Let My People Know

"When do we grasp Divine speech?"

 
The contact between man and God is not a two-way, but a one-way, communication. 

We are dependent on Him; He is not dependent on us. 

He sees us; we do not see Him. 

We are products of His speech, and with difficulty, we can even make out something of this speech. 

Anything else is out of our domain. 

When do we grasp Divine speech? 

Only when we ourselves speak of the Shechinah (as the Zohar says, the Shechinah is Divine speech or manifestation). 

When man reaches a level where he can feel the immanence of the Divine, this is as far as he can go. 

The essence of God is infinitely beyond this–but when one relates to Divine speech and seems to understand something, there is contact. 

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
 
From The Long Shorter Way by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz