17. Pekudei 5799: Where To Find G-d In Our Lives

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/TheLighthouseProjectMiami/videos/2014237882204860/ Notes: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gxm1m00izjxa46f/17.%20Pekudei%205779.%20Where%20to%20Find%20G-d%20in%20Our%20Lives.pdf?dl=0 --- The undeniable fact is that we are mortals, and in addition to being mortals, we are the only creature that is capable of contemplating, denying, fighting, negotiating, and ultimately accepting our mortality. The outcome of this gift is, that while for all other creatures it is only their spiritual source, guardian angel, so to speak, that can acknowledge having a Creator who is their protector and provider, we humans can acknowledge this within our physical being and conscious mind. Thus, among no other creatures does there exist neither atheist nor believer, within the human race everyone categorizes themselves as atheist, agnostic, believer, or decisively indifferent. I have found that most every human, and one point or another, on one level or another, is looking to know where G-d is. Sometimes, in order to be with G-d, holding G-d’s hand, and other times to temporarily run away from G-d. Thus, King David states in Psalms (-139:8-10), “If I ascend to the heavens, there You are, and if I make my bed in the grave, behold, You are there. [If] I take up the wings of dawn, [if] I dwell at the end of the west, there too, Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will grasp me.” At time we say this in gratitude, and in other times in frustration, but we are always saying, thinking or feeling this, at some level or another. Well, where can we find G-d? The most common mistake is that believe that we can find G-d in spirituality. Spirituality is but the vestibule through which we must travel in order to find G-d. However, G-d’s choice of residence is within the physical and the mundane. In this lecture we explore what purpose spirituality serves for humans, and how to use it for living our physical, and often mundane, lives. This lecture is based on a maamor the Rebbe delivered in 1965, exploring the relationship between holy Shabbat and the six mundane working weekdays, the spiritual and the physical.