The Kabbalah Kronicles 14 – God is a Comedian?
By
Uncle Zally / Zalman Velvel
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There was no Kabbalah Klass this week, but another event, just as spiritual, and even funnier, took place.The movie, “Oh, God!” appeared in reruns on cable. It was made in 1977, and it was just as relevant today as it was 34 years ago.
For those of you not familiar with the plot of the film, it is about how God (played by George Burns, a comedian) appears to a supermarket assistant manager (played by John Denver, a famous folk singer) and tells him to sound out the message to the world that:
“Life works, if you have faith in it, and the God who created it.”
Naturally, everyone thought the supermarket manager was crazy when he said God appeared, in the flesh, and spoke to him.
The movie asked some serious religious questions, like “What religion does God believe in?” and “Was Jesus the son of God?” and “How long did it really take to create the world?”
In true politically correct, Hollywood, fashion, the script managed to skirt around the first two questions, and then joke that God thought about the making the world for 5 days, created it on the sixth, and then rested on the seventh, but one of his days was incredibly long by our standards (see Kabbalah Kronicles 7 – Was Einstein a Kabbalist? for the correct answer. 
)If you remember from last week’s blog, the essence of Kabbalah is:
1- God is good.
2- God made everything, is involved with everything, and loves us. Nothing happens without the approval of God.
3- Therefore everything that happens is for the good.
The movie takes issue with the second principle of Kabbalah. God admits He made everything, and that He loves us, but He denies that nothing happens without His approval and that He is constantly involved. Rather, the movie suggests that God sits back and lets Man run the world, and thus mess things up. The reason things are messed up is because Man does not believe there is any other way to run things other than the animalistic, selfish, warlike way we have been doing it. If we had faith in our better nature, then things would get better.
What is the truth? Is the movie right, or Kabbalah?Well, do you remember what I said last week, about how Kabbalah was kept secret and then re-introduced 300 years ago to help the Hassidic people remain strong in the face of terrible suffering? I also hinted that none of the three principles could be proved right or wrong, but once believed, enabled someone to live a happy life regardless of their material circumstances and wealth.
So, is God really running the world, or did He make it, then step back, and let us mess it up … and then laugh like a comedian?
If neither principle can be proved, that either God is in charge, or powerful selfish people are in charge, does it make any difference as long as we can still live happy lives?
Tune in next week for the answer.–
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