Where is Hashem? Use this discussion guide to explain how we can see Hashem in all of His creations... and especially in ourselves!
Includes both Advisor and Teen versions.
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Ask NCSYers if they know where to find Hashem. (The most common answer will be that He is in Heaven, or in the sky.)
Ask NCSYers: If G-d wanted us to have a relationship with Him, why wouldn’t He be down here with us on Earth? How come we cannot see Hashem on Earth?
Let’s get a better understanding Earth so that we can answer this questions.
SOURCE 1:
"In the beginning, G-d created the heaven and the earth." - Genesis 1:1
Have an NCSYer read source 1. The explain the following:
We believe that before the creation of the world, there was nothing other than Hashem. Nothing physical at all. No universe... just nothing. That is something we can’t even understand.
Then, for some strange reason, God created the world, Heaven and Earth. Now, there is God and the universe. But, as mentioned, we can’t really see Hashem, can we?
SOURCE 2:
"Just as a human face is something we can see, and we can still see how our friend feels, so too, the world looks the way it does, and we can learn about Who made it by looking carefully at the world." - Worldmask by Rabbi Akiva Tatz (paraphrased)
Have an NCSYer read source 2. [It is a can be a little complicated for younger kids. Ensure they understand.]
Ask one of the kids to make a face and have the others guess what feelings he or she is showing.
What we can see from here is that even though it is true that our eyes can see only the face in front of us and not the emotions, the truth is that we are able to understand even more than that. When someone is happy, we know. When they are sad, we know. Those are not physical things; they are feelings. I can understand your feelings by looking at the details of your face.
How many of you have seen one of your friends look sad and you went over to ask them if they needed help? We do that all of the time.
Reiterate: We can understand more than what we can see with our eyes. The same exact thing is true about Earth.
SOURCE 3:
"When someone looks at the creations of Hashem, G-d, and how amazing these creations are, someone would love Hashem and want to understand everything about Him." - Rambam, Foundations of the Torah 2:2
Have an NCSYer read source 3
The Rambam was a Rabbi who lived about 800 years ago. He is known as one of the greatest Rabbis who has ever lived. He just told us something amazing: Hashem is not only in the sky. He is everywhere. When Hashem created the world, He made it in such a way that we can see Him, but not with our eyes. Just like I can see how you are feeling even though feelings can’t be seen.
Ask the kids if they can think of something that is so amazing that they think they can see/feel Hashem.
Here is a list of great biological truths that are abnormally complicated that show us that Hashem is everywhere:
- Our brains are stuck inside our skull. And when I want to share information with you, such as my name or my birthday, my brain sends messages to the muscles in my face, and they move as they are supposed to, sounds come out of my throat, float through the air and go into your brain. Pretty awesome. It is so complicated that scientists don’t really know how it all came to be.
- The human eye can see 16 million shades of colors. And it does so faster than any computer in the world. And when we see things, our eyes not only see the information, but the image goes to the back of our brain where the image is interpreted so that we understand it. When we see someone we know, it takes less than a second for us to recognize who they are. Our eyes had to memorize their face, the color of their hair, their nose, eyes, shape of their mouth and more. Our eyes are amazing tools. Who could have made them?
- Feel your pulse. The human heart is powered by a small pack of cells on the back of the heart. It lets out an electrical impulse that makes all of the chambers of the heart contract perfectly. If the electricity were too weak, the heart wouldn’t work right. If the chambers didn’t contract right, the heart wouldn’t do a good job of getting oxygen to the rest of our body.
- Take a breath. When you do, the muscles in your chest move in such a way that you lungs expand and air goes in. What you might not know is what happens next: as oxygen goes into your lungs, there are tiny, VERY TINY little parts of your lung called alveoli. When the oxygen gets to the alveoli, it does through the thin walls of the alveoli and the oxygen into your bloodstream. Without it, you would not be able to be conscious. You would faint within seconds of not having oxygen in the brain.
Find more if you feel the need. But this should take a good few minutes to go through.
Why do we have all of these creations? Why did Hashem bother to make the world so complicated? The answer is that we should be paying attention to these miraculous and abnormal parts of life. These amazing scientific feats did not happen by accident. You would never believe that a computer was created without someone putting it together. The same is true for our bodies, and for all of the amazing parts of nature. They are all there - and Hashem put them there - to show us that Hashem is EVERYWHERE.
But what is still even more amazing is the final piece that Hashem put into the creation. Read the last source.
SOURCE 4
When Hashem made you, He took a small part of Himself and gave it to you. It is what we call our soul, our neshama. He gave you this special part of Himself, because He believes that you are able to do amazing things. And the Torah that He gave you is our way to connect to Him, to show Him that we understand how much He believes in us.
In every last person, there is a piece of God. We call that our neshama, our soul. The amazing part about that is that Hashem gave us a body that is filled with dozens and dozens of miracles. He gave us a part of Himself to show us how much He believes in us.
And how would He inspire us? By housing this special gift of a neshama in an amazing body. If someone gave you the car of your dreams, with all of the details you can think of, and it was given to you with the responsibility of following a set of rules, you would thank that person a million times over and HAPPILY do the rules that were asked of you. Especially since all of the rules are for your benefit.
That is what happened with Hashem. He gave us this body, a some rules to come along with it. All of the rules are for our benefit. He doesn’t need them.
Clearly, Hashem believes in you!