Seeing G-d Everywhere

Title: Living in the Light: Revealing Hashem’s Astounding Fingerprints in the World Around Us

By: Rabbi Yehuda Schonfeld

(Feldheim, 263 pages)

In his new book, Living in the Light: Revealing Hashem’s Astounding Fingerprints in the World Around Us, Rabbi Yehuda Schonfeld takes readers on a journey to explore Hashem’s world through insights and pictures. Living in the Light demonstrates how, to some extent, Hashem is present in every aspect of our lives.

Piecing together different human traits, historical themes, and seemingly inexplicable events can help strengthen our emunah. The key is to connect the various events in our life to see the Hashgacha Pratis (Divine Providence) in them. The reader’s sense of emunah will hopefully be ignited through the unlocking of some of the mysteries of the world around us.

Rabbi Schonfeld’s writing career began when he was hired as a writer for Sefer Ka’asher Tziva Hashem by Rabbi Daniel Garfinkel, a book about the obligation to perform mitzvos with the proper intent. Afterward, Rabbi Schonfeld began working on Enjoy His World, a book about the crucial Torah obligation of enjoying this world. When that was complete, he began to work on this book. When asked about the process of writing Living in the Light, Rabbi Schonfeld explains, “Emunah is the foundation of Yiddishkeit, and it’s something that requires constant chizuk… I realized that there are dozens of areas of life that, when studied, can strengthen one’s emunah. These ‘Fingerprints’ are what make up most of the book.” It’s all about how we can recognize our Creator from the clues and hints that He put around the world for us.

Living in the Light is a beautiful book with many stunning full-color – real, non-AI – images throughout. Featured prominently are two amazing pictorials by Rabbi Menachem Adelman, an accomplished photographer whose pictures have the power to super-charge one’s emunah.

Baruch Hashem, our world usually feels stable and predictable. However, there are many remarkable, bizarre, and unusual aspects of the world. When we learn about the mysteries of the world, we see how little we know, and this humbles us and opens our minds to the truth about ourselves and the place we inhabit. There is a Creator of unimaginable wisdom and power.

How do we “see” Hashem through our physical world? Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, zt”l (Hy”d), taught that a Jew must believe in Hashem more than that which he can see with his own eyes. Rabbi Schonfeld also shares an amazing idea from Rav Avigdor Miller, zt”l, about hishtadlus. Rav Miller taught that Hashem answers those who “call out to Him in truth,” as the pasuk in Ashrei says (Tehillim 145:18). Someone who calls out to Hashem in truth is a person who truly yearns for what he is asking for. Rav Miller wrote that a person’s hishtadlus indicates how badly he wants something – if he doesn’t put in effort, it shows that he doesn’t really want it so much.

Rabbi Schonfeld says that his favorite chapter is the fourth one, titled To Serve the King. This chapter vividly describes the magnificent glories and rewards that await a person who serves Hashem by keeping the Torah.