Exhorting listeners to repossess Shabbat, create a relationship with G-d, and reconnect with family, Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Executive Vice President Emeritus of the Orthodox Union, delivered the keynote and final lecture on May 6th at an NCSY community wide event at the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhurst, entitled Spiritual Solutions: Guiding Our Children Through Today’s Greatest Challenges.

Pointing out that we have to be “consciously aware” of the special gift of the Shabbat that G-d gave us, Weinreb said that it is a great gift that we don’t appreciate enough. He had the audience close their eyes and bring up images related to the blessing of Havdala: the difference between light and dark, Yisrael and the nations, the seventh day and the six days of activity, between holiness and the mundane. Part of the problem in reconnecting is 20th century man’s disconnect from nature, explained Weinreb, working in an office with only a clock to tell time. He said that nature is fundamental to our religion, that “our G-d is a G-d of nature,” with Mincha as the sun sets and Shacharit as the sun rises.

Weinreb also stressed that he doesn’t like the term “Hashem,” saying that it is a barrier. “You can get to G-d through His world,” he said. “It is difficult to connect to G-d with ‘the name.’” Other terms for G-d foster closeness, he said, such as the Aibeshter (the one above), or other terms in Yiddish—the merciful One, sweet Father in Heaven, or in Hebrew—Av Harachamim (merciful Father), Avinu Malkainu (our Father our King). “Forget about (the term) ‘Hashem,’” he said. “It’s not a way to create a relationship.” We distance ourselves from G-d that way, he explained.