Have We Outgrown God?
Photo by Fathih Latheef
A paradox in national consciousness appeared in the early 1960’s: attendance was climbing at churches and synagogues throughout the country, yet prejudice and bigotry were also on the rise. This led to a provocative article for the Saturday Review by Rabbi Roland Gettelsohn entitled: “Have We Outgrown God?”¹
In his article, he reviews some of the many ideas of God humankind has had throughout millennia. For example, people once believed that:
Every rock or tree housed a godlike spirit within it;
[then they found out] that the houses they had built
for God were too small for him.
Other generations…believed that idols were gods.
In a more recent moment of time
there were those who were positive
that the sun was God.
They too, were at best reluctant
to relinquish so precious a tenant of faith.²
Gittelsohn suggests that as knowledge of the universe has expanded, generations have had to reinterpret their notions of God. He says,
We must…rethink our ideas of God
in a context that includes at once
the biological discoveries of Darwin,
the physical insights of Einstein,
the psychological imperatives of Freud,
and who knows what new comprehension tomorrow?³
Exactly!
What about Quantum field theory, the theoretical basis of modern physics that explains the nature and behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic levels?
Does quantum mechanics make it easier to believe in God? Professor Stephen Barr, author of Modern Physics and Ancient Faith, says, “It doesn’t provide an argument for the existence of God. But it does [strike at the heart of matter-based thinking.]”⁴
In the 12th Century, Maimonides stated plainly that,
God is the knower,
the knowing
and the known.⁵
Four hundred years later, Kabbalist Moses Cordovero expanded and clarified when he said,
Do not imagine there is God
and thoughts about God
and thinkers of thoughts about God.
There is only God, and
knowledge, knower and known are one in God.
There is nothing separate from God.⁶
Martha Wilcox, a Christian metaphysical teacher and healer, in the mid-20th century says,
We do not think of consciousness
as the effect of God or Mind,
or as produced by God or Mind,
but that God or Mind,
in fact, is consciousness,
and there is no other consciousness.⁷
We think of…Mind or consciousness
as revealing Itself to Itself,
since there is nothing outside of Itself
or beside Itself
to whom Mind can reveal Itself.
We think of God as one infinite Self.⁸
Wilcox concludes that,
The infinite wisdom, intelligence,
Truth, and Life that is God,
is the same infinite wisdom, intelligence,
Truth, and Life that is
the substance and conscious essence
of God’s manifestation…⁹
Speaking of Oneness, Rami Shapiro says:
You cannot see God's Face
because you are God's Face.
You cannot see God's Face
because you cannot separate yourself from God
and make God into an object.
God is the eternal and infinite Subject.
God is the I AM.
Shapiro adds,
You cannot escape from God,
for there is no place devoid of God.
What God ultimately reveals to Moses is not God's Face
but the effect of the divine Presence.
When we are aware of God's Face as our face—and every face—
there is Compassion, Grace, Patience, Kindness, Truth, Forgiveness
and [all the qualities of the Divine].
He concludes,
When we insist that God's Face is Other
there are none of this.
There is death.¹⁰
What about Maharishi Vedic Science? It reveals that the infinite Unified Field of Modern Theoretical Physics is identical with the infinite field of ‘pure consciousness’ known to sages throughout the ages.
As the modern sage Maharishi Mahesh Yogi explains,
The reality of the universe is
one unbounded ocean of consciousness in motion.¹¹
What about our own concept of God when our logic, reason and experience declare that there can be only one infinity? And that there can be nothing beyond or outside of infinity? Knowing that God is the only cause and creator, I am inspired by what Galileo says:
I do not feel obligated to believe
that the same God who has endowed us
with…reason and intellect
has intended us to forego their use!¹²
The teachings we discuss here come from three sacred Traditions, but clearly there’s only one theme. It’s almost as if Nature is shouting at us from all angles to get the message! A ripened understanding of a statement by Martin Buber applies to the universal Truth that consciousness is the nature of reality. In his book Ten Rungs he says:
This is the secret of the unity of God:
no matter where I take hold of a shred of it,
I hold the whole of it.¹³
Can at-one-ment explain an athlete’s or artist’s experience of being “in the zone?” Adam Jacobs discusses this in light of the Hebrew term Chochma:
Chochma is what we experience
when we are at our creative best —
when we are in ‘the zone’
and experiencing a natural, easy flow.
