It is said that of all the pleasures in the world, the greatest is the simple joy of living.
But when does a person feel it?
In rare moments – usually after emerging from a crisis-such as receiving a pardon from a death sentence or recuperating from a severe illness.
As for the presence of God–it is closer to one’s being than the joy of living, closer than the beating of one’s heart.
Because when one is conscious of it, all the rest is secondary, relatively unimportant.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz