Worry Less

By: Rabbi Shlomo Ezagui

“And you shall know today and place it in your heart that G-d is G-d in the heavens above and on the ground below, there is none other.” Deut. 4, 39.

There is none other, nothing else necessary to recognize and know this day. This awareness is the foundation and root to everything.

“Hear o Israel the Lord our G-d the Lord is One.” This verse teaches the principle of faith in the oneness and unity of G-d. The simplest understanding of this verse is that there aren’t tens, hundreds, or thousands of power sources and G-ds out there. Ultimately, the buck stops at the ONE and only.

This verse, in the most sold book on the faith of the earth, the Bible, a book presented by G-d, the creator of all who knows us best, teaches that G-d doesn’t share his power with any other forces or beings. He is One and Only. He instructs us to recognize this fact like everything else in the Bible for our own good.

On a deeper level, mysticism teaches, “there is none other”, there is nothing else in the universe but the energy of G-d.

The heavens and the earth, all the masses and multitudes in the upper galaxies where all created from nothing. G-d was, G-d is and G-d will forever be. The only real existence is G-d and, it is out of G-d that the world was created. A miraculous feat only G-d can accomplish. The essence and matter of the universe is essentially G-dliness in the form of what appears as the world we see all around us.

That is why within the DNA of the universe and within each person there are so many similarities with the properties of G-dliness.

We are not bodies inhabited by souls. We are souls experiencing our lives through bodies. The substance and matter of the world is a communication and manifestation from G-d and therefore every moment of its existence it is dependent on G-ds kindness that it remain the world that it is.

This knowledge and understanding is extremely powerful in many areas of our lives and therefore the Bible instructs us to, “place it in our hearts.” Our desires, our will, and our emotions must line up with this reality. When the feelings of our heart reach this awareness, deep down inside ourselves, we are less anxious, we worry less, we are more optimistic and more confident in ourselves and in our place in this world.

The distance between knowing, and feeling, this awareness in our heart is at least as great as the distance between knowing, and not knowing, this concept. Not knowing or not being aware of this concept represents a total black hole in our minds, there is nothing there of this awareness when we don’t know. In a similar fashion,  having the awareness that the only real existence in this world is all and  only G-dliness but not working on drawing this awareness in our hearts will have absolutely no presence or influence in our character and behavior.

Were someone to think that there is anyone or anything outside of G-d that has any control or even influence over our own lives or anything for that matter, this thought would be a denial in the above principle of faith that there is only G-d and He shares his power with nothing outside Himself.

It really doesn’t take much for someone to look around and see the hand of G-d, the unexpected and out of our own control events that take place on a day to day basis to realize there is much more than anyone can take credit for. The day itself, the world itself, cries out this fact is we only train our eyes to see.