My “Jewish God”?

In 2012, the last time I wrote about this topic, I began with the following disclaimer: “This is a critical reflection on certain aspects of my tradition. It has been suggested to me that, in highlighting these elements, I am reinforcing a misconception of Judaism as overly harsh. A balanced study of Judaism and the Yom Kippur service will show concepts of God as both compassionate alongside themes of judgement”. This disclaimer is still relevant.

On Saturday 23rd September this year, I will have the solemn Jewish New Year Holy Day prayers echoing in my mind. Many of these will reflect the idea of God as a judge. God’s verdicts will determine ‘Who will live and who will die? Who at their pre-destined time and who before their time?’ (1). One week later, Jewish people observe the Day of Atonement, where the theme of God as judge comes up again, along with language referring to God as father and king. It leads me to consider what the traditional Jewish concept of God is (This is what my topic means, not that there is a God that belongs to Jews or a God who is Jewish somehow.)  

In our highly poetic Torah reading this week, we are told that “all of God’s ways are ’judgement’” (2). The Talmud takes this verse as a warning against daring to say that God is clement (e.g. one whose nature it is to let people get away with sins) or indulgent (3). This teaching is puzzling because God is praised in the Torah as forbearing of sin (4). An implausible resolution of this contradiction is that God is forgiving of one or two sins, but not with repeat offenders (5).

A far more compelling teaching encourages us to have faith and confidence in God’s forgiveness. God is described as “generously forgiving the instant one pleads for forgiveness…” (6). This teaching refers to the daily prayer that praises God for being abundant in forgiveness (7).  “It is characteristic of people, that if one injures another and asks his pardon which is granted, and then repeats the misdeed, it becomes more difficult to grant pardon again, and certainly a third and fourth time. But, by the standard of God, there is no difference between once and a thousand times. Pardon is a manifestation of [God’s] ...mercy. Divine [mercy is] not bounded and finite; they are infinite.” (8). .."For His mercies have not ended" (9).

Recently, I have been learning a little about assertiveness and management  from a wise woman, Michelle Brenner, and the impressive business coach Wade Ebrahimi. (10) (Yes, this is a plug.) A key lesson for me is about the importance of being clear in my communication as a “boss”. I don’t like the idea of being a “boss”. I would rather just be a colleague and still get everything magically done as I think it should. I am learning that I can continue to be collegial with those who report to me. However, I must also give them clear direction. I must differentiate between suggestions, requests and, if need be, orders. Similarly, God relates to humans in multiple ways - in mercy mode as well as holding us accountable. The former should not be taken to override the latter, particularly in a moment of decision making about whether or not to do the right thing (11).  

If I was seeking a neat resolution, I would end this discussion with the abundant forgiveness teaching above. One Jewish man I met the other day, thought of God as predominantly forgiving. That works for him. For me, I am caught between the different characterizations of God in both Torah and prayers.

I was struck by an anecdote that included an apparently tactless statement made to a grieving father mourning the death of his young son. The father was told that the death of young children is a Divine punishment of parents for the parents’ sins (12). The basis for this troubling idea is the verse “God saw and became angry, from the anger of his sons and daughters” (13). This is interpreted as parents provoking God, causing Him to punish the parents through their children (14). The modern reader can either howl in protest or respond with silence.

These teachings, somehow, sit side by side with parental concepts of God.  We read of God carrying the Jew like an eagle carries its young on its wings, (15) “nursing him with honey from bedrock” (16).

Despite the contradictions, I take some comfort from the fact that, whenever the Torah calls us to imitate God, there are always references to God as caring and compassionate, never cruel and harsh. “Just as G‑d is called merciful, so too, you must be merciful. Just as G‑d is called kind, so too, you must be kind...” (17). Similarly, we are taught:  "Just as God clothes the naked, ... so too, you must clothe the naked. Just as God visits the sick, ... so too, you must visit the sick. Just as God comforts mourners, ... so too, you must comfort mourners" (18).

I end, as I began, without a clear Jewish concept of God. I don't speak for all Jews, but I think it is fair to say that it is not a simple question to answer for those of us who seek guidance from traditional texts. This time of the year, with the days of judgement, repentance and atonement, is a time for re-engagement between the Jew and his God. I suggest that the repeated references, in our liturgy, to God as both father and king, is a useful indication of a complex Jewish understanding of God.  

