God's NOT Who You Think He Is - Religion's About LOVE Not Punishment

God only loves God only does good and God will never ever turn his back on us a human parent can unfortunately generally not but but God never there's nothing we could do nothing that we could do that will cause God to say I had enough of you it's a very big question today and it's and it's a big problem we'll call it a non-starter type of problem for many secular people many very modern thinking open-minded thinking people because their idea of a God that created the world doesn't fit well with them that that that that same God punishes when they're when they're told that you know you have to have fear for God you have to be scared of God it doesn't it doesn't talk to them it's hard for them to understand and appreciate what it means to be fearful of God why would I be scared of God and uh and if you look at the the the authentic Jewish biblical prophetic sources from God there's there's so many statements in in the written tanak the written Bible about God's Wrath God's angry God's Vengeance God's punishment um and other verses that talk about the idea that we should be fearful of God now of course there are to bring somewhat of a balance to this discussion there are verses that talk about loving God and how God loves us and takes care of us and will reward us and but still the relationship between God and and and us is confusing and very hard from a superficial perspective to understand it and and and really appreciate it and understand that uh that we're not going to come up with a better way to connect to God than the way God told us to connect to him now I'm not discrediting any person that's coming from a place of darkness and a place of confusion that's trying to figure out how he could connect to God God out of Faith he gets an a for effort this person he or she and so on gets an a for effort some people are very confused so I don't so he get they get an e effort because they're they're you know they're trying to connect with Hashem with God they're sincere and there's value to that and we can't just you know dismiss a person because they're not perfect or they don't know they don't know enough to do it the right way we have to I'm sure Hashem has a way to see the efforts of a person and appreciate that even if they're not doing it necess ideal way but but when when if you do know and you are aware of the fact that God did communicate to us his own directions you know it's like imagine you know your father or mother comes home and maybe this is even problematic in today's day like why do why do you have to do anything for your parents you know wake this this world is going a bit crazy so I'm sure by now when the parents come home from A Hard Day's work and the kids are sitting at home playing the video games or whatever they're doing they oh great mom you're home I'm starving when's dinner when's dinner like I just worked a 10hour shift so that you can have those $200 ridiculous shoes and a and and and an outfit I bought for you aess if it's a girl a dress I bought for you for for $300 you know what about oh oh IMA that means mother in Hebrew mommy mom you worked 10 hours all day today breaking your back you're also going to do my laundry when I'm sleeping and I slept half the day what can I maybe you want a tea maybe you want a cup of coffee um what can I do for you Hashem should help we'll have we'll have a generation of children that think like that act like that and that's that's an a for effort why because look the initiative you're taking the the love the care that's rooted in such a behavior towards your your parents that that give so much of themselves to you and you want to give back sincerely so could be the mother doesn't want a coffee doesn't want a tea but the fact that you want to help and you want to give it's for sure received by the mother the love is received okay she doesn't need what you offering but the love she does need and wants and it's received so that's the same idea here in a lost world in an upside down world with right side up people or the other way around in an upside down in a right side of world and with upside down people no one really knows what they're really doing they don't know what to give Hashem but you're coming to me and you want to give to me you want to try you want to connect you got to effort I I I accept that love and hasm will help a person it says if a person makes the smallest effort to sincerely try to come close to God God opens up worlds for them child adult male female Jewish not Jewish anyone anyone that says I want you Hashem already has Hashem that's how simple it is yet we have to appreciate if your mother came home and said I'm exhausted and I wish I I hate to ask you because of course no mother really likes to ask their kids to stop playing video games I'm kidding they want to break the video game sometimes but anyway so I I I hate to ask you this but I'm so exhausted you you perhaps maybe you could make me a cup of tea so the kid even if he doesn't want to do it he has no choice really do he has to do it what kind of kid would say uh can I'm in the middle of the game you know maybe you could do it yourself I mean what I mean what kind of kid he deserves to be thrown out of the house maybe right so I'm using terminology that in human terms we could appreciate what how is the mother supposed to react to a child that says you know I'm in the middle of the game this is this this is important or I'm in the middle of the movie you know maybe can I do it later or can can you ask Jennifer or can you ask Justin or can you ask the neighbor like don't bother me is what he's saying so again how would that mother feel and react so now we have questions about how could how could God be so to speak angry upset want to you know God relates to us in these human ways because he created a world where it's all about our action and interaction and that's part of over the world in our test hasem relates to us in the same way so but I want to focus on a different example because there's a point I want to take and then we're going to go to the next idea is this what if the kid is not such a bad kid he decides okay I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna take do what you want mom and he goes into the kitchen and he's in the kitchen decid you know what she doesn't really want a t a cup of tea I'm G to make her a milkshake because I'm GNA have half of it and her half of it and she's going to be so happy that made her a milkshake instead of a cup of tea and you come out with a milkshake of course your milkshake and her milkshake and she's on a diet she's lactose intolerant whatever you want like oh that's so sweet that you made me a milkshake but I don't want to okay very simple analogy but the point is this when Hashem tells you what he wants how he wants something done and then you think you know better Sorry God I know better okay people unfortunately are not even aware that that's what they're doing and that's what they're that's their mindset you know a rabbi that spends his whole life learning the deepest wisdom of Hashem cabala everything prophets the rabbi comes and says you know the real way to connect with God and to approach God you can't do it with love alone it's not only love God doesn't only want you to love him he wants you also to fear Him and half the the people in the or like this guy doesn't know what he's talking about not my God he's talking about some other guy's God be like yeah the real one you know the real God that's the one he's talking about not your God that you just made up it's like it's it's like we we want to we want to recreate the world we want to take hashem's world and recreate it the way we want it to be to fit what we want what we need so so with that kak let's appreciate how do we understand the fact that these days are serious days days where we have to be think about accountability responsibility think about damage that we caused ourselves our the people around us the world how we've betrayed God how God's not so happy about that these are all real real ideas that we have to learn how and understand and appre how to identify with but we also have to know that those people out there that have that way of looking at things that I said was all wrong are not wrong they're actually right deep down they're right God only loves God only does good and God will never ever turn his back on us a human parent can unfortunately generally not but but God never there's nothing we could do nothing that we could do that will cause God to say I had enough of you I don't want you anymore it's it's impossible and there a powerful beautiful story which is not so beautiful but beautiful that expresses this exact idea one of the most wicked Kings of the Jewish people that sinned beyond what you could call sinning he calls the Jewish people to sin beyond what you could call sinning if God would hate anyone he would say he hates that person so in in in this story you have one of the most wicked people in the world responsible for so many Jews sinning and Hashem is punishing him and he's captured by the enemy and he's suffering and he's going to be killed by the enemy and he turns to pray for salvation right he decides I I'm going to pray that I should be saved and this is the funny part and instead of praying to God he prays to all of the idols that he worshiped instead of God so he turns to his idols empty false idols and prays to them to save him and nothing happens so with no other choice he now then turns to God the real God and prays to him to save him and then this is I'm paraphrasing it's not exactly how you're going to find it in the in the in the tanak in the Bible but I'm paraphrasing based on the explanation from a great Rabbi R shiman Pinkus a very great Rabbi who's no longer with us anyway so so and then he says to Hashem that he finally as the last resort after all other options were expired and no other no other option but to turn to God and to pray to him so he prays to hasm and says Hashem save me and then he says at the end of his his prayer and if you don't save me then you're no different than all the rest of them you're no better than all the rest of the idols I worshiped what a so what do you think God burned him to a crisp on the spot what do you think nice end of the story no God saved him God saved him and we're like how why how in the world is that the way to ask Hashem to save you and get saved so we have to understand what he was really telling God and then we'll understand and I believe it will be will never be the same after this idea he was telling Hashem this if I'm too evil and I'm too far from you that your love and your kindness can't reach me if you can't save me because I'm too bad then you're no different than all the rest cuz you're God your your love is infinite you can do anything if if I'm too bad to be saved then you