It means that I don’t believe in a God who has a consciousness, emotions, a will, or who makes choices or interferes with trivial happenings on Earth. On the other hand, I believe that the incredible complexity and uniformity of the universe (in the sense that the laws of physics are uniformly obeyed) is so amazingly beautiful that there must be “something” that’s behind it all. That “something” is certainly well beyond our understanding, but it cannot be something that operates like a feeble-minded living creature (because it simply doesn’t make sense to think that something “all-knowing” and powerful enough to create everything would also experience anger, guilt, happiness, joy, or any other distinctly human emotion). Rather, that “something” is the source of everything; It is the creator or everything, the maintainer of everything, the “force” that percolates the universe, gives matter its mass, electrons their charge, space/time its dimensions, and ultimately, humans their conscious experience of their lives with all the emotions that go along with that. And one might say “well, that’s all great if you believe that, but what does that have to do with Judaism?” Well, I would argue that Judaism is not a source of absolute knowledge, but rather, it’s a mutual identity (and the history that comes along with it) and an agreement between its adherents. It’s a “contract of agreement” on basic ideals and principles, namely, basic morals and respect (i.e. treat other people the way you would like to be treated), the goal of Tikun Olam (healing the “broken” world), emphasis on questioning/challenging/discussing/disagreeing, and strong encouragement of the constant pursuit of knowledge and learning. It’s also an ongoing “forum” for discussion of controversial topics and areas where the lines may be blurred. It’s a way to access many different perspectives from people that you can at least somewhat trust because of their professed agreement with those basic ideals and morals that I mentioned. And here’s where the identity and history part come in; the benefit is that those discussions have been going on for thousands of years among the Jewish people, and because of that, by being a Jew today we have access to a much larger number of thoughtful perspectives (and even ones from different time periods that have evolved along with society). By discussing, amending, and adhering to those ideals over centuries, that’s how I think we are accomplishing Tikun Olam. It’s a way to show respect for that cryptic yet powerful “something” that created and established everything by saying “I, as a human, am thankful for my ability to experience life and so I will participate in trying to make the world a better place so that future generations are able to experience the beauty of the tumultuous battle of emotions and experiences that is human life (and hopefully tip those experiences ever so slowly towards the more positive side- as evidenced by the fact that today we can live full lives with illnesses that 1000 years ago would have caused us to suffer and die).”