1.     Reflection on who will live and who will die is prominent in the Unesaneh Tokef prayer, which is a key part of the Rosh Hashanah prayers.

2.     Deuteronomy 32:4: Surprisingly, Ramban suggests that Mishpat here relates to mercy.

3. Talmud Bava Kama 3a: The context of this teaching is a story about a righteous man who dug wells for the community, whose daughter fell into a well but was saved from drowning in the merit of her father’s good deeds. Yet, her brother died of thirst, despite his father’s merit in supplying people with drinking water, because God is very demanding of the righteous and even small sins can result in harsh punishment.
4. Exodus 34:7
5. Torah Temima on Deuteronomy 32:4
6. Tanya, Igeret Hateshuva 11
7. The Amida, חנון המרבה לסלוח
8. Tanya, Ibid
9. Lamentations 3:22
10. http://www.triserv.com.au/
11. Torah Temima
12. Talmud Kesubot 8b
13. Deuteronomy 32:19
14. Rashi on Talmud Kesubot 8b, also in Maharsha commentary
15. Deuteronomy 32:11
16. Deuteronomy 32:13
17. Sifrei Parshat Eikev., cited in Maimonides’ Sefer Hamitzvot, Mitzvah 8, based on Deuteronomy. 28:9, 11:22, and 13:5
18. Talmud, Sotah 14a

A God who hides: Vayelech and Yom Kippur

“Don’t hide from me” pleads Hasidic singer Avraham Fried. The idea of God hiding has been used in response to the question “Where was God during the Holocaust?” and to explain the persecution of “God’s treasured people”. I am curious about how a people with a terrible history of suffering interprets the symbolism of a God with a “hidden face”.

In our Torah reading this week (Vayelech), we encounter the idea of God hiding as punishment for a disloyal people. “My fury will rage against them on that day, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will befall them, and they will say on that day, 'Is it not because our God is no longer among us, that these evils have befallen us? And I will hide, [yes] I will hide My face on that day, because of all the evil they have committed, when they turned to other gods”.1

One Jewish response to “God hiding” that resonates for me is deep sadness. “Rabbi Johanan, when he came to the [following] verse, wept: And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are come upon them. A slave whose Master brings many evils and troubles upon him, is there any remedy for him?!”2  Some have argued that God didn’t cause the Holocaust, or the terrible violence of our own time, that man instead is to blame. I agree that humans must certainly be held to account, but letting God off the hook in this way does not work for me. My orientation to God is as the source of sustenance and protection. God must have been present at Auschwitz and could thus arguably appear to be complicit in the evil deeds of the Nazis. The response to suffering I find most useful is in the statement that “it is not in our hands to grasp [the reasons for] the tranquillity of the wicked nor the ordeals of the righteous”.3

One approach to the verse about the slave seems to be focused on making sense of the words, but also sheds some light on the reality they describe. “What is the meaning of ‘evils and troubles’? — Rab said: Evils which become antagonists to each other, as for instance the [bites of] a wasp and a scorpion”. This is a classic catch 22: the treatment of one kind of bite is to wash it with cold water and that bite is made worse by hot water, while the reverse is true with the other.4 A variation of this bind is seen when “Jews in exile would be mistreated by a non-Jewish person. If the Jew complained it increased the hatred of the perpetrator and would be spread to others, but if he is silent then the perpetrator will become accustomed to doing this in this way”.5  Australian Muslims, like American Blacks, sometimes find themselves in a similar bind. If they complain they are the “Angry Muslim”, like the “Angry Black Man”; if they are silent the problems persist.

The attraction of the idea of God hiding, in some interpretations, is that one can continue to believe in benign divine providence and engagement with the Jews despite intensely cruel oppression. One such approach, implausible to me, is that God’s hiding his face is “in a way of affection” like a father of a misbehaving child who instructs the child’s teacher to beat him but cannot bear to look himself, and turns away, because of his feeling for the child.6  This anthropomorphism comforts persecuted believers by telling them that although they may feel abandoned by God, God still cares. In fact He cares so much that it is as if he is looking away because he cannot bear to witness their pain. 

