Living with Faith: Seeing God’s Miracles in Every Moment of Life

When Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman was 104 years old, he was hospitalized. After his condition improved significantly and he opened his eyes, the doctor attending him said: “Rabbi, you are alive by a miracle!” Rabbi Shteinman immediately responded with his characteristic wit: “So are you!”

Many of us move through life with the feeling that we live simply because we live, and only when a 104-year-old regains consciousness, we call it a miracle and we recognize God. In truth however, every moment of life is a miracle, and every breath should awaken our faith.

Rabbi Shteinman once shared another foundational idea. A religious Jew once entered his home with his brother, a physics professor at a well-known American university. The professor turned to Rabbi Shteinman and said: “I searched for God and did not find Him.”

Rabbi Shteinman answered: “Look inside your own body and you will find Him! God is not some physical object you need to seek under the microscopes in your lab. There is no need to wander far; examine your own being, and you will discover the Creator. Creation testifies to the Creator! Just as a garment testifies to the tailor who made it.”

Knowing vs. Saying

A story is told about Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who once traveled for a long time to learn from his teacher, Rabbi Shmelke of Nikolsburg. When he returned, his father-in-law asked him: “Even before you left, you were already filled with Torah and fear of Heaven. What did you gain from this long journey to your teacher?”

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak replied: “I learned to know that there is a Creator of the world.”

His father-in-law challenged him: “For this you needed to travel so far? Come, I will show you that you can know this even here!” He called in his maidservant and asked her: “Tell me, do you know that there is a Creator of the world?” She replied: “Of course!”

The father-in-law turned back to Rabbi Levi Yitzchak: “So what do you say to that?”

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak answered: “The difference between her and I is that she says there is a Creator of the world, but I know there is a Creator of the world.”

There is faith that stops at the words “Yes, I believe.” Deep faith however, is knowledge that becomes real awareness, so that we live with the certainty that there is a Creator of the world.

Seeing God in Creation

It is told that Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, one of the great Torah leaders in America, once looked out the window. His students asked him what he saw and what he learned from what was outside. He replied: “I am not really looking outside. I am looking inward — into the heart of creation itself. I am moved and uplifted by the handiwork of God!”