“The nearness of God is not a matter of any measurable distance, just as approaching Him is not an act that is even approximately physical.
He is always where I am.
The question is whether I am here.
To what extent am I conscious of God’s presence?
For instance, there are a great number of things in us that the mind is not aware of.
We have to learn that they exist.
For example, we begin to notice the heart only if it gives us trouble, and this in spite of the fact that it is quite noisy and physiologically involved with everything we do.
There doesn’t seem to be any relation between the objective reality of anything—its vital necessity or even its nearness—to the fact of our being conscious of it.
On the contrary, there seems to be a curious paradox about it all.
What is close, so intimate as to be inseparable, often requires a greater amount of training and effort in order to get to know it.”
From Pebbles of Wisdom from Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (forthcoming)