The universe-and even the human body alone-reflects a level of planning and sophistication that modern science is nowhere near fully uncovering. An extraordinarily intricate creation points to the existence of a creator who paid attention to the smallest details and to the precise coordination among its many parts. Just as no one would claim that a computer came into being at random, so it is impossible to argue that such a remarkable creation emerged without a planner.
If God exists, words cannot define Him-so what can we know about Him? If God cannot be seen, how can we know that He truly exists, and is there a simple, straightforward way to prove it?
One day, a young man came to a rabbi and said he didn’t believe in God. “Which God is it that you don’t believe in?” the rabbi asked. The young man answered precisely which God he didn’t believe in-the one with a long beard who sits in the sky, peeking down at the world, handing out rewards or punishing people for their actions. After he finished, the rabbi said, “You know what? You’re right. I don’t believe in that God either…”
God is far from the image people sometimes imagine. He cannot be defined in limiting words; all we can know are glimpses of His governance, His will, or what He is not. As it is written, “No one can see Me and live” (Exodus 33:20). Maimonides writes:
“The foundation of foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there exists a First Being, who is the source of all that exists, and all things in heaven and earth and between them exist only by the truth of His existence. And if it could be imagined that He does not exist, nothing else could exist.” (Mishneh Torah, Foundations of the Torah 1)
God is what allows existence itself-our being, the world around us, and everything beyond. This is also hinted at in His unspoken Name, Y-H-V-H. Our sages explain that it means “was, is, and will be”-that He has no beginning and no end. These letters also form the word Havayah (Being), since all existence is divine.
So how do we describe God?
Perhaps the problem is trying to describe Him at all. The God Judaism believes in “has no physical form and is not a body.” He is not a magician, not a fantasy spirit, not a grandpa with a beard peeking at our dinner plate. So what is He, really?
Infinite. Infinity rises above all words, feelings, and thoughts we can imagine. Infinity precedes the world in time, cannot be defined, and includes all the elements of reality we know-matter, space, time, spirit, the sense of being-but also concepts beyond human understanding. He transcends human intellect and reason. As the prophet said: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8).
Intangible. God cannot be grasped by human senses or physical tools, which is why Judaism opposes representing Him physically: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image” (Exodus 20:4). A physical conception of God leads to distorted ideas, shrinking His infinity to a human scale-this is inherently wrong. For example, asking “Can God create a stone He cannot lift?” assumes God operates within material and action-based terms. This question only makes sense from a human perspective, not when speaking of God, whose wisdom and understanding surpass human logic. To infinity, such a question is as meaningless as asking, “Is yellow an odd number?”
One. God is everything, and nothing exists apart from Him. He created the world yet remains unchanging. He exists beyond reality while also dwelling within it. In a sense, reality can be compared to a tree with thousands of leaves of different sizes and shades. The leaves may “perceive” themselves as separate, but they are all part of the same tree. Likewise, every part of reality is part of a greater whole; our limited consciousness prevents us from seeing the unity. God’s infinity is absolute, leaving nothing outside of Him. As it says in the Torah: “There is none else besides Him” (Deuteronomy 4:35).
The idea of God’s unity is captured in one of Judaism’s most central verses: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is One” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The “one” here is not quantitative, like “one orange” versus two; it is essential unity, indivisible. Everything is one, meaning even things that seem contradictory or opposed are actually complementary aspects of the same reality.
Necessary existence. Can you imagine mathematics without numbers, words without letters, music without notes? What turns four pieces of wood joined together into a table? Every thing has an inner point that makes it what it is. According to Judaism, God is the foundation of being-the essence of existence. He has always existed, always exists, and always will, independent of anything external (for nothing is truly external to God-all is part of His reality).
Provident. Despite His greatness and transcendence, God is present in creation and sustains it. Every being receives the attention meant for it, and no one is abandoned. The events, experiences, successes, and challenges in our lives are all results of divine will.
Understanding divine providence is challenging for human reason. Sometimes we can grasp why things happen as they do; other times we cannot. On one hand, God administers the world through reward and punishment, so the wicked are punished and the righteous ultimately benefit. But when we observe reality-“the righteous suffer, the wicked prosper”-it is evident that this system operates on considerations beyond our current understanding. We can only comprehend it from a higher perspective.
