The 13 Principles of Jewish Faith - Principle #3: Fresh Hot Idols? - Rabbi Akiva Fox

the last segment of this third fundamental that Hashem is not a body he is not physical he is not finite and there's no way to conceptualize him with any finite comparisons or images this has another very practical aspect which is that we live in a world that it's much easier and much more practical to connect or relate to something if it's physically close to us if it's tangible now there are religions in the world that have cashed in on this concept and said hey wait a minute people are like that you know the psychology of mankind is that they connect more they relate to things that they can touch and feel sensuality if you can feel it and touch it and see it and hear it then you're much more connected to it but if it's invisible they have a hard time with it so let's come up with a religion let's come up with a God that you could connect to that maybe you could touch or maybe you could see or maybe you could have both of them maybe you could even smell it and that is much more practical hey it talks to people you're gonna get phone calls from missionaries and say hey we have the god for you you know what my god he's got a big potbelly to make it much easier to see my god he is a symbol and you could connect to that much more or the Stars or the constellations this one looks like a goat this one looks like Hercules this one looks like twins and now you could connect with it much more because look I see it I could almost feel it I could hear it perfect just the God that I wanted you know who believed that many religions but without naming specific ones back in the times of a Brahma vino of rum Abraham our forefather his father Terah had an idol store an idol store that he used to make pagan idols different images and people would come into the store and they would say I'm looking for a god that will help me you know I need / NASA I need money I need a business I need to make some cash oh you want the money god boy have I got the God for you let me ask what's your price range are you looking for cheap because if you want cheap I got stale from yesterday one that came out of the oven but if you're willing to pay a price we got one in the oven fresh hot now it's going to be out three minutes it's going to be out of the oven that's the one you're looking for sounds compelling does it sound like the one you're looking for and something's wrong something is wrong because if God is finite or if your connection to God is sensual is limited to physical that means you are reducing God and what he is and what he could be to something that I could feel see or hear but that's impossible when we're talking about the creator of the world when we're talking about the one who rules the world who created the world he guides the world he listens to every person every prayer there's billions and creatures and everything and he's doing it how could you limit him how could you reduce him to a finite existence that's impossible how could you connect to something that cannot be he cannot be human if a person comes down and says okay show Emily pleasure to meet you what's your name my name is akiva what's your name oh I'm God your God really boy have I got a problem with you I gotta prep I want to speak to you about Darfur I want to speak to you about the Holocaust you know what if your God what's your mother's name mrs. God that can't be something already says to us there's red lights blaring I smell a rat and God can't be erect why because if he's finite if he's physical if he's a structure if he's put into a room or into a bust or into a head or into a sculpture that cannot be it cannot encapsulate all that God has to be so when we say an imam and I believe that a sham is not a goof that he's not a body and there's no way to compare them ain't like some dim young cloud what that also tells us is think about it for a second God is way too great and way too powerful to say yeah that's me there he is look at that over there he's crossing the street right now that's God you can't look at something in your living room and say I'm gonna pray to Him I'm not he's the one who's gonna help me no it can't be it cannot be finite because that's impossible God cannot limit himself to finite God would not limit himself to find that because he's got so the more finite the more physical something is the less holy it is the less physical it is the more holiness the more connection we have with physical the more connection we have with sensual that's less holy Hashem is called Kadosh Kadosh means holy what is the word holy me holy means that it's beyond us it's removed from our comprehension it's way out of our sphere the less that we can in a certain sense connect to it the less that we could feel hear or see it that's the holier it's going to be because you know that God is the Almighty he's all-powerful so to limit him to restrain him to a physical existence it just doesn't go there's a a book called White Nights actually by one of the prime ministers of Israel speaking about his his time in the gulag in Russia Siberia when before he came to Israel he was a Russian refusenik who was one of the many millions who suffered for being Jewish we'll never know what happened to hundreds of thousands if not more of Jews that were murdered by Stalin and the Communists in their tyrants rule but in this book he speaks about the philosophical discussions he had with the KGB interrogators and I remember reading one thing that just blew me away the interrogator said if I can't see him meaning your God and I can hear him and I can't touch him then he just doesn't exist it cannot be so he is convincing this person that you are wrong about your religion and your faith is completely off because if you don't if you don't hear him and you don't see him and you can't touch him then it can't be that he's here and we and this auntie mom and say the exact opposite if you could touch him and you could see him and you could hear him and you could smell him and something's wrong that's not what you're going to believe in because God is the almighty the all-powerful to say that he exists in this little clay ball that came out of the oven a few days ago to say that he has an image that you could connect to him and say yet something like that I don't I don't exactly remember how but it's something like that that's impossible we cannot the Torah is infinite it's wisdom is infinite that is our connection to rush em something that's infinite something that's holy holy literally means beyond the scope of human understanding and the truth is then we say that when we say there are holy people holy people are in essence those people that are not limiting their existence their vision their beliefs their the things that they do are not limited to physical temptations or to sensuality they are able to exist in this world not based on what they touch and see but they have a much more deeper understanding a much more profound connection with something that's beyond them that it in turn and makes them holy so when we say in this honey mom and the third honey moment that a shame is not a body he's not a good and we cannot use the perception of the body to compare anything to him or to say that he exists in a physical form or a physical way or object what that tells you is that whenever somebody tells you I got it down pat you want to see check this out there's something wrong because God is infinite Hashem is wholly a sham is beyond when we say before the bracha in the sh montessori in the nineteen eighteen brothels that we say of prayer every day three times a day before octa honing autumn das before the Braha the blessing that speaks about a Shem giving intellect to a person before that we say ah to Kadosh you have Shem our holy because before connecting to anything intellectual we need to understand a sham is beyond intellect he's beyond us because only with that those who know know that you can't know if you think you know then you don't know to connect with the invisible meaning to connect with a Shem that is beyond physical intellect beyond physical capacity that is in essence to connect with the divine you