“In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
Introduction: The Question of Elohim
These opening words of the Bible are familiar to millions. Yet hidden within them lies a mystery often overlooked. Why does the text use Elohim, a plural form, rather than a singular name for God? Is this merely a grammatical curiosity, or does it point toward something deeper—something vast, formless, beyond the limitations of human thought?
For centuries, many have understood God as a being—separate, external, anthropomorphized. The image of an old man on a throne has dominated religious imagination, reinforcing the belief in a distant deity who governs creation from afar. But what if this is only a veil over a deeper truth? What if Elohim points not to a being among beings, but to the boundless reality itself—the Ein Sof of Kabbalah, the nameless and formless essence beyond all concept?
This essay is an invitation to step beyond the veil. To move from separation to union, from belief to direct experience. To rediscover what the mystics across traditions have always known: that God is not elsewhere. God is here, now, and always—within and beyond, closer than breath, vaster than thought.
The Illusion of Separation
Throughout history, religion has provided humanity with stories, images, and rituals to help navigate the mystery of existence. Yet, in doing so, it has often externalized the divine, creating a subject-object duality—God as a being, separate from creation, separate from us.
This duality is at the root of suffering. When we see ourselves as apart from the divine, we feel exiled, adrift in a world where God is distant and we are left to struggle alone. This belief in separation has led to fear, to longing, to a desperate seeking for something outside of ourselves that can restore what feels missing.
But what if nothing was ever missing? What if the separation is only a misunderstanding, a veil drawn over the truth of our oneness with the Infinite?
The Path of Direct Experience
The great mystics—those who have peered beyond the veil—have all spoken of a reality beyond belief.
St. John of the Cross, in his Dark Night of the Soul, describes a journey where all concepts, images, and even the felt presence of God are stripped away. This is not a loss but a purification, a burning away of false idols so that the soul may awaken to the unmediated presence of the divine.
In the Jewish tradition, the Kabbalists speak of bitul, the nullification of ego, where one dissolves into the infinite Ein Sof, realizing that there never was a separate self to begin with. Similarly, in the contemplative traditions of Buddhism, the stillness of shamatha leads to the recognition of the pristine mind—that which has always been pure, unconditioned, free.
In every tradition, we find this same invitation: to stop seeking outward and to turn inward, to surrender not to belief, but to direct encounter. To see that God is not an external entity, but the very ground of our being.
The Return to Oneness
When we let go of the illusion of separation, what remains?
Not the loss of self, but its fulfillment. Not an annihilation into emptiness, but a merging into fullness—the great I Am. The “yoga” of the Vedic tradition means precisely this: union. It is the recognition that we were never apart from God, only dreaming that we were.
This is not an esoteric teaching reserved for monks and mystics. It is the birthright of every human being. It is what Jesus meant when he said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” It is what the Psalmist knew when he wrote, “Be still, and know that I am God.” It is what every human heart longs for—not a distant deity, but the felt truth of divine presence, here and now.
Tikkun Olam: Healing the World Through Remembrance
When we remember our oneness with the divine, we heal not only ourselves but the world.
The Kabbalistic tradition of Tikkun Olam, the healing of the world, is not merely about fixing external problems. It is about restoring divine unity—within ourselves, within society, within creation. The suffering of the world is the suffering of separation. The healing of the world is the return to wholeness.
This is why this message matters. Not as an intellectual exercise, not as a theological debate, but as the most urgent and necessary work of our time. The world does not need more beliefs about God. It needs people who have remembered their divinity. People who, knowing themselves as inseparable from the infinite, act with wisdom, love, and compassion.
This is the path of return. Not by striving, not by effort, but by surrendering to the truth that has always been. The Elohim of Genesis was never a separate being. Ein Sof has never been absent. The I Am has never ceased to be what it is.
All that remains is to awaken.
Conclusion: The Invitation
If these words stir something in you, it is because they are already known. The recognition of divine oneness is not something to be attained—it is something to be remembered.
Wherever you are, whatever your path, the invitation is the same:
Be still. Let go. And know that you are already home.
Addendum: Searching for What Is Already Here
This morning, I took the cream cheese out of the fridge, opened it up, and placed a bagel into the toaster, getting everything prepared for a delicious breakfast. A simple task.
Then, as my bagel toasted, I opened the fridge again to grab the cream cheese. But it wasn’t there.
I checked every shelf. Nothing.
I stood there, puzzled. I know I had cream cheese yesterday. Did I finish it? Did it somehow disappear?
And then I turned around.
There it was—right on the counter, exactly where I had left it, sitting open and waiting for me.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
How often do we search for something that was never missing? How often do we look for God as if He were distant—forgetting that the divine presence, like my misplaced cream cheese, has been right here all along?
The moment we stop searching, we arrive.
And sometimes, the path to enlightenment is as simple as laughing at yourself while spreading cream cheese on a bagel.
🙏🕊🙏
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