Personal. God not only oversees creation but also forms personal connections with humans. His relationship with us appears through private and general providence, prophecy, the giving of Torah and commandments, and the inspiration of the Divine Presence. Our connection is expressed through prayer, Torah study, and fulfilling mitzvot. Even today, without prophecy, a Temple, or the Urim and Thummim, God communicates with us in hidden and diverse ways.
How can we know that God exists?
Scientists explain that matter exists due to the endless motion of electrons in atoms. But physics tells us all moving objects in our world eventually stop due to friction. Why does the electron continue moving endlessly, and where did the initial motion come from?
Judaism teaches that God created the world and underlies all phenomena. He is the “cause of causes”-the ultimate why to which all questions lead. He sustains the world continuously and moves matter, as Maimonides wrote: “The sphere is always in motion, and it cannot move without a mover, and it is He, blessed be He, who moves it without hand or body.” The letters of God’s Name, Y-H-V-H, teach us that He underlies all reality.
His greatness and essence cannot be sensed, yet there are intellectual and spiritual ways to know of His existence. They fall into three main categories:
The Gulf War in 1991 was accompanied by miracle after miracle. One of the most astonishing facts is that 39 Scud missiles were launched at Israeli territory. Some 10,500 apartments were damaged, 4,500 concrete roofs collapsed-and yet no one was killed, except for a single person who died of a heart attack.
The IDF spokesperson at the time, Nachman Shai, said after the war ended: ”You see me wearing a kippah and assume it’s in honor of the occasion. The truth is that if I could, I would never take it off my head… You have no idea how many miracles occurred during the Gulf War!”
He pointed to one particular miracle, explaining that the Iraqis had fired missiles at the gas storage facilities serving the entire Tel Aviv metropolitan area-and indeed, they managed to hit the target.
The miraculous twist was that precisely that week, a malfunction had occurred in the main pipeline, and the entire system had been shut down for repairs. The Iraqi Scud missile struck the main pipeline exactly. Nachman Shai added, “There is no doubt that if gas had been flowing normally through the pipe, all of Tel Aviv would have gone up in flames. There are no words to describe the disaster that could have happened. I know what there is to be grateful for!”
(From the newspaper HaShavua Shel HaMishpacha, Issue 8).
If someone entered the factory and found no one there, would they think the factory “just made itself,” with all machines randomly placed? Clearly, someone designed the system, operates the machines, and maintains them. Not only must such a person exist, but it’s obvious the factory was built for a purpose; otherwise, so much care would not have been invested.
If this applies to one factory, it certainly applies to the entire world. Observing nature or the human body reveals astonishing design in every detail. God may be invisible, but the results of His actions are evident: a breathtaking sunset, a blooming field, the marvels of the human body-could any of this arise by chance? As humanity learns more about creation, the sophistication becomes ever clearer, and our awe of the Supreme Architect grows. Consider the heart, pumping 100,000 times a day without tiring; the eye, the most sophisticated camera in existence; even the way our hair grows. Modern science claims all this happened “by chance,” but scientific theories cannot truly explain how life began, only offering baseless claims of “extremely improbable coincidences.”
During the Six-Day War, the State of Israel had to confront the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian fronts simultaneously. Additional Arab states cooperated with and assisted the enemy countries: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria.
Mass graves in Yarkon Park and in other areas were prepared by the Chief Rabbinate. The entire country was gripped by fear. Two weeks before the outbreak of the Six-Day War, the then-Chief of Staff, the late Yitzhak Rabin, wanted to resign. As the late Ezer Weizman recounts:
“What happened on the evening of May 23 and the following day reflected the peak of the crisis facing the Chief of Staff and later affected his ability to command the campaign. On May 23, 1967, at around eight in the evening, Rabin phoned my home and, in a faint voice, asked that I come to him immediately-to his apartment. Within minutes I was in Tzahala. His wife opened the door for me. I found the Chief of Staff sitting alone in the large room of his apartment. Everything was quiet, still. He looked broken and deeply dejected. We remained alone. He sat on the edge of the sofa and I sat beside him.
