Do you believe in Hakadosh Baruch Hu?

Ostensibly, this is a silly question. If you're a religious Jew, then by definition you believe in God, even if you have doubts from time to time. You might even find the title of this post offensive. All good, except that you misunderstood my question.

I didn't ask if you believe God exists, I asked whether you believe in God. As in the same way one believes, lehavdil, in one's parents, one's friends. I mean the kind of deep, abiding, intimate trust and confidence that cements our important human relationships. You may answer that you believe in the ikarei emunah, sachar va'onesh and the like; that expecting a "human"-like relationship with God is childish and even heresy, much like this cartoonist's experience.

I see by your pensive expression that you're starting to understand my problem, and the problem of many in my generation. We see many of our parents who strictly adhere to all the practices and halachot. They go through all the right motions, say all the right answers. But the fire, the deep feeling of God's presence that permeates, say, the life of the authors of the Psalms, this is nowhere to be seen. They will object that it is enough, just "doing halakha". It's enough to go through the motions.

I respectfully but firmly dissent. Yirat Shamayim and Ahavat Shamayim are the cornerstones of Judaism, the fuel that helps give us the energy to hold fast and improve, to keep faith in times good and bad. Halakha is practice; it cannot last without the underlying emotional-spiritual bond with Hamakom. It's not enough to believe that he "is"; you have to want to want to believe "in" him. For the relationship to not slide into "just doing the motions" (Orthopraxy), you must change from the third person to the second person.

This is a dangerous and scary prospect to be sure. It would mean letting him in to a degree that will often feel uncomfortable; He will move from the corner of your mind to the center. It will also mean more painful confrontation, as must happen towards one we believe "in". Where were you during the Holocaust? Why have you not shown yourself and ended the assault on your sovereignty?

You retort that the older generation didn't have this problem, they simply did what their parents did. I think they're in denial about the truth. As Prof. Chayim Soloveitchik pointed out 15 years ago - the grandparents (or the great-grandparents) still possessed a natural and healthy amount of God presence to fuel their religiosity. Too many of the older generation - in America and in Israel - simply repeated the actions; the presence, the belief "in", the "spark" was completely gone.

Now that you seem to understand my problem, I ask again: do you believe in God?