Stop Turning God Into a Boogie Man

God is not out to get you!

Too many people are afraid of God for the wrong reasons.

Too many people are afraid to approach the Yamim Noraim, the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur because they are very afraid of God and punishment.

Too many kids are going off the derech because of the false scare tactics they were fed, leaving them to fear God and punishment.

A young man who went off the derech told the media that he decided to test Hashem. In order to see if there is a God, he said, he went on to desecrate Shabbos by smoking a cigarette. He expected God to immediately strike him dead.

He said that since nothing happened to him, the Boggie man did not strike him dead, there is no God.

This young man was taught and fed the lie that God is a Boogie man who is sitting and waiting for you to sin, so that He can punish you or strike you dead. Once this was proven to be false, sadly instead of seeing God as our loving father who loves us and waits for us to repent and He is The One Who understands the difficulties one is going through, his entire belief in God was gone.

As the months of Av and Elul approach, you can see people going into panic mode, lecturers becoming intense and using scare tactics to get people to repent and to become better people.

Why the panic? People only panic when they sense a threat or punishment coming.

This phenomenon comes because the world today has turned God into a Boogie man.

When a tragedy occurs, people always look for reasons why God punished us with such tragedy. Instead of going the Torah and looking for how we can change something in ourselves, the blame is cast on women’s mode of dress or men talking in shul.

When a person who is perceived to be righteous dies, you will often hear claims that “Hashem needed a Korban” and hence this person died for others’ sins. This is קפירה falsehood and turns Hashem into a Boogie man.

It is also something the Christians love to say that Yeshua HaNozri Jesus died as a result of other people’s sins, but he was perfect.

The Torah is very clear that Hashem is a ארך אפים ורב חסד ואמת נשא עון ופשע וחטאה slow to anger, filled with good and quick to forgive.

A person who does not repent, suffers only for his own sins or for the sins of his parents and grandparents 3 generations back only IF he continues in the same negative path of the parent.

If a grandfather started a business which is run in a dishonest way and if his children and grandchildren continue to follow in his ways, they can be punished for their sins and that of their dishonest grandparents. However, if the children and grandchildren change their ways and follow the Torah way of doing business, they will not be held accountable for the actions of the parent and grandfather.

When it comes to giving rewards for Mitzvas (good deeds), Hashem rewards you and your next 1000 or 2000 generations for them. (The amount depends on if it is done with Ahavah or Yirah if you do the mitzvah with love for Hashem or out of Fear of Him).

Yeshua Hanozri Jesus claimed that Hashem punished him for the sins of others. This concept has no place in the Torah.

Do you think Hashem is worse than a human judge? Of course not! A human judge would never intentionally punish one person for another persons’ crime. How much more so with Hashem.

Do people really believe that Hashem is so evil that if a woman is dressed in a provocative way, a man speaks in shul or transgresses one of the 613 Mitzvos Hashem will then choose a random mother or father of a large family, who dresses perfectly, never speaks in shul and never hurt another person in their life and kill them for the sins of another person? No way! This is not the Torah way.

How will their death do anything to change the person who “sinned?”

The sinner does not even know the deceased person and the death will have no effect on them, and they will not change.

  1. Who will want to be good under such evil terms? No one wants to die for the sin of another person.

Everyone will rather be bad, live a life of pursuing pleasure and have a long life rather than be good and die young for the sins of others.

You see, this notation of Hashem needing a sacrifice for the generation or that Hashem kills a good person for the sin of others is Kefira. Hashem is a God of Justice and NEVER kills another for someone else’s sins.

Hashem despises human sacrifice, the Torah warns many times not to burn one’s children for the avodah zara moilech and surly not for Hashem himself.

This false belief caused people to fear Hashem for the wrong reasons.

When there was a lack of respect and caring for one another, the נבוים Prophets repeatedly warned us Jews that Hashem does not want our sacrifices in the Bait Hamikdash Temple.

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kipper are not times to be scared, but rather a time to make a Cheshbon Hanefesh (self-introspection) to see where we are in terms of our connection to Hashem and with others and how we can work to better ourselves.

Think about taxes. If the government had us do taxes just once in 5 years, it would be very overwhelming to do. However, doing so once a year makes it easier to handle.

The same is with us, if we take stock every year of where we are, repent for where we went wrong and strive to be better the coming year, it is much easier to handle.

When repenting for the sins between us and Hashem, keep in mind that Hashem said that the actual day of Yom Kipper causes our sins to be forgiven.

When it comes to sins between man and his fellow man, one needs to ask for forgiveness from the victim first.

Interesting enough, in our society, when a person transgresses mitzvos between themselves and Hashem, they are looked upon as a sinner or as Off the Derech.

This is a personal relationship between the person and Hashem, and no one – other than themselves – are harmed by these sins. (Losing one’s connection with Hashem causes unrest and great yearning in a persons’ heart, but they can repent and come back to Hashem at any time).

At the same time, gossip or other sins between man and man became common place in society and is even heard publicly by some of the most respected people and is not frowned upon or shunned even though they deserve to be looked upon as grave sinners.

A person who gossips is the one who is the furthest from Hashem, as their sin is not forgiven by Hashem until they ask the other person for forgiveness. Gossip cause great harm to the victim and can almost never be undone. These sinners need to ask forgiveness from the victim before coming back to Hashem.

In order to avoid the panic before the Yomim Tovim or fear Hashem, one needs to live with Hashem all year long. Focus on helping others, do lots of chessed and give masser as you are supposed to.

Too many people forget about Hashem during their life of pursuing pleasure and material stuff, and they come back Rosh Hashanah to “check in” this may cause panic and fear.

Hashem is not a Boogie man. He wants you to be close to Him all year long. He is watching your actions between you and your fellow man, and He wants you to do the right thing all year long.

Fear paralyzes a person and does not allow them to take the actions needed to become better human beings.

Seeing Hashem as a Boogie man or Boogie monster is false and just pushes you away from Him.

See Hashem for what He is, our creator. He created each one of us for a purpose, Hashem created us and placed us in a certain family, so we can fulfil our task in this world. He does not make mistakes. If He created you, then you have something to accomplish in the world.

Hashem believes in you, He created you, He knows the strengths and weaknesses He gave you. Only Hashem knows your private thoughts and actions. He is the only one who can truly see your worth and judge you. He loves you with all your faults, as He loves all of His children.

Hashem warns us repeatedly, in the Torah and through the Prophets, that He does not tolerate when one of His children takes advantage of the young, weak, widows and orphans.

Even with these evil people who take advantage of others, Hashem is patient, and gives them time to repent. We see evil people walking around free for many years and only if they don’t change their ways then they are caught and punished in this world as well as the next.