Mitzvah #2 – “Believing in the Unity of God”

My computer was stolen two weeks ago. I’d just finished entries covering Commandments 2, 3 & 4. Number 4 was a particularly good entry.

I haven’t written since the computer was stolen partially because I had no computer of my own and the public library wasn’t terribly conducive to writing about God, but also because the book on the 613 Commandments was stolen along with the computer. I don’t think it was the thief’s interest in Hebraic literature as much as the book was in the computer bag as well.

During these two weeks, I’ve been asking myself why my computer was stolen. It’s remarkable the meaning one can make out of such things. “It was a blessing.” I told myself (Must be positive about this!). God wanted me to get a new computer so when I start a new job I’ll look like a pro and be taken more seriously so that my career will be advanced more quickly. Or “Perhaps this is a lesson I needed to learn about not trusting people as much as I have.” And that will serve me well in the future. Or “Perhaps this will teach me about caring for my things better.” – again a lesson for the future. Or “God was encouraging me to get a new computer” because I’d scratched the old screen (right in the middle and I still don’t know how) and rather than living with that unhappily for the next two years, He pushed me to spend the cash and buy a new machine which will make me much happier (already does). So he’s teaching me to be better to myself.

But I also wondered if God was punishing me for my blogs. First, for the “Lost in the Fog” blog entry on The Next Big Gig. It wasn’t so much for the profane nature of the story, or the exaggerations throughout for dramatic effect, but because when I first posted part three I included a section about an insanely talented, beautiful woman I’ve known for over a decade and slept with once and I didn’t have the guts to ask her beforehand if I could write about her. I wrote the section of the story for humor, sensational effect and to explore making love to someone you knew from long ago and how you’re transported to that earlier time when you’re with them finally. I took out that part of the story as soon as she let me know she’d read it. She wasn’t happy. I took the section out immediately. Even though we haven’t seen each other in more years than I can remember, I should have expected she’d read it. And I shouldn’t have posted it in the first place. On Facebook it’s a good rule of thumb that if you post something you don’t want absolutely everyone to see, the people you really don’t want to see it, will read it first and if you have good news you want everyone to know about, not a soul will notice.

So my computer being stolen was my punishment.

I also thought God had stolen my computer and the Rabbi Chavel book to stop me from writing about Him. Clearly He didn’t like what I’d begun writing – questioning the very first commandment, She clearly thought I was starting off in the wrong direction.

Well, God, it’s gonna take more than some Methheads pilfering my Mac to stop me, so following this, I’ll post my recreations of those Mitzvot I’d begun writing about.

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Mitzvot #2 – “Believing in the Unity of God”

I’m supposed to not just believe in God, but that there is One God.

Well, that’s not too hard these days in a direct sort of way. There aren’t too many polytheistic options really tugging at me. But if you expand the idea of other Gods as those things we seek out to explain the world or in which we take refuge from the vicissitudes of life, the question becomes more real. It suddenly includes everything from Yoga and The Secret to Reality TV and Celebrity rags.

In an age when the largest portion of the US population in metropolitan areas list themselves as “Spiritual but not Religious” on everything from JDate to Facebook, it makes you wonder what do we mean when we say ‘Spiritual’? Is everyone making up their own rules? Who do you pray to? How do you pray? Do you at all? Upon reflection, I think as a country, we’ve made Gods of our self-help books as we try to navigate our way through our lives – having found little guidance or solace through our traditional religious upbringing. The 613 Commandments (even if I’d heard of them as a kid) provide little direct guidance on how to launch your career as a singer/songwriter, much less how to deal with a co-worker who annoys the heck out of you, or how to find the love of your life.

That and Star Wars has ruined our entire generation.

Seriously. I believe the introduction of The Force is why so many of us are all “Spiritual but not Religious”. The Force provides an alternative possibility to the idea of A Big Guy in heaven. The unexplained rules and regulations of our Jewish childhood provided little explanation of the unexplained nature of The Divine. And fewer displays of the benefits of belief. But the Force is as clear in broad definition as it is in demonstration of its power.

When Obi Wan Kenobi explains to a young and bright Skywalker in “A New Hope” that “The Force is…an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.” We get a sense of a benevolent universe acting in harmony and we even get to see its power. Luke gets a lesson on the Millennium Falcon en route to Alderan. After his failed attempt fencing with a floating remote, he’s frustrated, but Obi Wan guides him:

Ben Kenobi: Remember, a Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him.
Luke Skywalker: You mean it controls your actions?
Ben Kenobi: Partially, but it also obeys your commands.
[Luke gets shot by the remote.]
Han Solo: [laughs] Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.
Luke Skywalker: You don't believe in the Force, do you?
Han Solo: Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.
Ben Kenobi: [gets up and takes a blast helmet] I suggest you try it again, Luke. This time, let go your conscious self and act on instinct. [puts the helmet on Luke, which covers his eyes]
Luke Skywalker: But with the blast shield down, I can't even see! How am I supposed to fight?
Ben Kenobi: Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them.

