I was drawn to Shir Tikvah in part because of its willingness to engage in the God question; so, given this opportunity to interview Rim, I knew I wanted to address that pesky question. We began via email. What follows is part edited quotation, part paraphrase.

R: From the time I was 8 or 9, I engaged in magical thinking. At camp I would think: “If such and such a thing comes to pass on my way up the hill, there will be a letter from my parents.” (I hated camp!) “The third car around the bend will be my sister.” Things like that. So when people ask how I came to Shir Tikvah, I talk about God sending messages — three within a week. First was the standard listing in the rabbinical newsletter; then I heard about it from a friend; then Roberta Lasky called and asked me to interview. Had I interviewed earlier in the season, before the rabbi search committee was exhausted, I might not have gotten the job! God is whom we thank when we are in the right place at the right time...

We should never take such gifts for granted, or interpret good fortune as reward for good behavior or bad fortune as punishment. The Talmud is clear on this: there is such a thing as luck. The important thing is to be in a relationship of gratitude for our gifts…

God is what allows us to feel wonderment. At each ritual I perform, I pray that God give me the words the family needs. Focusing on God keeps things from being rote.

L: I like this idea — that God is whom we thank when we’re in the right place at the right time. But is it really God who puts us there? Can’t we ourselves cultivate our ability to be in that right place — to have sensitive antennae for signals wherever we are?

R: What I think you’re asking is, “Does God really exist in the structure of the universe or is God an idea that we develop?” The former, I think. Take mathematics. I believe it exists independent of the ability of humans to discover it, i.e., the world works according to certain laws which can be described in mathematical language. So it is with God. Tuning into God is not just focusing my sensitivities but discovering a basic rule of the universe.

And, by the way, being sensitive to opportunities does not mean they always exist. God may not always be in communication with us — and even when it is, often what can be seen is the wake of the boat of God, so to speak.

Speaking of boats, Rim’s next message begins:

R: So there I am in on the Amazon. It has more water than the next eight largest rivers combined. It has 1100 tributaries. And the sky, it’s not a little sliver of sky like you see between houses, it’s in a 360 degree circle from horizon to horizon. And slowly the sun sinks and the stars come out — more stars than I’ve ever seen except for once when I was twenty. And there is no noise other than animals and birds but not like in some movies where the sounds are meant to make you afraid, this is gentle, gentle. There are 14 of us in the boat and I am overcome with gratitude so I say a bracha under my breath, but that isn’t good enough so I say,: “Isn’t this wonderful? Shouldn’t we thank someone?” And one guy says, “Who?” So I lift my water bottle and toast our guide who brought us to the jungle and helped us see and love this place. That’s God!

And that’s our Rim, I think.
In early October, we continued our conversation in the Temple Sukkah.

R: As a child I believed in God as a personal being. Now I think of God as a force — the force that was present before the big bang brought time and space into being, the force that is present when something adds up to more than the sum of its parts, like it did last weekend when, in the space of about ten minutes, people arranged a service for Jessie Inz and a beautiful Kiddush.

L: What you describe is so different from the Old Testament and fundamentalist views. Why call it “God?” Why not call it “Spirit?”

R: You could, I guess, but the Old Testament view is just one of many within Judaism. The Kabbalists had their own more complex view. And if we don’t use the word “God,” then the more orthodox, fundamentalist views become the only views. That wouldn’t be good.

Thoroughly in sync on that point, we left the God question there; but suddenly it occurred to me, with my spouse’s Yahrzeit approaching, I had some questions of a more personal nature. Miraculously, neither of us was in a rush; neither was multi-tasking. The temple garden sat quietly displaying its Indian summer glory. This is the right place, I thought; the right time; and I was grateful for my good fortune. Had I a water bottle, I would have raised it.