Artists, musicians and other creative people
know it well
and they also know that they are able
to achieve, channel and create in that space in ways
that would be impossible in normal waking life.¹⁴
Chochma is the dimension where, as Aldous Huxley writes,
We see the world as it truly is...infinite.
...in order to do that,
the ‘doors of perception’ [must] to be cleansed...¹⁵
Jacobs reminds us that, for this cleansing:
Torah is the instruction manual that guides us along that path.¹⁶
And, as Krishna says,
Truly there is in this world nothing so purifying as knowledge.¹⁷
— Bhagavad Gita, 4:38
With all that we know, we can still ask who and where is God? Is he some old man with a beard on a throne up in the sky? I still sometimes find it hard to get over that view!
When in doubt, I take refuge in the Shema:
Hear O Israel, the Lord our God,
the Lord is ONE.¹⁸
Then a still small voice in the Oneness reminds me: omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience means one Presence, one Power, and one Consciousness.
As our concept of God changes, what happens to our prayer?
If there is only consciousness, should we pray to divine consciousness, pray about divine consciousness, or should we pray as divine consciousness?
Shefa Gold answers this beautifully in her translation of Psalms 89:1:
I will sing forth
from the hidden infinite,
the loving kindness of God.
I don’t sing about those truths…
I sing those truths into [concrete] being.
With the power of my voice
and the wholeheartedness of my intention,
I call forth the beauty
that is hidden within existence.
As that beauty sings itself through me,
I open myself as a channel, as a vessel, as a vehicle
for the awareness of God’s presence in the world.¹⁹
In light of Gold’s insight we can humbly declare that at-one-ment is not about unifying God and Man; it’s about acknowledging the qualities of God appearing as Man—as man[ifestation]. To be clear, from the standpoint of at-one-ment, manifestation is not a channel for the divine, but the very presence of divinity. It’s when we can declare: I AM THAT!
At-one-ment may be described as being grounded in the “Secret Place of the Most High.”²⁰
This is a powerful place! The Vedic sage Maharishi Mahesh Yogi explains that there are different levels of prayer and each has a different degree of effectiveness. For example, transcendental prayer—prayer from the transcendent—touches all of creation and is of maximum effectiveness.
Undoubtedly, this is why we are directed in Psalms to
Worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness.²¹
David Aaron speaks of the “Power of I AM as the Secret to Incredible Clarity.” He says,
Just as I know I exist,
I can come to realize that God exists.
I didn't teach my mind to think;
I didn't teach my heart to love;
I didn't teach my hand to move.
I intuit I am part of a greater Self;
we come to know the Torah within ourselves.²²
We are perhaps all guilty of having abandoned God to some degree. For example, to many of us,
God is still a theory.
In this regard, a theory
is something believed,
but not necessarily used or lived.
What is the difference
between theory and reality?
Reality is actually being
what one understands;
it is actually being
the manifestation of divinity.
It is realistic Being.²³
— Martha Wilcox
Being reality is a return to the site of Oneness—to where speech returns. It’s a coming home to God and finding that we never left.
Remember Gittelsohn’s message,
It is not God whom we have outgrown,
but [our] concept of God.²⁴
– Roland Gittelsohn
As Vedantist and Non-dual teacher Rupert Spira explains:
Our own being
is revealed as God’s being,
and our journey to God
comes to an end
in that recognition.²⁵
— Rupert Spira
Today our world appears filled with seeming duality:
fear, peace
anger, calm
poor, rich
sickness, wellness
sadness, happiness
toxic, pure
etc., etc.
We encounter battles with apparent duality every day. Sometimes it can be overwhelming.
But as II Chronicles in the Bible makes plain,
The battle is not yours, but God’s.²⁶
This battlefield lesson is also described in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna brings Arjuna to the highest level of alertness of mind and heart, and tells him to be without anything but the Self.
In the Bible, Paul gives a similar instruction:
Be absent from the body
and present with the Lord.²⁷
This ancient instruction is simple: Turn back to awareness, your own inner nature, to your own experience of infinite, pure consciousness. Your Self. The one I AM.
This is entirely possible. Sefer Yetsirah is an early book on Jewish mysticism ascribed by some to the patriarch Abraham. It says,
‘If your mind races, return to the place,’
return to where
you were before thought.
Return to the site
of Oneness.²⁸
Rabbi Alan Green has drawn our attention to the growing number of people ‘witnessing' during activity and other experiences of higher states of consciousness, and we’re starting to see references to this outside of our meditating communities.
For example, in the year 2000, a cellist shared this account of [personal non-doing—that is, of God’s doing]. He says,
On one occasion I was rehearsing at Juilliard
with a pianist and a violinist when all of a sudden,
instead of hearing myself playing in a piano trio,
I heard a piano trio playing.
It was as though I were outside of what I was doing,
and were sitting listening to this group.
It was as though somebody
had taken earplugs out of my ears...²⁹
In another account, a man found himself immersed in deep peace after his daily prayers. He was then walking along a busy street when two cars came to a screeching halt. Four men scrambled out of the cars and began fighting. At first he thought it was none of his business.
Then he saw one of the men wielding a large hunting knife, and noticed that the man struggling with him was bleeding badly. He found himself walking up to them and saying firmly, “Stop fighting!”
Immediately the combatants stopped and turned to look at him. Then, reaching out, he gently grasped the hand that held the knife and said, “Give it to me.” The man released the knife without a word.
The peacemaker didn’t think of himself as a hero. What was uppermost in his mind at that time was the sense of peace he had throughout the whole experience. He says,
To me, everything was calm and quiet.
I had the feeling
I was doing nothing on my own.³⁰
This is evidence that when you’re consciously in touch with the silence and sanctity of pure consciousness, the battle truly “is not yours, but God’s.” [II Chronicles 20:15]
We enliven our awareness of our divine Nature through prayer and meditation. This is time well spent! I once heard Dr. Tony Nader, MD, PhD, explain essentially,
When established in the Self,
you are then no longer even the actor,
you are just letting Nature take care of the situation.
Here’s another example: A woman was once the coordinator for 11 simultaneous lawsuits against her husband. The cases involved ‘smoke and mirrors’ software he unknowingly had purchased, coupled with a fraudulent leasing scam totaling more than a million dollars. It seemed everything was on the line because he had signed personal guarantees.
She says, “It took tremendous focus and commitment—and scientific prayer—over a five-year period just to stay afloat emotionally, mentally, and physically from one day to the next.
“One of our attorneys called at 4:00 pm one day to say that he was working on a filing, due at 5:00 the same day. It required documentation of some expenditures, or they could not ever be reimbursed. Could I get him the receipts ASAP?
She says, “I glanced at the ‘Be Still’ shiviti.³¹ I told him, ‘Yes! I will.’ Fortunately,” she says, “he was in a time zone further west so I had actually two hours to accomplish this search.” Three of the receipts were easily located, but the fourth and largest one for $20,000 was from several years earlier.
“I asked my husband if he could please help me locate it. ‘No!’ he said, as he was on an important international phone call.
“I was tempted to be furious. After all, how could he say, ‘No!’ when this whole thing was ‘his mess’ in the first place and I was so overwhelmed and under such a sharp and seemingly stressful deadline?
She says, “I took a deep breath and again glanced at the shiviti “Be Still”. The Bible verse from Psalms took me immediately inward, back to my Self. I was then calmly prompted to look for the box that would contain the document.
“I spotted some boxes in another office that had not yet made it to storage. I sat down on the floor with them, not knowing where to start. I took a deep breath and again went inward in consciousness, back to pure awareness. With confidence and serenity I began simply moving boxes. Being seated on the floor, this was awkward, but I was too tired to stand up.
“When I found the box for 1993, I awkwardly pushed it up from the floor with one hand onto a nearby chair so I could stand and properly sort through it.
“But as I did so,” she says, “it teetered on the edge of the chair and toppled off. Although my reaction was fast, the contents of the box spilled everywhere. Then as the dust settled, so to speak, I looked down at my free hand that had spontaneously reached up to catch the box as it fell. There in my hand was the $20,000 receipt.
“I felt drenched in peace. In the cosmic scheme, I had not done anything but open my hand. My concept of God has never been the same since.”
She reports that 10 of those lawsuits were eventually dropped and the 11th was resolved satisfactorily.
Gittelsohn, in 1961, said changing our concept of God is probably “the most urgent responsibility we face.”³² I suggest that it is still, today, the most urgent responsibility we face, as individuals and as a congregation. Fortunately, as Rabbi Alan Green has indicated, we—possibly more than members of any other Jewish congregation—are prepared for this change.
In Jeremiah God says,
...I will put My law in their inward parts,
and in their heart will I write it...³³
What else could account for the following experience? A mother was concerned that her family would be moving to a different house, and that her five-year-old son should be prepared ahead of time for the move.
To begin their discussion she asked him, “Do you know where home really is?”
With not a hint of hesitation he replied, “It’s everywhere, it’s in consciousness!”
Then after a moment’s pause, but before his mother could speak, he said with great enthusiasm, “Mother! I didn’t think that, I just knew it!”
Deuteronomy commands us to,
Turn unto the Lord thy God
with all thy heart and with all thy soul.³⁴
It also assures us that,
This commandment is not too hard for thee,
neither is it far off....the word is very nigh unto thee,
in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.³⁵
Shalom.
Echoes
[There is] no God
standing off here [or over there]
to reverence and adore.³⁶
— Margaret Laird
When the student discovers "God"
to be the individual Self-Spirit,
then there is freedom from all authorities,
textbooks, teachers, organizations,
and various experts as the source of one’s life and knowledge…
Looking to any authority
outside one’s demonstrated understanding
is the basic condition of slavery.³⁷
— Richard Booker
The time is at hand
when every conceivable opinion
about God and man must give way
to a complete and perfect understanding
of the Allness of the One.³⁸
— Vivian May Williams
As long as we regard God
as just another object of perception,
we’re never going to be able to find God.
And why?
Because God is the ultimate Subject,
and we are the objects of God’s perception!³⁹
— Abraham Joshua Heschel
We have to be willing
to update our theology;
to update our understanding
of what God is.⁴⁰
— Daniel C Matt
Waves of the Ocean
[1] https://www.unz.com/print/SaturdayRev-1961sep16-00023/ • 09.18.2018
[2] https://www.unz.com/print/SaturdayRev-1961sep16-00023/Contents/ • go to p. 24 • 09.18.2018
[3] https://www.unz.com/print/SaturdayRev-1961sep16-00023/ • 09.18.2018
[4] John Farrell, Forbes: A Physicist Talks God and the Quantum, January 29, 2017 https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnfarrell/2017/01/29/a-physicist-talks-god-and-the-quantum/?sh=1bf4cbba2c86 • 01.29.2017
[5] Joseph I. Gorfinkle, The Eight Chapters of Maimonides on Ethics (Shemonah Perakim), (Columbia University Press, 1912), p. 18 • https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Rambam-Shemonah-Perakim-Gorfinkle.pdf • 09.18.2018
[6] Rabbi Moses Cordovero, @One Daily Message by Rabbi Rami Shapiro, 01.21.2002
[7] Martha Wilcox, 1944 Association Address (The Bookmark), p. 29
[8] Ibid., [Itself] replaces “Himself,” and [Mind] replaces “God.”
[9] Martha Wilcox 1943 Association Address, (The Bookmark), p. 102 • [God’s] replaces “His.”
