Street Farbrengen Episode # 137: Rosh Hashana - Is G-d Waiting to Punish You?

Is G-d Waiting to Punish You? | We each carry pictures of G-d in our heads or a sense of "personality." Is your picture of  G-d keeping score, waiting for you to slip up? Do you need more zechusim, merit and worth, more ***segulos* magic potions**, more blessings  to make it safely through another year? Have  we taken the language of ***schar v’onesh***—reward and punishment—to make G-d into the 'principal standing over us with a yardstick? In this episode of Street Farbrengen, Reuven and Zacharia dig into the emotional picture of G-d that our contemporary society and experience creates within us. They explore fear as a religious motivator, consequences versus punishment, our need to control and explain what happens to us, the Chassidic meaning of *l’maalah min haseiche*l, above your mind , and the strange power of the shofar—a ram’s horn upon which, somehow, an entire year turns on. And underneath it all is one uncomfortable question: What have I made G-d into? Throughout Elul  and as Rosh Hashanah approaches, maybe the work isn’t simply becoming more afraid.  Maybe it’s learning to go see G-d.