Short story: The Jewish Rabbi, Ernest Rufdergh, does some speculation, about life, God, and love.
By emptychair
@innertalks (23745)
Australia
March 14, 2021 10:28pm CST
“Love is the gravity that pulls the universe together. Hatred is the anti-matter that rips it apart.”
That's a quote from the American Rabbi, Shmuley Boteach.
Rabbi Ernest Rufdergh stated it more simply like this:
Love makes all people really their real selves.
The Jewish religion was very special to Rabbi Ernest Rufdergh.
He worked with it exclusively, but for some reason, or another, he still felt himself to be in a position, distanced from God.
He knew that he didn't know it all, in fact, he really knew nothing, he now thought to himself.
His answer for this was that God gives nothing away, but gives all through the heart of love, not through the mind of unnatural enquiry.
The Rabbi would contemplate deeply daily.
He asked himself this question, repeatedly so.
Is there really continuing existence for us humans as souls, or something else, after our death here, and if so, how would it work?
He surmised to himself that God began as a spirit, and has always existed as such.
God created by establishing parts of himself in concreted blocks of substance, held in place by his spirit, infused in them too, right through them, and each block comes and goes, and continuing existence more only pertains to God, than to anything else.
He thought to himself that we should give of our best here, and that then God will reward us as the block of him that we are.
Each block goes back into him, with us in it too.
We are as God, too, in experiencing this created life as an outer forbearance of God's love, which God's energy of spirit wanted to be able to activate within something concrete, not just as spirit.
We need to activate this love too in our life, and be effectively God too, and forget about being our own self altogether.
There is only one God, and nothing else is outside of him, and his oneness of existence.
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pexels.com
The Rabbi read widely, but made sure that he actively lived within God, and his love, too.
6 people like this
5 responses
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
15 Mar 21
This is exactly the struggle I have in life. That, if god was always a spirit, does god understand the reality of physical existence?
it plagued me for years. I have come to the conclusion that it only matters from the sense of now, in the longer chase of time, it doesn't matter at all.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
15 Mar 21
You would think that God must understand something about it, in order to create it, as he has done, and yet, maybe he knows nothing, and is just testing the waters, as he goes along too.
Yes, God seldom chases after time, in both directions, like we do, I would think.
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
16 Mar 21
@DocAndersen Yes, I do agree partly with that idea, but not fully. Some understanding is almost always required to build a creation which merits that name as a real creation, a masterpiece of creation.
For example, in a game of chess, some understanding is required to produce a masterful game.
Perhaps the same applies to music, and painting too.
We do need some fundamental skills, at least, like knowing the various brush strokes, and techniques, etc. etc. etc.
2 people like this
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
16 Mar 21
@innertalks Andy Warhol (an American artist) once said "Its art, understanding comes to each person). I wonder f it is true to create you have to understand. I suspect it isn't. The vision and the creation are often different.
2 people like this
@Shiva49 (28402)
• Singapore
15 Mar 21
God and love are more of experiences that we have at our disposal.
We may choose to delve deeper and immerse ourselves in such pursuits or live a peripheral and material life.
Yes, there is only one creator and all are his creations. When we hate anyone, anything, we are in effect hating our creator too and distancing ourselves from our connection to the whole. Then the rot sets in.
The right way is to soak in the oneness and strengthen our bond with it - the oneness of humanity thriving in the uniqueness in each of us.
Ironically, political leaders tend to highlight the apparent, created, schisms to cling to power and their loyalties are narrow with selfish pursuits - not the welfare of the masses. Then hatred trumps love in our daily lives.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
15 Mar 21
Nicely put, siva.
Yes, God is so kind to us, that he gives us the right to dispose of having experiences with himself, and love, or not.
Trying to be too much of an individual, we usually tune into a false power, and turn ourselves on to selfishness, then too.
Yes, soaking in the oneness, ensures that we stay connected to all in that oneness too.
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
15 Mar 21
@Shiva49 Yes, hopefully, God's master plan still includes all of us in it too.
Maybe these correcting factors are built in to help to bring us back again to his plan.
2 people like this
@Shiva49 (28402)
• Singapore
15 Mar 21
@innertalks Thanks Steve, the irony is there is a more aware way to live a fulfilling life but God's gentle inner prompts fall on deaf ears even as the years roll by.
There is always an inbuilt solution, corrective mechanism, in the creative process and god has given us choices. It is up to us then to chart our path towards him or spiral out of control like we tend to do tempting fate.
2 people like this
@vandana7 (102698)
• India
15 Mar 21
I am pondering over "Love makes all people really their real selves."
I am not sure of it. LOL. You see, we are designed to overstate our virtues overemphasize and even amplify our positive attributes to gain at first admiration, which we feel will lead to love. At times, we let others remain in illusion about ourselves too. That works in all spheres of love. Be it adult partners or parents, etc. So a child asks something from parent. The parent gives her that, knowing fully well that it is not something that will be of any use to the child just a couple of months later. Just for that moment of love in the eye of the child, and a nice hug. We buy our love? I need to think more on such stuff.
2 people like this
@vandana7 (102698)
• India
15 Mar 21
@innertalks It is rather hard to think from up down. There are too many diversions and desires many issues and problems ..it is hard to remember good times .. LOL
May be love lights our way.
I just want to feel it like I feel for little kids and babies. Automatic. I don't want to think and feel it. That is too artificial..my mind is being conditioned type. I might manage to hypnotize myself but may also snap out of it if conditions go against me.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
15 Mar 21
@vandana7 If we want to try to prove something, it is often best to start with the conclusion as being a hypothetical fact, or truth, and then try to disprove it.
I like to do this with God too.
If I can't disprove him, and if I can come up for explanations, assuming his existence to be true, in spite of the way things are now, in a way that satisfies me, I feel that I would have more chance in believing in the existence of God then too.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
15 Mar 21
Well, if we work from God on down, God is love, and love is God, and so love makes God, God, and so it must do the same for us, if we could embrace enough love to open ourselves up to ourselves, we would then be our real selves too.
Any closure within ourselves is always a closure because of a lack of love.
Love lights our way, closure to love, blocks, and closes our way.
I would say that the best type of love has no price tag to it.
@vandana7 (102698)
• India
15 Mar 21
I am pondering over "Love makes all people really their real selves."
I am not sure of it. LOL. You see, we are designed to overstate our virtues overemphasize and even amplify our positive attributes to gain at first admiration, which we feel will lead to love. At times, we let others remain in illusion about ourselves too. That works in all spheres of love. Be it adult partners or parents, etc. So a child asks something from parent. The parent gives her that, knowing fully well that it is not something that will be of any use to the child just a couple of months later. Just for that moment of love in the eye of the child, and a nice hug. We buy our love? I need to think more on such stuff.
2 people like this
@Deepizzaguy (122341)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
15 Mar 21
The rabbi shared a very good message about unity in love.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
15 Mar 21
Yes, I think that love joins us together, and as you said, oneness is really just a unity of love.
@Deepizzaguy (122341)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
15 Mar 21
@innertalks That is true.
2 people like this
