By Rabbi Moshe Perets
The Mission of Mankind
The ultimate mission and greatness of mankind is to gain understanding and knowledge of G-d, each person according to his own strengths and abilities.
In order to achieve this recognition, it is necessary, but not sufficient, for a person to have faith in the principles which the righteous Jewish sages have explained in the past about God.
Knowledge of God is not only meant to be an intellectual grasp. It is also an attitude and outlook within the heart and emotions.
When a person thoughtfully chooses his actions based on his belief in God, this will also draw his personal character traits in this direction. This happens because it is human nature that exercising the ability to control one’s actions will serve to reveal and draw out his heart’s desire for the path he is choosing.
In this way, he can demonstrate to himself and those around him that recognizing and internalizing Godliness, in addition to desiring it, is within a person’s ability.
Nevertheless, it is also an obligation to believe with simple, child-like faith in the Creator and Master of everything, for, as will be explained, it is impossible for a person to understand and recognize the Creator completely.
Only a small aspect of God’s existence can be understood, because it is essentially entirely beyond the grasp of any creation, including even the greatest prophets and the highest angels.
From this it follows that there should be two dimensions to a person’s relationship with God:
On the one hand, it is incumbent on each person to know and recognize God and His Unity, to the extent of one’s ability, with the goal to fill his mind and the emotions of his heart with his understanding of the Creator, and to act according to “the ways of God” (which will be explained further on).
At the same time, he should believe that God, may He be blessed, is completely beyond any human being’s grasp.
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Rabbi Moshe Perets is the President of the Noahide Academy of Israel, Founder and Executive Director of NoahideAcademy.org, the world’s largest Noahide informational website. He accomplished his Rabbinical Studies at the Chabad Yeshiva and his medical studies at the University of Louvain in Brussels, Belgium.
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