Yitzhak spoke in a weak voice: ‘I have entangled the State of Israel because of a series of mistakes I made, on the eve of the greatest and most difficult war Israel has ever known. In this war, everything depends on the Air Force. The Air Force will decide this war. I believe that one who has erred must step aside. I erred. Will you take upon yourself the role of Chief of Staff?'” (From Rabin’s Path and His Legacy, Uri Milstein).
Yet the unexpected occurred, and in just six days the IDF achieved remarkable successes, neutralizing the enemy armies and capturing vast territories that tripled the size of the State of Israel.
An employee at the Rambam Institute in Tel Aviv asked Yitzhak Rabin to visit after the Six-Day War, but Rabin was unable to accept the invitation. In his telegram reply regarding the war, he wrote: “This was from God.”
Rabin continued to speak of perceiving miracles in Israel’s wars even after the Gulf War, in a speech he delivered at a yeshiva to which he had been invited by the then Chief Rabbi of Haifa, the late Rabbi She’ar Yashuv Cohen: “I want to tell you that the Scud missile war waged against the people of Israel-what the nations planned to do to us… that was a miracle from Heaven!”
Similarly, one can study the cosmos, eternity, and God’s infinity all day and still not truly know Him. Learning about divinity is one thing; “tasting” it-feeling, on a clear day, that infinity reaches out to you-is another. Spiritual experiences come in many forms: answered prayers, prophetic dreams, déjà vu, strong intuition. They are difficult to explain in words but among the most moving and awe-inspiring events one can have. Many who experienced profound spiritual events attest that these experiences transformed their lives. A spiritual encounter invites us to awaken and pursue inner seeking.
No one fully understands what triggers a spiritual experience, but it often occurs when a person is outside their normal life-on a distant journey, during extreme events like war or illness, or in a special mental state. It is more likely to happen when one carries a significant question internally, making them more attuned to reality and being.
A spiritual experience cannot be forced; there is no coercion in spirituality. But it can be encouraged. To find God, one must first seek Him. As the Talmud says: “Everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven” (Berakhot 33a). Even though God controls all in creation, He left humans one choice: whether to believe in Him.
Scientists explain that matter exists due to the endless motion of electrons in atoms. But physics tells us all moving objects in our world eventually stop due to friction. Why does the electron continue moving endlessly, and where did the initial motion come from?
Judaism teaches that God created the world and underlies all phenomena. He is the “cause of causes”-the ultimate why to which all questions lead. He sustains the world continuously and moves matter, as Maimonides wrote: “The sphere is always in motion, and it cannot move without a mover, and it is He, blessed be He, who moves it without hand or body.” The letters of God’s Name, Y-H-V-H, teach us that He underlies all reality.
His greatness and essence cannot be sensed, yet there are intellectual and spiritual ways to know of His existence. They fall into three main categories:
If someone entered the factory and found no one there, would they think the factory “just made itself,” with all machines randomly placed? Clearly, someone designed the system, operates the machines, and maintains them. Not only must such a person exist, but it’s obvious the factory was built for a purpose; otherwise, so much care would not have been invested.
If this applies to one factory, it certainly applies to the entire world. Observing nature or the human body reveals astonishing design in every detail. God may be invisible, but the results of His actions are evident: a breathtaking sunset, a blooming field, the marvels of the human body-could any of this arise by chance? As humanity learns more about creation, the sophistication becomes ever clearer, and our awe of the Supreme Architect grows. Consider the heart, pumping 100,000 times a day without tiring; the eye, the most sophisticated camera in existence; even the way our hair grows. Modern science claims all this happened “by chance,” but scientific theories cannot truly explain how life began, only offering baseless claims of “extremely improbable coincidences.”
Similarly, one can study the cosmos, eternity, and God’s infinity all day and still not truly know Him. Learning about divinity is one thing; “tasting” it-feeling, on a clear day, that infinity reaches out to you-is another. Spiritual experiences come in many forms: answered prayers, prophetic dreams, déjà vu, strong intuition. They are difficult to explain in words but among the most moving and awe-inspiring events one can have. Many who experienced profound spiritual events attest that these experiences transformed their lives. A spiritual encounter invites us to awaken and pursue inner seeking.
