Main news for 26 June 2025

Much has been said and written about like-mindedness and disagreements between people, as well as about agreement and disagreement between God and a human being. And yet the problem of like-mindedness, or rather its absence in relationships, whether relationships between people or relationships between a person and God, remains relevant. The core of the problem is connected with the fact that the absence of like-mindedness, as a rule, does not show itself at once. If it showed itself at once, those who disagreed would hardly set out on the road together. It shows itself when companions who have turned out to disagree with one another have already gone far enough from home that returning is no longer possible. Why does this happen?

Of course, problems that arise on the road are often explained by the hardships of the journey, for which one of those walking, or all of them together, turns out to be unprepared. But this is far from the only reason that possible disagreements come to light. More often it happens that, when planning some joint undertaking, future coworkers or fellow travelers do not really understand the motives and intentions of each participant very well. And not because someone is deliberately deceiving someone else. The problem is that we ourselves often poorly understand the true reasons for our own actions. And this is true not only when other people are involved, but also when God is involved.

Of course, if we are religious, this religiosity has its own reasons and motives, and our religiosity, in turn, determines the reasons if not for all, then for very many of our words and actions in relation both to God and to our neighbors. But religiosity in itself is not so much a spiritual reality as a reality of the soul, of the psyche. And religious motivation in itself means only that it does not contradict our religious worldview. But to what extent this worldview itself does not contradict the will of God, to what extent it corresponds to the Torah given by God and to His commandments, remains an open question. Just as the question remains open whether, for all our religiosity, we and God are of one mind or not.

Here, perhaps, only testing our intentions for their correspondence to the commandments can give a more or less unambiguous answer. And only if such testing is not one-time but systematic.