God of Our Understanding: Jewish Spirituality and Recovery from Addiction

by Shais Taub

Mine or My Father’s? After God split the sea for the Jews coming out of Egypt, Moses led the people in a song of praise in which it is stated: “This is my God, and I will glorify Him; the God of my father, and I will exalt Him” (Exodus 15:2). What is the difference between “my God” and “the God of my father”? “The God of my father” (or mother, for that matter) means that which others have taught me about God. It is a relationship with God that I have been born into. I learn about it by being educated by and about the people who came before me. “My God” means that which I have discovered by myself. It describes my personal relationship with God based on my direct experience of His active role in my life. It is what I know about Him because of what has happened to me. Both are indispensable. Both complement and complete each other. But which does the verse mention first? Although it would seem that the normal progression would be that one first learns about God from others and then later develops a personal relationship with Him, the opposite order is given in Moses and the Israelites’ song. First “this is my God” and then “God of my father.” The basis to recovery is that we first and foremost discover this personal “God of our understanding,” which is really a God of our own experience.