No one fully understands what triggers a spiritual experience, but it often occurs when a person is outside their normal life-on a distant journey, during extreme events like war or illness, or in a special mental state. It is more likely to happen when one carries a significant question internally, making them more attuned to reality and being.
A spiritual experience cannot be forced; there is no coercion in spirituality. But it can be encouraged. To find God, one must first seek Him. As the Talmud says: “Everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven” (Berakhot 33a). Even though God controls all in creation, He left humans one choice: whether to believe in Him.
The Gulf War in 1991 was accompanied by miracle after miracle. One of the most astonishing facts is that 39 Scud missiles were launched at Israeli territory. Some 10,500 apartments were damaged, 4,500 concrete roofs collapsed-and yet no one was killed, except for a single person who died of a heart attack.
The IDF spokesperson at the time, Nachman Shai, said after the war ended: ”You see me wearing a kippah and assume it’s in honor of the occasion. The truth is that if I could, I would never take it off my head… You have no idea how many miracles occurred during the Gulf War!”
He pointed to one particular miracle, explaining that the Iraqis had fired missiles at the gas storage facilities serving the entire Tel Aviv metropolitan area-and indeed, they managed to hit the target.
The miraculous twist was that precisely that week, a malfunction had occurred in the main pipeline, and the entire system had been shut down for repairs. The Iraqi Scud missile struck the main pipeline exactly. Nachman Shai added, “There is no doubt that if gas had been flowing normally through the pipe, all of Tel Aviv would have gone up in flames. There are no words to describe the disaster that could have happened. I know what there is to be grateful for!”
(From the newspaper HaShavua Shel HaMishpacha, Issue 8).
During the Six-Day War, the State of Israel had to confront the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian fronts simultaneously. Additional Arab states cooperated with and assisted the enemy countries: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria.
Mass graves in Yarkon Park and in other areas were prepared by the Chief Rabbinate. The entire country was gripped by fear. Two weeks before the outbreak of the Six-Day War, the then-Chief of Staff, the late Yitzhak Rabin, wanted to resign. As the late Ezer Weizman recounts:
“What happened on the evening of May 23 and the following day reflected the peak of the crisis facing the Chief of Staff and later affected his ability to command the campaign. On May 23, 1967, at around eight in the evening, Rabin phoned my home and, in a faint voice, asked that I come to him immediately-to his apartment. Within minutes I was in Tzahala. His wife opened the door for me. I found the Chief of Staff sitting alone in the large room of his apartment. Everything was quiet, still. He looked broken and deeply dejected. We remained alone. He sat on the edge of the sofa and I sat beside him.
Yitzhak spoke in a weak voice: ‘I have entangled the State of Israel because of a series of mistakes I made, on the eve of the greatest and most difficult war Israel has ever known. In this war, everything depends on the Air Force. The Air Force will decide this war. I believe that one who has erred must step aside. I erred. Will you take upon yourself the role of Chief of Staff?'” (From Rabin’s Path and His Legacy, Uri Milstein).
Yet the unexpected occurred, and in just six days the IDF achieved remarkable successes, neutralizing the enemy armies and capturing vast territories that tripled the size of the State of Israel.
An employee at the Rambam Institute in Tel Aviv asked Yitzhak Rabin to visit after the Six-Day War, but Rabin was unable to accept the invitation. In his telegram reply regarding the war, he wrote: “This was from God.”
Rabin continued to speak of perceiving miracles in Israel’s wars even after the Gulf War, in a speech he delivered at a yeshiva to which he had been invited by the then Chief Rabbi of Haifa, the late Rabbi She’ar Yashuv Cohen: “I want to tell you that the Scud missile war waged against the people of Israel-what the nations planned to do to us… that was a miracle from Heaven!”
Our story happened more than ten years ago, yet despite the time that has passed, we relive it every single day-every time we look at our daughters, Bareket and Mor.
We were on a family trip in northern Israel, and in the afternoon we arrived in Tiberias. My husband went to pray the Mincha service at the tomb of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess, while I went down toward the Sea of Galilee with the girls. We sat on the rocks and looked out at the water. The girls asked if they could dip their feet in. I agreed.
I stayed up on the rocks, watching them. They put their feet in the water and then went a little farther. I called out to them not to go in, but they didn’t hear me. Suddenly I saw my older daughter stumble into the water.
At first, my younger daughter laughed-and so did I. But then I saw my daughter being pulled farther into the lake. I wanted to run in and save her, but I remembered that I don’t know how to swim. In a split-second decision, I turned toward the road and started waving my arms wildly, trying to stop someone who could help.
Several cars passed. Desperate, I stepped right into the road. Drivers swerved around me and honked as if I were insane-and maybe I was, from sheer terror. Just as I decided to run back toward the water to try to save my daughter myself, a luxury car stopped nearby. A man in a suit and tie got out and asked what was wrong. I told him my daughter was drowning.
He didn’t hesitate. He took off his suit and ran toward the rocks. His wife shouted, “Be careful-you’ve had a heart attack!” But he didn’t even hear her. He jumped over the rocks and went straight into the Sea of Galilee.
He swam out a short distance and then pulled a child out of the water. Right away I saw that it was Mor, not Bareket. It turned out that Mor had gone into the water to try to save her sister-and had started drowning too. I screamed at him, “Save Bareket!” He didn’t understand what I meant. By then, several people who had stopped were shouting, “There’s another child in the water!”
He laid Mor down and shouted, “Take care of her!”-and then dove back into the lake.
To be honest, I had lost hope. I saw no sign of my daughter. The water was clear, but she had sunk straight down. I started crying and screaming. Then I saw him swimming quickly in a certain direction. Later I learned that he had spotted a white shape in the water. He dove down and saw my daughter, Bareket, lying on the bottom of the lake, motionless as a stone.
He lifted her and swam back toward the shore. We shouted to him, “Her head is in the water-lift her head!” He raised her head so she could breathe. When I saw Bareket’s face, I knew instantly that I would never see her alive again. My little girl was almost black.
He laid her on the shore and said, “I think she’s dead.” His face was pale, and I was afraid he himself might collapse. “Does anyone know first aid?” I screamed.
One of the people on the beach, an Arab man named Khatib, said, “I do,” and ran over to help her.
It turned out he had studied physiotherapy in Bulgaria and had spent four months learning resuscitation techniques. He had been driving by, saw a crowd, and at first planned to keep going-but his curiosity got the better of him, and he stopped. He had come specifically to save my daughter.
He began giving her rescue breaths. I cried and prayed. I saw my beautiful child lying there, lifeless. I prayed to God and begged that, in the merit of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess, a miracle would happen and my daughter would live.
The people around already seemed hopeless, but Khatib did not stop for even a moment. Suddenly she began to cough, and water came out of her mouth. It was the first sign of life.
Then the ambulance arrived.
I rode with her in the ambulance to Poria Hospital, and from there she was transferred to Rambam Hospital in Haifa. The doctors were pessimistic. They told me that after so long underwater she had no chance of surviving-and even if she did, she would not function because of severe brain damage.
I didn’t care about anything, as long as she lived.
The night was horrific. Then, suddenly, in the middle of the night, she began breathing on her own. The doctors said a miracle had occurred: tests showed that her brain function was completely normal. They told me, “She’s going to be fine.”
A few days later, we left the hospital with a healthy, whole child-without any damage at all.
We went to the grave of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess to give thanks and pray to God for the great miracle, and then we returned home.
In the days that followed, we stayed in touch with the man who had saved her, a lawyer named Yitzhak Barzilai from Ramat Hasharon. He called constantly to ask about her condition and was deeply emotional. When he heard that she was out of danger, he said joyfully and with great emotion, “I knew it.” We didn’t understand what he meant.
About two weeks later, we held a thanksgiving celebration and invited the lawyer who had saved her. During the gathering-an incredibly moving event-he told his own story, which was no less astonishing than the rescue itself.
“The day before,” he said, “my wife and I had gone away for a few days of business and rest. I took part in a meeting where I gave legal advice to a hotel owner in Tiberias. When the long meeting ended, they offered me coffee. I told my wife I wanted to leave. She said, ‘Let’s stay a few more minutes,’ but I insisted. I wanted to go to our vacation apartment in Migdal, near Tiberias.
