One of my recurrent themes is that I deplore the endless reruns of Judaism 101 which dominate most venues, regardless of denomination (of course, each denomination presents their own version of Judaism 101, but each rarely provides their people with more sophisticated lessons). Although I support efforts to encourage Jews who are not yet engaged withTorah and Mitzvot to enter this world and for all of us to increase our involvement, I’m trying here to add depths and give insights to those who are already committed to this path.
Thus, I wasn’t making a philosophical statement that atheists should all believe in God and thus, magically turn into “good people”. Rather, I was addressing the problem of becoming too focused on the abstract or too focused on the details. It’s a trap that I also, all too often, fall into, distancing myself from the reality of God because I’m too taken with either the tiniest distinctions or with the overriding logical/formal structures. Both in the realm of Halacha and Kabbalah, it’s all too easy to get lost in the fun of “solving the puzzles”. Our own egos can overshadow the central purpose of the entire project, just to devise a clever solution which makes us feel “so smart”. And makes it all meaningless.
Rather, Torah study and Mitzva engagement has to potential to bring us closer into the orbit of The Creator, for His purposes rather than for our own.
And this is what I mean when I say, “You choose”.

You Choose: We Each Have Exactly Two Choices

It’s impossible to “prove” that God exists because, at least as we define Him, He so greatly transcends our limited tools of logic and observation. Nonetheless, if we merely allow ourselves to, we can experience God. I think this is what Rambam had in mind when he placed God in a list of beliefs–rather than presenting an “acid-test” creed, as those looking for any excuse to reject traditional Judaism charge, he was simply telling us that there are some phenomenon which cannot be intellectually grasped and are knowable only via the “Belief Channel”.

The most primal of contests involves exactly two opponents. Perhaps that’s why boxing has remained such a popular sport through the ages. Stripped down to the essentials, without supporting team members, equipment advantages or any other distractions, when two primal opposites enter the ring only one can be victorious. As much as we might want to process opposing opinions as “both/and”, some concepts truly are mutually exclusive.

With this in mind, I propose that each of us, both now and throughout time, have exactly two choices as to how we’re going to live our lives. We can either live as if God exists, giving our lives concrete form, morality and some mandated behavior, or we can live in an “everything goes” mode, convinced there is no meaning to anything we do.

Or, as our tradition teaches, הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים, Everything is in the hands of God except the recognition and acknowledgement(1) of God.

You choose.

(1)  יראת שמים (Yirat Shemayim) is often translated as “fear of heaven”. Taken literally, it is based on the root ראה which means to see. I’m translating the word שמים (Shemayim), heaven, as God.