Reb Shlomo Carlebach taught:

There is a saying that everything in the world is here for the service of God. Somebody once came to the Hasidic master Reb Alexander, and asked him, how can one possibly serve God by being an atheist? Reb Alexander answered that you have to be an atheist when someone asks a favor of you. If you believe in God, then you’ll think, I’ll pray for you, l’ll bless you, but I don’t have to do anything, because God will do it. Reb Shlomo continued, “So when someone asks a favor of you, my most beautiful friends, you have to be a complete atheist, as if God won’t do anything, for him. You’ve got to do it, there’s no one else!"

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