The Campus Kiruv Imperative

At least until he went to speak to one of his campus “rabbis,” that is. He told the rabbi that he was seeking a personal relationship with G-d. To which the rabbi replied, “Jews don’t believe in a personal relationship with G-d. And it is presumptuous to think that you could have such a relationship.”

That younger brother is now exploring Christianity.

Could that so-called rabbi really have believed that? I wondered. I could not help thinking of a woman about whom I heard some years back from a close friend. She did not even know that she was Jewish until she was in her early twenties, and she passed away, I believe, before she was 40, leaving a number of still young children behind.

In her last days, she told a visitor that she was trying to work on yiras Hashem, but it was very difficult because she was so overwhelmed by Hashem’s love for her. So much for Jews not believing in a personal relationship with G-d.

Has that campus rabbi never learned Shir Hashirim? Or Tehillim? Why did she not open up the siddur and suggest that they learn Ahavah Rabbah together? Or enter into a discussion based on the Ramchal’s Derech Hashem of how through the study of Torah we access the Divine Mind? And when we develop our middos and emulate Hashem, we become more G-d-like and thus better able to enter into a relationship with Him.