On 3rd September 2014, I visited the Hale Synagogue at Shay Lane for the first time in my life. Rabbi Portony explained different aspects of Judaism by answering the questions of the audience.Whenever I think about religion the first thought that comes to my mind is ‘What is religion.? Is it man made or made by God for the mankind.?  Since I heard the discussion for the first time in this meeting my focus was more on ‘ God’ rather than ‘religion’ and when the answer of a question ‘How do you perceive God in Judaism.?’ was explained by Rabbi Portnoy, I felt  very much satisfied because it was similar to my views which I had written in my article on 2nd Dec, 2013 in the News paper ‘Messenger’  The gist of my article is-

‘Where is God.? Has anyone seen God.? Perhaps no… But, most of us must have felt His presence in our heart.  When we exclaim ‘Oh my God !’ or ‘Thank God !, you’ve saved me’, then we remember Him unknowingly.  God is present everywhere but we must have the urge to experience His presence, to bear Him in our heart and soul. We must have the inner urge to seek Him out. We cannot see Him with our eyes and we cannot touch Him with our senses. Even though we know that He is all around us, we do not see Him. He is the controller of the world. He is God. He never dies. He never changes His position. He is the almighty. He knows the past, present and the future. He is omniscient. He can do anything He wishes. He is merciful. God is the embodiment of love and affection.’

Simply understanding that God is great is the principle of all religious scriptures, whether Christian or Jewish or Hindu or Muslim. The common concept of all the religions is that God is very great and the same I realized in this meeting.

Sheel Nigam

(Poet, story & script writer)