Let My People Know

"The deeper awareness of knowing the self within"

 

There is a general, human way for all men, which is primary: "That He is our very life" (Deuteronomy 30:20). 

And when a person contemplates this truth–that He is our very life, then the thought takes us beyond the fact of His greatness to the core of one's own self. 

One begins to realize the "I" who is at the heart of the matter of love. 

Even love of oneself requires this recognition; it is the starting point of an individual's discovery of his own personality. 

Beyond that, there is the deeper awareness of knowing the self within, the I, the one who realizes that God is that Self of the self. 

Thus, when we say, "He is our life," the intention here is not that He is the giver of life, but that He Himself is our life. 

When I search for the I in the body, I find the I of the soul.

When I search for the I of the soul, I find the I of the Divine. 

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
 
From The Sustaining Utterance by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz