Seeking His Presence

     A young religious man came up to me at the Kotel and said, "I have been having intense moments of connecting to Hashem lately. It's so joyful, but it stops right away, and I have to start looking all over again. How can I keep the connection going?"

     I explained, "First off, 'connection' is not a good word to describe what you are talking about. In the literal sense there can never be connection to Hashem because there can never be disconnection from Him. He is infinite, and the infinite is never separate from anything. It is better to call it, 'Seeing that He is here, His Revealed Presence."

     "So, what you are trying to do is to cleave to His revealed Presence, but this cannot be complete, at least not in this world.

     Sometimes, He gives someone a wondrous blessing, and reveals His Presence, but then right away He hides again. If He would not hide right away the tremendous joy of seeing His presence would cause us to let go of our bodies… trying to cleave to Him. So, He hides, and we have to seek Him again.    

      "Search for Hashem and His might; seek His presence constantly." [i]