Chapter 33 of Numbers records the various locations in which Israel wandered over the course of 40 years in the wilderness. It makes for some mind-numbing reading and leaves us wondering why all of these locations and marches are recorded. Rashi comments that it is to teach us God’s loving-kindness in guiding, providing, and protecting them. God didn’t abandon the people even as they faced the consequences of their lack of faith; he was with them throughout.

              Moses seemed to be particularly concerned that the Israelites had not learned their lesson when the tribes of Gad and Reuben asked to settle east of the Jordan. It seemed like they were doing exactly what the Israelites had done forty years before! Moses also feared they hadn’t learned when he heard that the soldiers hadn’t put all the Midianite women to death who had enticed the Israelites into idolatry at Peor. Moses knew that he was nearing the end of his life, and he feared that the people had learned nothing, that they would continue making the same mistakes. And so, we get a recounting of their journeys to demonstrate God’s providential care and remind us of the consequences of faithlessness. The passage ends with a charge to avoid falling into idolatry when they enter the land by destroying the altars of the Canaanites and driving them out, and if they don’t do so, they will suffer the same fate as the Canaanites they’re replacing. The Torah seems to be saying that God will be with us in our journeys no matter what, but if we lack faith in God, we will suffer more than necessary.

              The Baal Shem Tov understood this list of resting places as an allegory for the stages of life. We come into the world, which seems like a chaotic, dangerous wilderness. We are completely reliant on the mercy and love of God, whether we realize it or not. And the ultimate goal is the promised land: heaven, the Garden of Eden, or a return to the Divine Source. But in order to reach that goal we must learn to trust God.

              Easy enough to say, but what does that really mean? Do we sit back and expect miracles, manna and quail from heaven? No, the Torah doesn’t advocate for that. Even as God guides and provides for Israel, they are expected to do their part. They must gather food, cook, clean, travel, fight hostile tribes, and so on. God does not do everything for them. But then, if we still must work to provide for ourselves, where does trusting God come in?

              Over the course of my rabbinic studies, I began to slowly think through various aspects of my theology with the help of much smarter people who have written mountains of material on the topic. As a philosophy nerd, it should be no surprise that I would be much more interested in theology than I was in halakha, history, or Hebrew. I eventually discovered the thought of Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein, who had a lot to say about trusting God. Lichtenstein combined different concepts I had already come to adopt into a philosophy of Judaism that was pragmatic and inspiring, rational yet mystical.

              Rabbi Lichtenstein came to the U.S. in 1907 from Lithuania, the birthplace of the Musar movement. After he arrived, he attended Hebrew Union College and was ordained as a Reform rabbi in 1916. His philosophy combined the Reform emphasis on ethical monotheism and the biblical prophets with the Musar practice of tikkun middot (healing the soul) and the Hasidic goal of devekut, clinging to God. He taught that God is present in every aspect of creation, especially in human beings made in the Divine image. Lichtenstein emphasized God’s goodness, love, presence, and responsiveness to prayer. He believed that every human soul is an emanation of the Divine, and that we are all inherently connected to God at the deepest level of our being. The goal of Judaism as a spiritual and religious discipline, according to Lichtenstein, is to cultivate an awareness of the infinite Divine Presence, which would naturally flow out into our relations with others. Coincidentally, an awareness of God would also result in a life based on trusting in God’s goodness and love. This is exactly the goal being upheld by the quote on our Torah reading table, “I will set the Lord before me always.”

              From this basic insight, Lichtenstein developed a spiritual practice that is simultaneously the path toward God-consciousness and the goal. This practice upheld principles of faith and behavior that would lead to self-improvement. He taught that the best method for living up to these principles was what became known as positive thinking or affirmative prayer. At the time, this was a relatively new practice, but it has become extremely popular over the last century and even has scientific support showing its effectiveness. Lichtenstein advocated the use of affirmative prayer for a variety of daily issues affecting our mental state.

              Affirmative prayer is the practice of affirming and visualizing something in the hopes of bringing it about. It incorporates meditation by calming the mind and focusing on the omnipresence of God, visualizing the needed outcome, and affirming the reality of that outcome in words. So, for example, if someone needed patience, they might imagine themselves sitting calmly and waiting for whatever it is to come in its own time and then affirm, “I am calm and patient; God’s timing for me is perfect.” Lichtenstein formulated a list of ten principles for his practice which included the ideals of calmness, joy, universal love and goodwill, contentment, and a rejection of fear and worry. All grounded in trusting God and God’s responsiveness to prayer.

              These ideas are not new. In fact, they are found throughout the Tanakh, but Lichtenstein believed they were best exemplified in the Psalms. In the Psalms, God is present in every aspect of creation. Take Psalm 139, “Where can I go from you Spirit? …If I ascend to heaven you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.” God is close to hand, responding when we cry out to him, as it says in Psalm 145:18. The Psalmist frequently uses affirmative language and vivid imagery when he needs God’s help. In the 23^rd Psalm, the narrator says that he will “fear no evil” and that “goodness and kindness will follow [him] all the days of [his] life.” The Psalmist rests in the security of God’s love and care. And to bring in one example from Torah, which we’ll be reading in a couple of weeks, Moses asks, which nation “has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?” Lichtenstein was emphasizing spiritual intimacy within the context of Classical Reform Judaism, a tradition often criticized as coldly rational and spiritually sterile. Rather than the abstract God-idea of the Pittsburgh Platform, Lichtenstein advocated a return to trusting in God as an experiential reality, and this made him rather unpopular with other Reform rabbis, particularly Stephen Wise. In my opinion, Lichtenstein combined the best of Reform Judaism with the best spiritual insights of the sects from his native Lithuania.

              Trusting in God does not come naturally to me. It is something I have to work at. That’s why I have adopted Lichtenstein’s philosophy as my own… because it works for me. It combines spirituality with pragmatic action. We pray, we hope, and then we do what we can, trusting that God will provide what we need. Like the Psalmist, we must believe in God’s love and goodness, his presence and our ability to connect to God in prayer. We must learn to see God in everyone and in everything and try to respond accordingly. There is a teaching in the Midrash (Shir Hashirim Rabbah 5:2) that when we open a door so much as the width of a needle, God opens a door as wide as a hallway in the hopes to help us find our way to him. Any effort, any calling out to God will receive a response, often a response you wouldn’t expect. The path to God consciousness involves healing the soul, and the path itself is the goal. By healing the soul, we learn to walk in God’s ways, to become more like God, to recognize our connection to God, and in doing so we reach the Promised Land of God consciousness.