have a limit and and then then then you're not real either again this is paraphrasing and I'm using strong language obviously God is everything and we have to have a lot of respect for God but but this is what this W Wicked King came and said he said and if you don't save me then you're no better than all the rest and he meant that that if you can't reach me because I'm too bad and I'm too far that's impossible and Hashem said you're right that's impossible and he saved him unbelievable uplifting lifechanging reality that we have to be aware of okay so they're right these people that are in the dark you know trying to feel around what's makes sense but we all have an inner inner inner connection an inner voice that's that's really telling us true ideas now the end result might be a little bit warped Twisted but you know they get an e for effort and they're right they're right this God that's fire and brimstone and that's wants to be get take his revenge on me I don't believe in that God but and you know what he doesn't have to believe in that God you know why that's there that that's not God oh you're going to tell me Rabbi there's verses that say it okay there are verses that say but we have to understand a bit deeper what those verses really mean what those verses really mean so now I'm going to share with you a beautiful story that and with that story we're going to then try to get a better appreciation of what those verses mean so the story is like this there's aidic Community kabad very famous out there you know the kabad is like all around the world you have Coca-Cola andab they're competing for who's the most popular everywhere in the world kabad is saving the world literally saving the entire world unbelievable right they might ask you to say a few times too many but but but they're saving the world so one of the so we know that there are verses in the Bible verses in the Torah that speak about the harshest most tragic cruel unbearable vers of things that are going to happen to us if we turn away from Hashem and and turn against Hashem there are lit vers to talk about parents having to eat the Flesh of their children I mean like you couldn't leave that I mean I I would I would humbly say I'm wrong but maybe leave that verse out I mean like that's that's that's intense like it's in there it's in there there are verses that will make you cringe and almost unfortunately the wrong person will react and say I can't I can't accept this and he's making a big mistake now we read the entire Torah every year and so this these portions of the Torah that have all these curses so in by kabad the the rebi would read those verses meaning you know for in a lot of places they have the the person reading it read it very fast in a lower tone of voice just to get through it they had the rebi the the righteous holy the leader of the of all of those Jews a tadic a loving person a kind person a connected person he would read the the verses of all these curses now one year he wasn't feeling well and he wasn't there and someone else read those verses instead of him now here's where the interesting part of the story now he had a son or grandson again I'm notab 100% you know 101% I'm kidding so he he was there the year that his I think his father or his grandfather would read the verses he was there that year and someone else read the verses and the boy became sick sad he was so Disturbed from those verses he went to he went and I and he was so distraught sad affected affected just a negative way and and they said I don't understand you you you come every year and we read the same verses how come this year you're sick how come this year you're so sad and so disturbed by it he said when when the rebi reads them I don't hear I didn't hear it the same way I didn't hear it the way I heard it when he read it when the when when the Reb reads it I only see blessing I hear blessing I hear good it it the verses are good but when he read it they was so bad and here here's here's what I want to want to want to really share this I think very very important point for for now and for the rest of our lives is this let us begin to understand understand God because you can only really come close to someone something if you understand that person that thing how close can you really be to someone you don't know you could be sitting side by side with a person that you don't know unfortunately there are husbands and wives Fathers and Sons daughters children families that are sitting together touching each other they don't they don't know each other they're very far from each other because they don't really know each other now real knowledge of each other comes with with without this it's not real knowledge either because textbook knowledge that's not knowing anybody either you can go through a whole university course about the Aztec in Period of 22 BC QA with this professor and you don't know him he doesn't know you because it was just all very just formal academic information information also doesn't equal knowing to know someone there has to be a connection and to be connected you have to care okay so real knowledge of God real knowledge of your wife of your spouse of your children of your friends of your family of your neighbors of your fellow human being comes with caring because when you care you get to know and then there's a connection and it's a different world a different life so let's get to know Hashem a little bit let's get to know this