For almost a year now, I’ve been writing this blog. And each post begins with the same image – human hands, hovering over Shabbat candles.

But today, I found an image of a different kind of light – a tiny fraction of the Andromeda Galaxy, almost two billion stars. For a moment, the scientific part of me kicked in. “With all those stars,” I thought, “there must be other intelligent species.” And then I began to pray.

Ancient words to celebrate a modern miracle. The minds and the hands of people have created a telescope that can stare into the depths of the universe. But how can we not give thanks to the One who created it all?

For some, I suspect, the sight of billions of stars makes them feel small. And indeed, all that we have and all that we are is nothing compared to the wonder of God. But Judaism teaches that the Holy One has left his world in our hands.

The world can be a very dark place, particularly for the lonely and the sick and the suffering. But God has asked us to bring light into the world. “The mitzvah is a light and the Torah is a lamp,” Proverbs tells us. 

God has given us the tools. He has placed the Torah in our hands. And He has taught us to do mitzvot. God has taught us how to be present for the lonely and visit the sick and comfort the suffering.

Every day, God brings on the sunset, and every day He brings on the dawn. And every day, He asks us to bring light into other people’s lives.

In the words of Heschel:

Man is man because something divine is at stake in his existence. He is not an innocent bystander in the cosmic drama. There is in us more kinship with the divine than we are able to believe. The souls of man are the candles of the Lord, lit on the cosmic way, rather than fireworks produced by the combustion of nature’s explosive compositions, and every soul is indispensable to Him. Man is needed, he is a need of God.

Each of us is a need of God.