"The Secret Life of God"
By WENDY MARGOLIN
Staff Writer

May 25--Spiritual teacher and author Rabbi David Aaron says that if kabbalah is a secret, then the secret is out. But, he says, the true secrets of kabbalah are experiential. It’s like the taste of chocolate is a secret, nobody can tell you what chocolate tastes like my book is just a menu. It’s not the meal. You can read the menu and it can sound delicious, but if you eat the menu it tastes horrible, he says. Aaron may be offering only the menu, but his newest book, The Secret Life of God: Discovering the Divine Within You (Shambhala; $21.95), will whet the appetite for the entire meal.

On June 7, Aaron will be visiting Chicago to present his book at a lecture sponsored by the Torah Learning Center in Northbrook. Though he will discuss what he says can only truly be understood through experience, Aaron possesses a talent to present existential concepts in a concrete and applicable way.

Regarding his book, Aaron says, It is deep but it is simple I’m not interested in sounding spiritual or mystical, I am really interested in what’s called p’shat, the simple meaning in life which is really the deepest.

Aaron’s newest book is certainly not his first effort to spread what he describes as universal and relevant ideas. He is the founder and dean of Isralight, an organization with centers and programs throughout North America and in Israel, a frequent guest on radio and television, and an author of several books. He hopes to create a library of Jewish inspirational literature and has already written four more books that have yet to be published.

The Secret Life of God deals with age-old questions that speak to people of all faiths: Who or what is God, Why is there suffering in the world, and Does God need me. Aaron says the book is everything you wanted to know about God but were afraid to ask.

What makes Aaron so successful at reaching his audience is that he sees his teachings as a result not of research, but of his own life experience. I think one of the reasons why people feel really comfortable with me and why people find a lot of satisfaction in the answers that I share is because their questions are my questions, and I have struggled with these questions probably as much as most people have.

The issues Aaron seeks to address are questions that every individual tends to ask at some point in life but doesn’t always have the time or persistence to answer. For Aaron, these philosophical questions gnawed away at him at a young age. As a child, I was intensely aware of pain and suffering in the world because my mother is a survivor of the Holocaust, and though my mother never spoke about the Holocaust, I was very aware that a there was a group of people that very intensely wanted to kill us. And I felt that had I been born a few decades earlier, then I too would have been a victim, he says.

Aaron’s questions eventually led him to embark on his own spiritual journey with the help of several great teachers of Torah and kabbalah. That’s why Aaron says his book is really a book about himself. The book is my life it’s the way I view life, the way I believe Judaism views life What inspires me is finding a life that is meaningful and purposeful Purposeful means I am committed to a purpose created in myself, but that doesn’t mean my life is yet meaningful, because I haven’t found a way to live my purpose that is meaningful, whereby my life becomes a means to some greater end.

The book speaks to the numerous people who Aaron says are becoming more and more disillusioned with modernity and are searching for greater spirituality. The progress is great, but it wasn’t meant to be the answer to our souls’ problems. It was meant to set the stage so that we could be more free to address our souls’ issues There’s a certain disillusionment when once you finally get what you thought was going to be the answer and find that it’s not, then there’s this upsurge of renewed search.

Though Aaron believes his message is essential, he admits that not everyone would agree that kabbalah should be taught to such a wide audience. This book is in a certain way going out on a limb, because what I am sharing here are teachings that are not really being shared I think we’ve come a long way from Hebrew school, and the God I met at Hebrew school doesn’t satisfy me today in my adult life.

People are reading some very sophisticated stuff of other religions and teachings, and Jewish education has to be ready to open up its brightest light.

Ultimately, Aaron says his book, and his teachings in general, are only a means to the end. The reader can gain the knowledge he presents in its pages, but to live according to its lessons takes work. On various levels, I wouldn’t want to say that one who does not live a Torah life is not a good person. I do believe the guidance of Torah enables us to be even better. When a person wants to be a master pianist, they realize that in order to do that, there is much investment of learning, practice and guidance. I am interested in enabling people to become outstanding human beings, and I don’t believe becoming an outstanding human being is any less of a challenge than becoming an outstanding pianist.

Rabbi Aaron’s lecture will take place Monday, June 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the Renaissance Chicago North shore Hotel, 933 Skokie Blvd. in Northbrook. Tickets start at $10. For more information, call (847) 272-7255.