Why is it so important that God is one? Who cares? What does it mean for me?
I heard in a debate from a Humanist that as time went on, the gods receded. That is, in the beginning of religion, there were thousands of gods. As time moved on, the gods got fewer in number and farther away. Now, today, there is only one god, and that god has no image. Soon, his argument was, there will be no gods at all. That as human knowledge grew, the concept of god diminished.
He was right.
But what the argument failed to realize is that as the gods disappeared, morality appeared.
With the concept of one God came the concept of absolute divine morality – also known as ethical monotheism. As the number of gods diminished, so too did human sacrifice. This is responsible for much of the world today and is the underlying foundation of kindness, and ethics.
But on a personal level, how does God being One affect us? How does it affect me as an individual?
אַתָּה֙ הָרְאֵ֣תָ לָדַ֔עַת כִּ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה ה֣וּא הָֽאֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ין ע֖וֹד מִלְּבַדּֽוֹ
You have been shown, in order to know that the Lord He is God; there is nothing else
If all is God – what worries can you have? Can you fear death? Can there possibly be a state or a place in existence where there is not God? Is that even possible? God created death. Death is just a reunification with the Source, with Hashem, with the Divine.
Where can you go where God does not exist?
Which means also, that Prayer is very real. If there is no place you cannot go where there is not God, then wherever you are, you can open your mind, your heart, your mouth, and be speaking to God in an instant. Divine Communication is as near to you as your desire to achieve it.
From here, with the realization that all is just Divine Oneness, Divine consciousness, you can apply that Unity, that knowledge, to all situations in your life: relationship, money, job, purpose, location – anything. With all things you know you are connected to the Divine – so what need is there for stress, or worry? Perhaps this is why the Torah sages declared Anger to be a sin…
The Eastern religion of Taoism understood this, taking its wisdom from Torah nearly 1,000 years later:
A mind free of thought, merged within itself, beholds the essence of Tao
A mind filled with thought, identified with its own perceptions, beholds the mere forms of this world
Tao and this world seem different, but in truth they are one and the same
The only difference is in what we call them (Tao Te Ching, verse 1)
There is no difference between God and what we see in nature. It is the very expression of who and what God is – after all, how can you separate the thought from the thinker, the art from the artist, or the creation from the creator?
God is not a mountain, or a golden calf, or a beautiful decorated tree. God is not a man and cannot be in one place or one time separate from any other – because that would constitute disconnect. And that disconnect would mean that God is not One.
A painting does not paint itself, and a thought does not make the thinker – it is the other way around. Though God is not nature itself, God is the very essence which puts forth and pushes out nature and existence as we know it. This is why, as Jews, we do not worship a tree or a man or a statue – God is not that thing. All of creation is a representation of the creator, but that does not mean that nature IS the creator.
We are exact mirrors of what God means when He thinks. We are the visible parallel to God’s thought. We are the immediate desire of the Creator. We are the physical manifestation of God’s will.
And just as the thought is akin to the thinker, so too are we One with God.
Jesus understood this when he said:
John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”
As well, Lao Tzu:
Hold fast to the Power of the One
It will unify the body, and merge it with the spirit
It will cleanse the vision, and reveal the world as flawless …
Know this Primal Power
that guides without forcing,
that serves without seeking,
that brings forth and sustains life, yet does not own or possess it (Tao Te Ching v. 10)
Just as the painting is the expression of the painter, when we realize that God is ultimate Divine Consciousness, that creation is simply the expression of the Creator, then we realize that we are as close to God as we are to ourselves. In fact, there’s not much of a difference –
וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם
And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them
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