What Is the Definition of “Getting Closer to God”?
Loving our neighbor and loving God are one and the same.
God is the general force of nature, a single force of love and bestowal. Noting the equivalent value of God and nature, Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) describes that in Gematria, the word for “God” (“Elokim”) equals the word for “Nature” (“HaTeva”).
Upon this fundamental force that governs everything, God, there is another, opposite force that He created — reception.
Why did God do that? It is so that there will be someone outside of Himself, and that this “someone,” who is defined as the desire to receive, will become like God, Nature, or the Creator: giving and loving. That is the greatest delight that is available to man, and God wishes man to enjoy no less than the ultimate sensation of perfection. It is what we need to reach.
We, human beings — not the still, vegetative, or animate levels of nature, but specifically us humans — have a flawed and corrupt sense of others. We wish to exploit them, and we need to shift from this flawed and corrupt perception of others to a positive feeling toward them. In other words, we need to start correcting ourselves.
First, we need to discover how flawed and corrupt we really are. By doing so, such a revelation will continually lead to our correction, a change of ourselves to resemble the general force of bestowal called “God,” “Nature,” or “the Creator.”
That is what it means to come closer to God. We can do so at any given moment by examining whether we are aligned with His quality of love and bestowal, i.e., whether we have an attitude of pure love and bestowal to others.
What Does it Mean to Believe in God?
Believing in God or the Creator means following the law of “love your neighbor as yourself,” in order to resemble God’s quality, that of pure love and bestowal.
Many people think that believing in God means that they believe that there is some kind of force that governs reality, and that is all. However, they have no idea what God is directing them to.
We thus need to acknowledge this single force of love and bestowal that governs reality: to reveal Him, and open Him up.
Today, we have met with a certain impasse in human development. A sense of helplessness and uncertainty sweeps over human society. It is the first time in history where we have no idea what is going on, and what to do with ourselves, our family, children, and with the overwhelming despair of rising divorce rates, drug abuse, suicides, depression, loneliness, anxiety, and many other problems and crises. We have no idea what we should live for. It is not a question just about how to live, but why we live.
God, which is a force of bestowal, awakens in us such questions so that we will have to reveal Him. We will have to reveal Him by finding that very quality of bestowal and love within ourselves.
The principle by which we reveal God is, “From your actions we will know You.” It means that by performing actions that resemble Him as the good and benevolent force, by making ourselves similar to its goodness and benevolence, we start acknowledging who He is through our own inner recognition. Through our good deeds, we come to know who He is.
It is quite simple and practical, like much of what we do in life. Suppose, for instance, when someone explains a new concept that we fail to understand, telling us to try do it. By starting to do it, a new feeling will emerge in us. We will then get used to it, and we will suddenly start understanding the connections, the process, and the outcome.