Intimate with the Infinite  (1)

RONNY VANCE

Forty years ago, we would go to a Brooklyn apartment where a rabbi (2) had a small gathering. In his classes, he used every trick in his arsenal to describe the idea of a soul and an inner world, without using the word “God.” He used energy, vibrations, spiritual force – anything but God – because as he said, “that word has often been a major turn off to a number of the new people coming around.” People whom many today might refer to as “the woke crowd.”

One day he told a story about someone who was not only secular but maybe even a bit anti- religion. This guy heard that the Lubavitcher Rebbe was a holy man and that every Sunday he would give a crisp dollar bill to anyone who waited to see him. The line was so long that the Rebbe had only seconds to talk to each person. When it was this guy’s turn, the Rebbe said to him, “it would be good if you would put on tefillin.” (3) The guy responded, “I only came here because I heard you were a holy man, but I am not one of your followers and I don’t believe in God.” The Rebbe looked at him in a way that only he could and said, “the God you don’t believe in I also don’t believe in.”

Hearing that story was a game changer for me. What exactly was he saying? At the time, it seemed like a riddle, but that one statement planted a seed and began what became a multi-decade journey of intense study and self-reflection as I tried to understand what he meant.

Here is what has become blatantly clear: That my opinions about anything to do with God were bereft of any real background or knowledge. That everything I believed at that time was based upon a “giant nothing-burger.”

As a veteran of the pop music business in America, I have an opinion about movies, music, theater, books, tv, and sports, as I’ve put a lifetime of energy into these arenas. But what did I know about God beyond my short stint at religious school or momentary pauses to listen to Televangelists while channel-surfing? I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Only now, after more than twenty years in a religiously observant community, am I beginning to understand just how much I still don’t know. Not coming from an academic background, I didn’t realize what hard work it is to acquire all this ancient knowledge. Although the wisdom is in fact endless, I somehow find myself in a perfect environment and I am piecing more and more together each day.

There is an old expression that “when someone graduates from college, that is when the learning really begins.” In my personal journey, the graduation speech came with a simple statement. If that opportunity comes for you, make sure you’re listening.