Like a Mother's Love

"From my flesh I see G-d." (Job 19:26)
A fundamental tenet of Jewish mystical teachings is the idea that from every element of this physical world, we can deduce ideas of the spiritual. How come? Because this world descends directly from its spiritual counterpart above it; its spiritual "DNA", its blueprint and mirror, is the spiritual above it. This applies even more so to what we can observe in the human being, for "man is a miniature world." (Zohar)

Based on this, when trying to understand our relationship with G-d, Jewish mysticism often teaches from the bond we see in human relationships, one being the love felt from a parent to it's child. As the holy Baal Shem Tov taught: "G-d's love for his people is like that of an aging couple who has an only child born to them late in life, except infinitely more so." In truth, the only reason why a parent has a deep inherent love for his or her child, is because this stems from G-d's love of his people.

If one meditates on this idea a bit more, dissecting this analogy in greater detail, a different outlook & perspective on one's relationship with G-d emerges. If one thinks for a moment about a mother who conceives: Slowly a new, living being begins to develop within her, connected as one with its mother, a continuation of her. Every aspect of it's life is bound to its mother. After birth, the helpless child survives & is nurtured from his mother's loving beneficence. A child can and never will, fully understand the love of his mother to him. It's not a love of one person to another, but of an extension of herself treated greater than herself, with a deep and boundless tender love that can't be quantified. So too by G-d toward his children. Yet how many of us think of G-d this way? Not as a stern king, but as a loving creator and parent?

The next time we pray or just take a moment to think about G-d, let us close our eyes and imagine this aging mother in a loving embrace with her new child. From my flesh I see G-d - We can always learn from the world around us, and from the world of emotions within.

Shabbat Shalom!