{"id":37203,"date":"2014-08-07T14:55:14","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T14:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=37203"},"modified":"2014-08-07T14:58:32","modified_gmt":"2014-08-07T14:58:32","slug":"hashem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/hashem\/","title":{"rendered":"Where is Hashem?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Reprinted with permission from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.TheShmuz.com\">TheShmuz.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/shmuz_logo.jpg\" alt=\"shmuz_logo\" width=\"200\" height=\"55\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-post-37203 wp-image-37205\" \/>Imagine you are seated in an ornate concert hall. The upholstery is stately, the ambiance thick. Suddenly, the house lights dim. The stage is dark. Slowly, the curtains lift, and a train of smartly dressed musicians take their places behind the eighty-one instruments arranged on the stage. <\/p>\n<p>On cue, the symphony begins. First the wind instruments, then the brass; slowly the strings join in, and then the percussion. The music is heavenly. The unity of it all, the perfect symmetry, is breathtaking. Your reverie is interrupted by the fellow sitting next to you, as he says, \u201cIt\u2019s amazing that they play so well without a conductor.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d you respond. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, no conductor. There\u2019s no one leading them. They\u2019re just playing.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat makes you say that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSimple. I looked on stage,\u201d he responds. \u201cI don\u2019t see a conductor. So obviously, there is none.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Just because this fellow\u2019s view is blocked, doesn\u2019t mean the conductor isn\u2019t there. Someone wrote the music. Someone hired the musicians. They didn\u2019t just all show up one day, randomly start playing, and before you know it, there it is\u2014Mozart\u2019s fifth concerto! The harmony, the precision, the synchrony\u2014 they all demonstrate the conductor\u2019s existence. <\/p>\n<p>Yet, astonishingly, people stare at the wonders of Creation and mouth the words, \u201cI guess it just happened.\u201d A lucky roll of the cosmic dice. <\/p>\n<p>And sometimes you just have to wonder: are these people serious when they say things like that? Do they really mean it? You might even be tempted to ask them straight out, \u201cDo you really believe this\u2014that it all just happened by itself?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nothing in the human experience just happens. Buildings don\u2019t just materialize\u2014they require teams of architects, planners and builders to erect them. Corporations don\u2019t just evolve\u2014they demand coordinated teams of employees, salespeople, accounting personnel, and managers to maintain them. Computer programs don\u2019t create themselves\u2014cadres of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people meet, discuss, plan and then execute the coding. <\/p>\n<p>Yet, you expect me to believe that something so many times more sophisticated than anything that man has ever designed, just randomly occurred. No wisdom, no forethought, no one guiding it\u2014on its own, it just evolved! Kind of makes you wonder\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reprinted with permission from TheShmuz.com. Imagine you are seated in an ornate concert hall. The upholstery is stately, the ambiance thick. Suddenly, the house lights dim. The stage is dark. Slowly, the curtains lift, and a train of smartly dressed musicians take their places behind the eighty-one instruments arranged on the stage. On cue, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132836,"featured_media":37209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Where is Hashem? - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/hashem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Where is Hashem? - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reprinted with permission from TheShmuz.com. Imagine you are seated in an ornate concert hall. The upholstery is stately, the ambiance thick. Suddenly, the house lights dim. The stage is dark. Slowly, the curtains lift, and a train of smartly dressed musicians take their places behind the eighty-one instruments arranged on the stage. On cue, the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/hashem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-07T14:55:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-08-07T14:58:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/whereHashem_feat.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"375\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rabbi Ben Tzion Shafier\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rabbi Ben Tzion Shafier\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/hashem\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/hashem\/\",\"name\":\"Where is Hashem? - OU Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/hashem\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/hashem\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/whereHashem_feat.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-07T14:55:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-08-07T14:58:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/5a94e53471520912250dc76a4da8b83d\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/hashem\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/hashem\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/whereHashem_feat.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/whereHashem_feat.jpg\",\"width\":675,\"height\":375},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/\",\"name\":\"OU Life\",\"description\":\"Everyday Jewish Living\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/5a94e53471520912250dc76a4da8b83d\",\"name\":\"Rabbi Ben Tzion Shafier\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/assets\/Rabbi-Ben-Tzion-Shafier_avatar_1474826427-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/assets\/Rabbi-Ben-Tzion-Shafier_avatar_1474826427-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Rabbi Ben Tzion Shafier\"},\"description\":\"A veteran mechanech and noted relationships expert, Rabbi Ben Tzion Shafier served as a high school rebbe for 15 years before creating the Shmuz. 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