Another short discussion with my rabbi about faith. He had a couple more ideas for me to think about... Given our busy schedules, I suspect we're going to have many short discussions about faith in God. I like chipping away at this slowly.

One idea he had involved our relationships with people. We put up many barriers between us and others (some people more than others). He suggests that if we work on tearing down those barriers and become closer to people, we will also, by default, become closer to God. It's a simple, but powerful idea. His idea was further reinforced by a passage in For Those Who Can't Believe where Schulweis draws a spiral that starts with Self in the middle and moves out to Family, Community, and Humanity. He states that Godliness hovers over the face of this spiral and can only be reached by embracing all four relationships. (I wish I had picture hosting.)

This idea reverberates strongly for me and explains how I've reached this point in my journey. I was pretty much a loner in high school with just a few good friends. At that point in my life I had shrugged off God and religion. I gained more, closer friends in university and then got married to a woman interested in our Jewish roots. She led a return back to Judaism and a few years ago, we found a Jewish community that we felt very comfortable in. We are now quite involved in various aspects of communal life and have much closer friends than I've ever had before. Even though I continue to doubt, my faith has been strengthened through this process.

What does this all mean? It's hard for me to explain at this point. Obviously, there is a strong connection between knowing people and knowing God. It makes me wonder about the nature of God and where God is truly found. I feel my simplistic concepts of God are falling away. My journey must be continuing.

I am now reading Faith After the Holocaust by Eliezer Berkovits, not because I cannot accept the idea of God allowing the Holocaust to happen, but just to glean his ideas about faith. The book opens with a scathing critique of the complicity of the Catholic Church and all the Western nations. Ouch.