I can recall conversing with my little brother about the nature of God. I remember asking him, “Daniel, where is God?” He replied rather astutely, “God is in the sky!” I then, to the best of my ability, hid my laughter, and forced a confused demeanor on my face and responded, “But Daniel, I’ve looked outside an airplane and I never saw God…” He cleverly deduced that “God exists at a lower altitude than the altitude at which planes fly.” Then, I challenged him more saying, “I can assure you that if I take a telescope and observe the heavens, God will not be in sight no matter the altitude.” He thought some more and with the utmost clarity he said, “That’s because God is invisible!” I burst out in laughter. One of the greatest joys I have experienced is observing the mind of a young thinker plowing through the depths of his innocent thoughts to uncover a sense of truth. I then asked, “Well if you COULD see God, would He be young or old?” “Old,” he replied. “Fat or skinny?” “Fat,” he replied. “Does he have a beard?” “Yes, he has a white beard,” he said. “Does He know when you’re sleeping?” He screamed, “Of course, Mikey!” “Does he know when you’re awake?” He nodded. To his amusement I finally concluded, “So you think God is Santa?” He burst out in laughter; his eyes showed me he was thinking about the conversation, there was an energy, an electricity that passed through him that showed me an inspired soul.
It’s quite interesting actually, the word “Santa,” as it could be rearranged to spell the word “Satan”. And quite frankly to my knowledge Santa and Satan have similar abilities; they both “Know if you’ve been bad or good”. Perhaps in the same way the word “Santa” is the word “Satan” when rearranged, Satan’s negative role is rearranged as a positive position in the form of Santa. That is to say that Satan’s role is perceived as punishing the bad but not rewarding the good and Santa’s role is rewarding the good and not punishing the bad. Either way they both fall short of what Judaism describes God to be. So how can God be described? There is a famous prayer entitled “Adon Olam” (Master of the Universe) that writes “He was, He is, and He will always be…He is without beginning and without an end…unfathomable”. According to the source, God could not have been created since he has no beginning, and no end would imply that He cannot cease to exist, and He cannot be understood by the human mind since He is unfathomable. Moreover in the Zohar it writes, “No thought is able to grasp you at all” (Tikkuney Zohar). So how can we define something that cannot be described by the human mind? What can we relate this definition of God to that would allow us to come closer to realizing practically what God is? We need to find something we’re familiar with that has the same definition of God, which meets the same conditions God does according to the writings. So what can’t be created, and at the same time cannot cease to exist, but also can’t be fathomed that we know of today?
Well…what does the first law of thermodynamics state? “Energy cannot be created nor destroyed…” How do we define energy? We don’t because we can’t. We can only understand energy in the forms it takes (light, heat, kinetic, potential, electrical etc.), but even that is limited. For instance, we don’t know what electricity looks like, but we know how to use it and manipulate it, but what energy is in and of itself cannot be defined. Where is energy? Everything is energy, because matter in essence is a manifestation of energy in physical form. Energy is the chair I sit on, the shower I take, the feelings I feel, the thoughts I have, and the intimacy I experience. Every second of every day, whether we are conscious of it or not, this web of energy permeates and passes through us, is converted and spreads throughout our bodies, in synapses, mitochondrial and cell membranes, blood vessels, bones, and the list goes on infinitely. Throughout space and time, it is recycled, used, and reused. This vitality that gives us our existence as well as the existence of everything in the universe is the God Judaism speaks of…and not Santa.
intomeaning 
