Jewish Recovery Thought - Va'eschanan

“…There is nothing else besides Him.”
Deuteronomy 4:35

“The L-rd is G-d in heaven above, and upon the earth below; there is nothing else.”
Deuteronomy 4:39

In this week’s reading we are told twice in two very similar ways that there is nothing but G-d. These verses do not just mean to negate the existence of some other god or higher power. What we are told is that nothing exists but G-d.

If there is only G-d, is the world then an illusion? No. But neither does the world exist independently. For to believe that the world is something separate, an entity to itself, would be to accept that G-d is not really everything. In truth, however, all is G-d and G-d is all. G-d is not only in control of the world, He is the world and He is everything.

Indeed, the central prayer of Judaism, the sh’ma, which states, “Hear, o Israel, the L-rd is G-d, the L-rd is One,” does not just mean that there is only one G-d but that G-d is “One” – absolute Unity precluding all and any existence besides Him.

There was once a devoted Hasid who lived in Russia in the late 1700’s and was a lumber merchant by trade. One year, when tallying the annual accounts for his business, he found himself writing on the bottom line: TOTAL: Ein od milvado ("There is nothing else besides Him").

There is an epilogue to this story. When a friend heard of what happened, he criticized the lumber merchant for his absentmindedness, remarking, “There’s a time for meditating upon the absolute oneness of G-d, and there’s a time for business. Being mystically inclined is not a license to be careless in one’s practical dealings.”

The lumber merchant replied, “If one knew that during meditation, a businessman was thinking of the fair in Leipzig, nobody would be the least bit taken aback. So why should it be considered such an offense if during business he slips into thinking about G-d?”

Thus of us who have deepened our conscious contact with G-d through recovery can probably relate to the lumber merchant. To quote:

“When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either G-d is everything or else He is nothing. G-d either is or He isn't. What was our choice to be?”

(Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., p 53)

No one is required to believe in any particular kind of Higher Power to recover from alcoholism. But the Jewish belief – if you are interested to know – is that people, places and things do not exist by themselves. G-d is not just the Creator and Manager of all – He is the All.

He is not just a Higher Power. He is the only Power.