God is Your Partner

Below is a synopsis of G-d Is Your Partner: The Story of Vitamin C

Many people view their work as simply a means to an end. They view the synagogue as sacred and work as secular. But they can’t believe G-d bends down to partner with us in the soap opera of our daily trials and tribulations at work.

This speech joyfully reminds us that our work is sacred, too! G-d wants us to use our creativity and abilities to build a better world. Every day in work, through scientific progress, building, producing, teaching, volunteering, you partner with G-d to create divine music. Anything that adds dignity to the human condition is a mitzvah.

There are things G-d is willing to do — wants to do — but He has chosen to do them only in response to our work.

G-d helps the poor with the charity we give. He illuminates our home with the Shabbat candles we light. He guides our children to wrap tefillin with the example we set and ennobles our lives with the Mitzvot we perform. We are the means through which G-d achieves His ends.

This theme is vividly brought to life with anecdotes and entertaining tales, such as:

• The extraordinary story of Vitamin C
• How a biochemist partnered with G-d and won a Nobel Prize
• A fascinating encounter between the Roman governor and Rabbi Akiva
• The debate between a Manhattan rabbi and upstate New York farmer
• How the divine-human symphony is replicated in the notes of the Shofar
• The Nobel prize-winning Yiddish author’s delightful story
• The humorous tale about a Chassidic Master praying for a sinner

So much is up to you and me. There can be nothing more empowering. And here ultimately is why you and I are here on this earth. G-d needs us, each of us. We are joined with Him in a great partnership. Creation is a divine symphony, a true living masterpiece in progress, with you and I crucial to the performance. This talk inspires and reminds our community of our ability, and our responsibility, to add our unique note to the symphony of creation.