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I’ve noticed something lately. Nobody likes talking about G-d. It seems almost taboo, and euphemisms are even used to refer to Him as if it’s embarrassing to say it directly. Or looking at it more positively, maybe it’s just a very private thing. Rabbi Tatz says that really deep, spiritual things can’t be expressed, and trying to do so lowers them (unless they’re really part of you). If you’ve had a really inspiring moment and you try to explain it to someone, once it’s in words it’s been condensed and diluted and loses its effect on you. It’s just impossible to describe how your neshama feels, and trying to do so really doesn’t do it justice. (The opposite works too – when people have problems that are really taking over them, speaking about it helps because it dilutes the problem and lessens it by putting it into words). Incidentally, this is why Moshe couldn’t speak. Not because he had a disability, but because he was so spiritual there was nothing he could say. Here too, perhaps, G-d and our relationship to Him is very private. But I can’t get my head around it, should it be that way? I think, as with everything in Judaism, yes and no.

Our relationship with Hashem must be at least somewhat private, because firstly, it has to be that way – we couldn’t share our deep and most spiritual selves even if we tried. But, also how can we dare reveal our full selves? If our most deep and inner feelings are revealed, what do we really have left, what can we say is ours? And is that all there is to us, a few words?

Yet on the other hand, we’re not just individuals but we are a nation. We need to spread G-d, His Torah and His light. We can’t do that if everything is kept private. Talking about G-d brings Him into the room, brings Him onto our Shabbat table. And unless we remind ourselves we will forget. It’s so easy to get carried away even on Shabbat, talking and eating, and forgetting what we’re really doing this for. Shabbat can quite easily be spent, ironically, without even thinking about G-d.