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Automatic transcript; may contain mistakes, especially in Hebrew.
This week's question is a very interesting one. I find it easy to pour out my heart to God, but I find it difficult to have a day-to-day conversation with God. Any advice? Well, first of all, I think let's start with a basic premise. I think it's an amazing thing that we've come to a realization as a generation, that we need to have conversations with God. It's not enough just to say the words of the sitter. The sitter is an amazing tool, but ultimately it has to lead to an authentic dialogue with God. And the challenge for so many of us is that we feel like we can turn to God. I think we recognize God is there for us in times of trouble, and especially for those of us that have suffered. I think we've learned to lean on God. But how does that become personal? How can that happen in a day-to-day conversation? Sometimes the feeling is, I turn to you when I need you. But that's not a real relationship. A real relationship is not limited to when I need you. A real relationship is I'm interested in hearing from you,
and I'm interested in sharing from you. One of the things that I've learned along the way is if you want to have a conversation with God, it has to be personal. And so actually, probably the person that impacted me most in my davening is not even Jewish. Her name is Mexie, and she doesn't even believe in God. Mexie describes herself as a poor agnostic. Why is she a poor agnostic? Because she keeps slipping back into belief in God. And what does that mean? So she explained that she doesn't believe in God, but she believes in a still, small voice. That's her language, a still, small voice that resides inside of her. and every time she dialogues with that voice and every time she listens to what it has to say and then makes it actionable in her real life her life is better she does the right things and things just work out so i said to her mexi what you describe as a still small voice.
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we call a call de mama daca there is a godly voice that's inside of all of us, so often i think what we're doing is we're trying to listen to the god that's outside of us and that's amazing because god does reside outside of us there is a godly opinion so to speak that resides outside of ourselves and we have to be meshubid we have to obligate ourselves to that external voice not everything can come from within but at the same time we have to listen to the godly voice that's inside of us as well and when i was talking to mexi about this she said to me you. know you're an orthodox jewish rabbi and you talk to god all the time but when do you ever listen to him, And that was a shocking revelation to me because I had been davening for so many years. But when did I actually just stop and listen to God? And I started thinking about it, and I don't think I ever stopped and listened to God. And so what I started doing in my davening was I started listening. I would talk to God. Like Mexie said to me, introduce yourself. Say, hi, God. Good morning. It's Mordechai. How are you? So I wanted to talk about some things that have come up for me.
And then authentically listen to the answers that are going on inside of you. And the most amazing thing happened. I started not just to have a monologue with God, but an actual dialogue with God. And it wasn't because I think God is responding to me like prophecy. I'm not crazy, I promise. I mean, if I am, I don't think it's a function of this. But I think that it's something amazing about tapping into the godly voice that's inside of you. In fact, I saw that the Alte Rebbe... said that we say Shema Yisrael because we're learning to listen to the voice that's inside of us that's always praying. And so tefillah is more accurately described as learning to channel the voice inside of you that's already davening and learning to become one with that voice. And when I was talking to my Rebbe, Rav Parnash Shlita, about this concept, he said to me, that's called Ruach HaKodesh. Ruach HaKodesh is not Nebuah. Prophecy would be hearing an external voice. But tefillah is about hearing an internal voice. And that's Ruach HaKodesh.
And a person, if they learn to listen to G-d, they can actually have a personal relationship with G-d. And so now when people say to me, well, what's the point of davening because G-d never answers? So my response is, well, the question is, are you really davening or are you just saying the words of the sitter? Sometimes it's easy to just say the words of the sitter mindlessly. But the question is, is that really what's called kavanah? Kavanah doesn't just mean saying the words of the Siddur and even understanding the words. But can you tap into a dimension in davening that's more profound than that, where you're actually building a relationship? And so what happens is that if you have that day-to-day relationship, then when you are suffering and you have those times of need and you're pouring out your heart to G-d, then it's so much more profound because you're not just using G-d, so to speak, but you're leaning on the relationship that you've already developed. And I think perhaps that's why Chazal... Not just allow us, but obligate us to use the word atah when it comes to God. You know, I would never refer to my Rebbe as you. I only refer to my Rebbe in the third person.
So how could I refer to Hashem as you? And I think the answer is because in a certain way we have a more personal relationship with God because God resides within every single one of us. And it's our job to cultivate that voice, to magnify that voice in our life, to raise the volume so that we can really hear what God is telling us. And that's how we build a real relationship with God.
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