God that we're supposed to know why we know why God's here because God's always here God exists forever and God is God just is the only thing that is is God God is we we we don't have to be here Hashem put us here why he put us here what does God want out of this creation out of us and out of L of life when it's all said and done when you get past all the punishing and all the rules and all the dos and all the don't do and all the Haves and can't haves and shouldn't haves all God wants is a connection with us and for us to have connect back it's all about love and connecting that's it and and knowledge real knowing when it says that Adam and Eve were intimate in the Garden of Eden and created children the language used in the Bible is that Adam knew Adam and Eve knew each other Adam knew and that knowledge the knowledge of each other is what makes a real connection the intimacy real intimacy physical intimacy is only one level of that of the Union when two people are physically together so that's that that has to be understood and defined we're adults here so we'll talk in an adult way two people that physically connect for the right price you can have that but there's no there's no love there's no care there's no concern there's no real connection nothing that comes out of that that's a self- serving interest the person that's paying wants something and the person that's getting paid wants something not each other so and unfortunately if you look into the world out there today there are many connections that lack the the the element that actually connects you you so there are so many connections that are not really connections it's just two things that are by each other next to each other but not connected to be really connected there's a Unity there there's a Oneness that you create with a real connection Brotherly Love intimate love all of it it it without the the without without the connection that that really connects you in a in a meaningful Eternal way there's no real connection so you're just by each other your boss co-workers you there's a lot of there's a lot of seemingly connected people but they're not really connected it's a convenient connection because he needs something he needs something like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups right the re the peanut butter by itself is not is not a candy bar the cholate by itself is not a candy bar you need each other to be a candy bar but but that's not whatever it's a funny cute way to say but that's not a real connection so the bottom line is God it's purpose in creating all of this the day the night the fire the water the darkness the light the evil The Good the hurt the joy the fear strength all of it know they were all opposites all of it was was for one one ultimate thing to understand and get to know and connect with the Oneness of God and the Oneness of creation that's what it's all about with one Foundation pure love pure goodness that is why when the rebi read those verses of curse the boy did not feel bad because those verses in the Torah that mention curse are only there because ultimately God loves and part of that love and part of the the the the world he created with these opposites is really on some level that you should know the Good by understanding what what's not good right if if I if if we have sight thank God we have sight right what does it mean to have something what does it mean to have sight right let me tell you if you lost your sight for a day that sight that was returned to you would be entirely different what does it mean to have something in truth ultimately we can only really truly have something if we know what it's like not to have it how do we appreciate this perfect beautiful connection this that that from God this that that he's offering us it's only through the lack of it that we could truly appreciate having It ultimately and that's why God created a world the way he did with day and night good and evil you know selfishness and benevolence because it's that oppos it's those opposites that ultimately will create a Oneness that would be perfect and so yes God included fear in his world he included hurt in his world but but those are not essential essential elements the essential element is love connection Oneness and so it's interesting it's like this really it's a very interesting way to put it everything begins with one and then God creates multiplicity and through that multiplicity it all goes back to the one so it's like you got to go from the one to the two and back to the one to understand what it's really all about and so we're here it's phase it's only phase one of of the story of creation the end of the story and the ultimate goal of what we're going to ultimately reach is the revelation of the Oneness of of it all and the true connections that we've been able to create in our lifetimes and be part of a perfect world with no darkness no evil no fear no disconnect no jealousy no hatred see it's an amazing world I'm talking about right I didn't say one thing about that world I just said what it isn't but from what it isn't wow wow we could start to appreciate what it is and so therefore that Rabbi is right you know how how how he's right why you know why he's right because God told him so God told us in his Torah through His prophets and through his sages what is right what is wrong how to connect Love Is Awesome Love Is Amazing Love is in the end what it's all about but in the place we are