58. Getting Close to God
Working towards his conclusion, the Rambam presents an analogy [III, 51]:
Imagine, if you will, a king in his palace. Some of his subjects are at home in their own land, while others are abroad. Of those who are in their own kingdom, some happen to be facing the palace, while others are facing away from it. Some of the subjects want to get to the palace so they can minister before their king but they haven't even seen the castle wall yet. Of those who want to reach the palace, some will get there and look for the entrance; others will find their way in and make it as far as an outer chamber; still others will actually make it into the king's throne room. However, even those who reach the throne room will not get to see the king right away! More effort will be required before they can get close enough to hear his words.
The Rambam explains his parable as follows:
The subjects who are abroad represent people who have no religion whatsoever, neither based on their own speculations nor received through a transmitted tradition. The Rambam says that such people are sadly missing something that makes humans truly special.
The subjects who are in their own land but facing away from the palace represent people who have a religion but it is riddled with false doctrines, either because of faulty speculations on the person's own part or because misinformation was transmitted to them. This can be even more harmful than having no religion at all! Because their backs are to the palace, the more they proceed, the farther they get from their goal.
Those who want to reach the palace but never find it - that's most religious people. The majority of observant people are well-meaning but they do not happen to be learned enough to reach their destination.
The ones who reach the palace but fail to find the entrance represent people who devote themselves entirely to the study of law in its practical application. They accept the underlying philosophical principles as true but they make no efforts to internalize these principles through their own study and investigation.
The ones who enter the outer chambers of the palace represent people who have made the effort to look into those religious principles. Those who succeed in finding a proof for every principle (insofar as such a thing is possible) are represented by those who actually make it into the throne room.
The only way to get close to God is to get to know Him. Many people come up with their own notions of God but all they're doing is imagining a being that doesn't exist and calling it by the Name of One that does. (Refer back to section 5.) True service of God can only commence when one has invested the effort necessary to form an accurate idea of Him (again, to the degree that such a thing is humanly possible). To this end, the Torah says, "You have been shown so that you will know that Hashem is God; there is none beside Him....Therefore, know today and impress upon your heart that Hashem is God, there is no other" (Deuteronomy 4:35, 39). We see from this, and similar verses, that knowledge of God is a prerequisite to the highest levels of service to Him, since a person's love of God is commensurate with his knowledge of him. This idea is reinforced by such verses as I Chronicles 28:9, in which King David tells his son Solomon, "Know the God of your father and serve him with a pure heart...if you seek Him, He will be found to you...."
At this point, the Rambam reminds the reader that our connection to God is the power of intellect that He has given us (see section 41). It is within our ability to strengthen this bond, and also to weaken it. We can exercise this muscle by using it to pursue knowledge of and love for God; it atrophies when we use it for other purposes. Even the wisest person alive is capable of breaking the connection with God when circumstances require him to focus on mundane concerns. This is why the pious limited the amount of time they could spend on temporal things, so that God might be before them constantly.
The mitzvos, including such things as davening (prayer) and reading the Torah, exist to occupy our time and fill our minds with Godly things rather than mundanity. As long as we are thoughtfully engaged in mitzvos, we are communing with God. If we only go through the motions, performing mitzvos by rote and without investing the proper thought, thinking instead about our business dealings or other temporal things, then we're no better than someone absent-mindedly digging a hole without giving his actions any thought. This does not serve to elevate us or to strengthen our connection with God. Instead, it is like Jeremiah 12:2 says, "You are near in their mouths but far from their thoughts."
There is, however, a way to rectify the bad habit of performing mitzvos by rote. The first step is to invest oneself into reciting the Shema and Shemoneh Esrei with full concentration, blocking out all distractions; one must not be satisfied with just the first verse of Shema or the first bracha of Shemoneh Esrei. Don't be discouraged - this might take years of practice to accomplish!
Once that has been achieved, the next step is to extend the same effort to the reading of the Torah, striving to give your full attention to everything that is being read. After that, you should be able to focus when studying Torah and reciting brachos.
Once you have mastered directing your attention exclusively toward the service of God, take care to keep mundane concerns from distracting you. Thoughts of earning a living, paying the bills, etc., should be reserved for times of business and conversation. Sufficient time to address temporal matters exists throughout the day, so there's no need to let these things intrude on the hours reserved for spirituality.
When one is alone and relaxing, he should take the opportunity to reflect intellectually on Godly matters as has been discussed. This will enable him to approach God and serve Him in the highest manner possible.
Once a person has achieved true knowledge of God, and he rejoices in that knowledge to the extent that God is always foremost in his thoughts, then he will have reached a state described by King Solomon: "I sleep but my heart is awake - it is the voice of my Beloved that knocks" (Shir HaShirim 5:2).
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