[10] Rabbi Rami Shapiro, D’var Torah on KI TISA, Inspired by Exodus 33:20 and Exodus 34:6-7 AX 4500
[11] Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Vedic Knowledge for Everyone, (Maharishi Vedic University Press, 1994), p. 68
[12] Carol Kuruvilla, Huffington Post Religion: 12 Famous Scientists On The Possibility Of God 02/02/2016 05:26 pm ET Updated 04.11.2017 • https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/12-famous-scientists-on-the-possibility-of-god_us_56afa292e4b057d7d7c7a1e5 • 04.11.2017
[13] Rabbi Martin Buber, Translated from German by Olga Marx, Ten Rungs: Collected Hasidic Sayings, The Rung of Service: Fulfillment, (Citadel Press, 1995), p. 54 AX 6268
[14] Rabbi Adam Jacobs, Huff Post Blog: Kabbalah and the 32 Types of Consciousness 11.07.2010 Updated 05.25.2011 • https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-adam-jacobs/the-32-types-of-conscious_b_779128.html • 05.25.2011
[15] Ibid.
[16] https://kavvanah.blog/2010/11/15/aish-hatorah-is-now-offering-the-same-torah-as-the-kabbalah-centre/
]17] Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on the Bhagavad Gita, (Penguin Books, 1967), p. 311
[18] Deuteronomy 6:4 JPS
[19] Rabbi Shefa Gold, SINGING GOD’S LOVE: CHASDEI ADONAI, 09.21.2005 • http://www.rabbishefagold.com/singing-gods-love/ • 09.21.2005
[20] Psalms 91:1 JPS
[21] Psalms 96:9 JPS
[22] Rabbi David Aaron, the Power of I AM as the Secret to Incredible Clarity, on SoundCloud 6:03
[23] Martha Wilcox, Association Address 1941, Section 2, (The Bookmark, 1986), p. 17 • please note that the Oneness section of Wilcox’s Association Address 1941 has frequently been attributed to her teacher Bicknell Young, Oneness: I and My Father are One, (The Bookmark, 2003), p. 3
[24] https://www.unz.com/print/SaturdayRev-1961sep16-00023/Contents/ • p. 25
[25] Rupert Spira, The Heart of Prayer, (Sahaja Publications, 2023), p. 11 AX 8108
[26] II Chronicles 20:15 JPS
[27] II Corinthians 5:8 KJV
[28] Daniel Matt, The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism, (HarperSanFrancisco, 1994), p. 108
[29] Rajan Krishnaswami, CS Sentinel, February 14, 2000, (Christian Science Publishing Society), p. 17
[30] Richard Amand Hogrefe, How to deal with fear, CS Sentinel 05.25.1998 (Christian Science Publishing Society).
[31] Shiviti is Hebrew shorthand for something that reminds us of the presence of God. It is often an illustrated Bible verse. Click here for examples.
[32] https://www.unz.com/print/SaturdayRev-1961sep16-00023/Contents/ • p. 25
[33] Jeremiah 31:33
[34] Deuteronomy 30:10
[35] Deuteronomy 30:11, 14
[36] Margaret Laird, Class Instruction 1975, (The Institute of Metaphysical Science) AX 8142
[37] Richard Booker, An Orientation Course in Spiritual Science, (The Institute of Metaphyical Science), p. 1 AX 7950
[38] Vivian May Williams, There Is Only God, (The Rare Book Company, 1934), p. 7 AX 8251
[39] Abraham Joshua Heschel, https://medium.com/@blisswatch/transcendental-judaism-5ec39953892e 12.23.2023 AX 7640
[40] Daniel C Matt, Dr Daniel Matt at Romemu: God and the Big Bang Discovering Harmony between Science and Spirituality, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6nSKKLN0t8 02.19.2025 AX 8341
This includes edited excerpts and subsequent additions
from d’var Torah, Yom Kippur 5779
September 19, 2018 Congregation Beth Shalom, Fairfield, Iowa
Copyright © 2018 Joy Hirshberg All rights reserved.
If you enjoyed this article, you are welcome to distribute it further,
provided that you comply with
the Expressions of Joy copyright policy.
