BS’D
Today’s daily dose of emuna is dedicated L’iluy nishmat Dr. Yosef ben Sholom z’l. Dr. Herbert was my first MS doctor in the States and gently took care of me and all of his MS patients. He was the head doctor of the MS dept. at NYU hospital yet you would never know it by the personal relationship he had with each of us. May Hashem measure for measure envelop him with intimate love and care as he did for us. May his neshama bask in the Divine radiance of the Shechinah Kedosha and eternally rest together with all of the righteous who have departed from this world, Amen.
Third principle of Emuna according to the Rambam ztk’l:
G-d has no body or physical aspect
Hashem’s Oneness cannot be conceptualized since He is not limited to material; there is nothing at all to which He can be compared. All we know is that He exists, and that He is Hashem. We don’t know anything about His nature.
Since Hashem is knowledge itself, if we would have an understanding of Hashem, we would be Hashem! We cannot even understand a part of Hashem as Hashem is one indivisible whole. What He is, we do not know. But that He is, we know. Hashem exists. Hashem can act in many ways; He can act in a limited way, and also in an unlimited way, and it is not a contradiction.
Although Hashem is not definable in physical terms, we can still strive to have a personal relationship with Him and bond to Him with each breath. When you love someone you connect to that person with your mind and heart. In spite of the fact that you may be living across country from that person you may take them with you everywhere you go so long as you are mindful of their existence. Same applies to our relationship with Hashem. Even if we are physically unable to connect to Him this does not hamper the possibility of feeling closeness.
Rav Aryeh Kaplan ztk”l explains Hashem’s ‘non-defined existence, shape and form’ it the following way. Being that Hashem has no body, shape or form, any physical terms used in relation to Hashem come to express His relationship to the world. His ‘eyes’ become His awareness; His ‘arm’ is understood to convey His power and involvement.