right now that has to be balance with awe and there I say fear but not fear of uh like a lion God's much more than a lion a fear and awe that puts us in the right balance because everything's a give and take the left and the right push and give and so to really come close to God during this time of the year rashash and every day of the year The Secret of closeness to God that's lasting and everlasting is a balance between fear and love now fear let's just kind of qualify fear I could be afraid of God but it could mean a few different things what does it mean to be afraid of God I'm I'm I afraid he's going to send a bolt of lightning oh my goodness am I afraid of a bolt of lightning not really because it doesn't really happen so often but but if it did happen am I afraid of God's punishing me the ultimate definition of fear of God is I'm afraid that I might do something that's going to cause a disconnect I'm afraid afraid of being far away from from who I really am and my true connection that's what real fear really means it's really more awe and and a fear of Disconnect let's go back to the parent analogy you love you love your really in a healthy relationship you love your parents you love your spouse why because that relationship is full of so much care concern appreciation knowledge of each other giving of oneself and if I do something to break that to sever that then I've I've damaged that relationship the wholesomeness the sacredness the the the specialness of that relationship with with the ones I love if I hurt and betray the ones I love what have I done not what have I done that that they're going to get Vengeance on me but what have I done how could I do that to someone I love something I love and that's what it means to have a a fear for God means an awareness of accountability and responsibility and the love of course is self understood pure the love is easy to understand yes but there's so much hate in the world yes there is and it it's so sad it is so sad that there is so much hate in the world but you know what if you will hate less today you just you just you will hate less today and love more today then there'll be less hate in the world right now today and more love in the world this world is so beautiful you just have to have eyes to see it ears to hear it like that boy was able to see the essence of those verses of punishment because those verses of punishment are really in essence Hashem that created the world for one thing one thing only love kindness this world is a world that hasem created for the the stage the playing field that beautiful condominium of ours for that perfect world that's only good that we will live in forever but in order to have that perfect world Hashem has one there's one caveat there's one little Clause over here did you read the fine print Hashem says that perfect world of love and connection and appreciation you don't get that World by just looking at the top of the mountain you don't get that World by looking at that perfect building why because you ski too many steps to get that perfect world it's all about the connections the connection has to be built step by step day by day it's through this world and our life experience in hashem's world where we become Builders with Hashem building ourselves building the world and building that true connection through thick and thin fire and water through the darkness will come the greatest light and it's through this world Phase One Construction period it's scary those you know these people are walking on little metal beams 500t in the air it's scary it's hard but when you're done there's nothing like it the satisfaction of building this world together with Hashem and then having really to live in it forever that's why he did it the way he did it because it's only this way this messy way this messy way that Hashem made us and this world that we're going to have a ultimately truly perfect world that will be our not just his Hashem is perfect was perfect will always be perfect perfect worlds are not so interesting for Hashem they're not so difficult for Hashem but a perfect world that he builds together with us now that's a bit interesting how do we contribute to God's perfect world it's by adding that little bit of light when everything else is telling you and you have every excuse to just continue with the darkness but you push away that Darkness you fight that Darkness you fight the evil and you bring goodness and light and you build instead of destroy interesting says a beautiful beautiful powerful powerful statement he says you're so smart you think you have so much power you can hurt you can steal you can destroy be a little bit smarter imagine what you could build imagine how you could uplift the the other person imagine what you could create together instead of fighting each other but working together how much you could build okay may we have a blessed and happy and and and and healthy prosperous year of connections of building of caring of connecting and ultimately of recognizing and realizing all of the good and all of the blessing and all of the love that Hashem has already given us we have to open our eyes and ears to hear and see the blessing the light that's hiding within the darkness actually trapped within the darkness and we have the key we have to redeem that light from within the darkness we're going to transform this world from a world of hate and darkness and evil to a world of blessing and goodness