In praise of God

Why do we praise God?

I praise God because He gave me life. “Halleluyah! Praise God, O my Soul! I will praise God while I live, I will make music to my God while I exist.”

How do we praise God?

What is praise? What music shall I make?

We are here. We have a job. We have a purpose.

“… for He has not made us like the nations of the lands and has not emplaced us like the families of earth; for He has not assigned our portion like theirs nor our lot like all their multitudes. But we bend our knees, bow and acknowledge our thanks before the King Who reigns over kings …”

To create the physical universe, God needed only Himself. To create a universe of Kedusha, He calls to us.

That is why we were created. To live a meaningful life. To praise God by our lives and how we choose to live them, by what we do. To realize the essence of compassion, the essence of justice.

The Talmud teaches that the defining values of the Torah are summarized in one verse from the Book of Micah: “It has been told to you, Oh Man, what is good, and what God requires of you: only to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God”.