into that space. By taking on the spiritual practice of Shabbat candle lighting, each week it become easier for you to feel God joining you.

For more information on using the Shabbat candle-lighting ritual as a spiritual practice, click here.

Judaism has a prayer that speaks of Divine unity. It also helps Jews remember that God exists not only in the “heavens” but close at hand. This prayer is called the Sh’ma. I’d like to propose that anyone from any religion or spiritual tradition, however, can take the basic premise of this prayer and use it to create a similar prayer to use each day so they feel connected to and close to God.

A traditional translation of the Sh’ma reads like this: Hear, oh Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.

You can see that the prayer revolves around the idea that God is “one” — there is just one God. I like to also translate this as God is one with all things and all beings. Thus, the prayer becomes one of unity.

Additionally, I’ve heard this prayer translated by Rabbi David Cooper, author of God is Verb, this way: Listen closely, the part within each of us  that yearns to go directly to God, the transcendent, unknowable source of sources and the God that we are able to relate to in Its immanence is everything we experience around us, both the transcendent and the immanent, are actually, paradoxically, one and the same. In other words, God is both far and close, within us and around us. Any prayer that says this, like the Sh’ma, allows us to feel unity with our Source, a closeness with our Creator.

Back in 2008, I wrote teh following translation of the Sh’ma, which, by the way, is a Hebrew word that means, “listen”. Listen and hear, all of you who struggle to understand how we are all connected to the same God: The spark of God within you (and in others) and the flame of God that is all around you and in everything, it all comes from and returns to the same fire of God — the original Source, one and the same.

Jews say the Sh’ma several times a day, in particular in the morning and in the evening. For anyone, such a prayer  offers an easy, quick, practical spiritual practice. You can say it upon rising and just before going to sleep. This prayer is inside a mezuzah as well, so we remember this principle of unity and one God each time we pass the doorway of a room or enter or leave a home. You can do the same. Try it. Create your own version of the Sh’ma. Write your own prayer of unity and closeness to God. Start reciting it today.