After this small instruction Luke shifts. You see his body take on a different relaxed elastic quality and amazingly, he defends himself from a barrage of blast attacks by the little remote.

To see this minor miracle was inspiring to a generation. It was proof there is something beyond what we can see. And that believing this provides real results. More than that, it even falls in with the generally universal idea that God is One. It even makes everything in the Universe One.

Forget the more flamboyant exhibitions of the Force: Vader’s ability to choke someone to death remotely, Luke’s guiding the death blow to the Death Star only after tapping into The Force’s power. It is this first discovery that wows. That and when Adleran is destroyed. The moment the planet is blown to oblivion, it shakes Obi Wan to the core. He falls back in his seat. When Luke asks if he’s OK, he responds “I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.”

Proof again that we are all bound together and those in touch with The Force are deeply connected. And in the end I think more than anything we all want to feel we are not alone.

Even if God is One, The 613 Commandments provide little solace around the fear we are alone. But perhaps if everyone believed the same thing we’d feel better about it.

I think that’s partially why this commandment comes from Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One”. In Hebrew it’s called “The Shema” and it is not only the oldest prayer in continuous use to my knowledge, but it is the one phrase that even the deepest of lapsed Jews, like my brother, know in Hebrew by heart. Even more interestingly, it is sung with the same tune (except on high holidays) in nearly every temple I’ve ever been to. All other tunes might change, but there is a standard here such that you can go into a temple anywhere in the world and feel at home when this one moment of the service comes about.

And what does it mean?

Interestingly, it’s not enough for US to believe that God is One, we are commanded to cry out to ALL of Israel, and admonish them with the reminder. It almost assumes we will forget Exodus 20:2, the first of the 10 Commandments which proclaims: “I am the LORD thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”

We are instructed to be our brothers’ keeper by addressing all Jews every time we say the Shema (twice a day by current custom). We’re even proselytizing in a certain way. Like the Chabbad or the prophets, we’re exhorting all wayward Jews and instructing them in the most basic of our beliefs - the unity of God.

And what is the unity of God? (Finally!)

Is it simply the admonition to worship other idols? Is it belief The Force?

Or is a unified God something even bigger?

Here I turn to Christian Science once again for a beautiful, radical interpretation. The underlying belief in Science is that “God is All-in-all. God is Good. Good is Mind. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter.” (“Science and Health”, p.113)

That syllogism leaves Scientists with the thesis that since God is Good and God is all that All is Good - which is a theological conundrum I’ll tackle at another time.

But in the end, they believe sickness and disease are illusory, the product of a false belief, and not an actual result of sin (Science and Health, pp. 348, 386). "The cause of all so-called disease is mental, a mortal fear, a mistaken belief." (Science and Health, p. 377).

This is a revolutionary proposal. Mrs. Eddy repudiates the notion that we are punished for our sins. Jews began that belief and most Christians echoed it on in their practice if not their literature. In Exodus. in the lines directly after forbidding worship of other Gods. We were warned “Thou salt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me”

Dude.

This is our God. Believe in me OR ELSE.

Mrs. Eddy is suggesting a new relationship to God. One which was unheard of 150 years ago in Christian circles especially. Her God won’t punish anyone for their sins because of her expansive idea of God being One. In her interpretation it’s not that there’s just One God, but that God is One WITH US. Including US. We are all one. Not that we are all gods, but that we are all thoughts of God – existing (in reality) in immateriality – just like God. In this spiritual perspective we are direct extensions of God and any separation we feel from Her is a fantasy. Any belief that the material world exists is an illusion. And evil, sin, sickness and dis-ease we see or experience is a fiction we have created. And those illusions can be obliterated and sent back to the nothingness from which they came by simply knowing God. I truly find this a beautiful thesis. Sadly, I’ve found it so far from my experience of life that I’ve been unable to accept it.

It doesn’t make my computer not be stolen, but perhaps for a moment, I can relinquish my self-loathing, and know that God wasn’t punishing me for anything I did or wrote. And for once I’ll let Obi Wan put the blast shield down and trust we’re all one instead of swatting away at the remote with all my might as I get struck by its laser again and again and again.