The power of action

As we relate to things that happening to us, and to times we experience, we often awake in ourselves strong feeling and thoughts about Hashem. So should things be, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. 

 Here is the catch: these thoughts and emotions are nothing but that; disembodied substanceless airy creatures. They tend to dissipate and they get lost easily, leaving us nothing in our pantry to show for it. So what is there to do? The trick is to give them substance and reality, so that they will last long. Sounds like a tall order? Here’s how! The secret is called ACTION. ACTION concretizes spiritual entities. It gives it something you can see and feel, a.k.a. the ACTION itself, which represents the idea and embodies it. By doing so the spiritual thing becomes real to us, actual and compelling. Take an example, walking three steps back after we finish davvening is a ritual to be sure, but it drives home the point that we have been really, very most actually, been talking to Someone, and we are taking our leave now. The action holds the concept. This is the power behind religious ritual, and it addresses a basic principle of human nature. We would do well to look to it, and expand our application of it.