“She kept urging me to stay, but I said it had been a long time since we’d been there and I wanted at least to see the place. She insisted, I insisted, and finally she came along reluctantly. On the way she said-half joking, half annoyed-‘Maybe you’ll go swimming again like yesterday?’
“She didn’t say that for nothing. I was always considered an excellent swimmer, but a year earlier I’d had a heart attack and hadn’t swum in a long time. The night before, I told my wife I wanted to go swimming. She objected out of concern, but I went for a night swim anyway. I swam for two hours and came back. When I told her, she said, ‘Are you looking for trouble?’ Neither of us knew that Someone Above had put the idea in my head-to refresh my swimming skills just a little.
“We were driving toward the Tiberias hot springs, and before I even thought how to answer her, near the grave of Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess, I saw a religious woman screaming to the heavens, and no one was stopping. She was shouting, ‘My daughters! Save my daughters!’
“I stopped the car. My wife said, ‘Be careful-you’ve had a heart attack,’ but I was already running down. There were many rocks and deep water. I immediately saw a small child in the water. I jumped in and pulled her out. When I reached the shore, people shouted to me, ‘There’s another child in the water.’
“I didn’t see another child, so I started diving and searching. Suddenly, about five meters away from me and at a depth of around two meters, I saw a white shape. I swam toward it and dove down. I saw a dead child lying on the bottom. I lifted her and swam back. People around were shouting, ‘Lift her head!’ When I reached the shore, I said, ‘Take her-I think she’s dead. Call an ambulance.’
“My wife was there and tried to help her. Then a man named Khatib from the village of Kafr Yasif arrived and began resuscitating her. A long time passed. I was extremely shaken. I hoped it would help, but I didn’t believe it would. Then water started coming out of her mouth. An ambulance arrived, and she was taken to Poria Hospital.
“I was deeply moved. We went to the vacation apartment in Migdal. That night I was supposed to meet friends by the Jordan River. On the way there, around 11:00 p.m., I got out of the car and told my wife I needed some air. I climbed a small hill by the road and began speaking to God-even though I am completely secular.
“I felt terrible that I hadn’t noticed the girl’s head was slumped in the water. ‘You knew I was a good swimmer and brought me there to save her,’ I pleaded. ‘Please, let her live.’ At that moment, I felt like a lawyer submitting a motion to the greatest judge of all-on a matter of life and death. And that’s exactly what it was.
“After that, we went on to meet our friends. It was no longer a normal evening. At some point I stepped outside and called the hospital. They told me the girl was in critical condition. I lost hope.
“Early the next morning I called again, and they told me that shortly after my previous call, she had recovered and been moved to recovery.
“I want to say this clearly: just as my arrival there and my swim training the night before were guided from Above-so too was Khatib’s arrival. Both of us were sent by Divine Providence to save the two girls, and especially six-year-old Bareket.”
That concluded Attorney Barzilai’s story.
But the story still wasn’t over.
When he finished speaking, we gave him a gift: a relief artwork depicting Hasidim gathered around a table with candles. He tore off the wrapping paper-and the moment he saw it, he turned pale. He showed it to his wife, who let out a small cry and burst into tears.
We had no idea what was happening. We certainly hadn’t expected such a reaction, especially from his wife, who had been quiet the entire time.
After a few moments, he gathered himself and returned to the microphone. “This cannot be a coincidence,” he said. “That exact relief was made by my late father in his final days, as part of occupational therapy at the nursing home where he lived.”
Then he suddenly fell silent, remembering something else that shook him even more. “You won’t believe this,” he said, “but that relief is hanging on the bedroom wall of our vacation apartment in Migdal. And the real reason I wanted so badly to go there was because I had been thinking about that picture and missed it.”
This is the story-and every word of it is true. As proof, I give the name of the lawyer who saved the girls.
The one who disappeared quietly, and whom we never thanked enough, was the Arab man from Kafr Yasif. His testimony, too, could perhaps shed more light on what happened-revealing the wonders of Divine Providence and strengthening faith.
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