One of the themes of Christian antisemitism was the idea that God had rejected the Jews. Although God hiding his face from the Jews could be understood as supporting that idea, commentators argue that the opposite is true: “it is not as they [the Jews] think, that I [God] am not among them [which explains their suffering] but indeed in every place that they will be, my presence will be found there but I will hide my face from helping them”.7  Other commentators go as far as condemning the Jews for their belief that God had abandoned them, declaring that this lack of faith in God’s continuing providence is the very sin that leads to God redoubling his determination to hide from them.8

Sitting in the comfort of 21^st Century Australia it is hard to imagine the hell experienced by our people in other times and places, or that being endured by members of many other nations and faiths today.  As I prepare for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, for me also a day for reconciliation with God, I wonder about this punitive cruel God. One way of explaining the Kol Nidrei prayer, which calls for the absolving of vows, is that God Himself is asking to be absolved from the system of rewards, punishments and “hiding” that he promised in the Torah.  Yes, there needs to be accountability by the Jews for compliance with God's laws but punishment is not the only option available to God for holding us to account. The approach of restorative justice uses shame and awareness of the harm itself as more potent alternatives to punishment.9

Perhaps God hides because of an estrangement between humans and God, and our failure to live up to the ideals and principles that God calls us to live by. I am up for this kind of reconciliation.

1.       Deuteronomy  31:17-18

2.       Talmud Chagiga 5a

3.       Pirkey Avot, (Ethics of the fathers)  4:11

4.       Rashi

5.       Bchor Shor,  Meam Loez, p. 1247, Vagshal edition

6.       Bchor Shor, Chizkuni, Daat Zekainim Mbaalei Hatosafot,

7.       Seforno

8.       R.A Hacohen, cited in Meam Loez, p. 1272, Vagshal editiontheme is discussed in Meam Loez, p. 1248, Vagshal edition

9.       This theme is discussed in Meam Loez, p. 1248, Vagshal edition

God: Frightening Father, Sweet Sister or Mystery

(Written 30 September), Note: This is a critical reflection on certain aspects of my tradition. It has been suggested to me that in highlighting these elements, I am reinforcing a misconception of Judaism as overly harsh. A balanced study of Judaism and the Yom Kippur service will show God as compassionate and an emphasis on love and kindness as well as themes of judgement). 

Last night I “worshipped” by clipping little branches off bamboos with my older four sons and putting these bamboos on top of our Pergola. These shorn bamboo poles combined with corflute walls constitute a temporary “home” called a Succa. It was great to be doing something Jewish that was so uncomplicated. This in contrast to Yom Kippur last week, our day of atonement, a day to be cleansed of sin and spent in communion with God.  But, what kind of God are we reconciling with? It seems to me that a lot of the prayers reflect a concept of God as a judgemental  punitive father and harsh ruler. This approach is both familiar to me but also a bit jarring. I think I may have at least partially absorbed a contemporary view of God which, at the risk of oversimplification, could be compared to a loving, friendly, older sister who provides guidance but is in no way overbearing.

Punishment Ritual

The day leading up to the holy day began for my family just before 4 am. We piled into the car and arrived at a rural property where we were handed a chicken or rooster to hold and say a brief prayer. Many Jews have long ago substituted the bird for money, but my community does it the old way. Holding the chicken we recited,“this is my atonement, this is my exchange…this chicken will go to die but I will go on to a good life”. I then handed the chicken to a slaughterer and watched him slit its throat, for it to be donated to the poor.  I don’t particularly feel great resonance with this ritual, there was something worrying about the chickens, but it somehow felt like the right thing to do.

Judgement and Overwhelming Power

After a delicious meal with family and guests with traditional dumplings called Kreplach prior to the fast we gather for what will be a marathon of prayer. We plead to be written in the book of life, that our prayers be heard and confess to long list of sins ten times over the day. I am moved by the words to a song in which we compare ourselves to clay and God to the moulder  ourselves to a stone and God to the mason, iron and smith, glass and glass-blower etc.  Overall, there are some beautiful prayers and poetry, but there are also so many repetitive passages about the absolute greatness of God, judgement and punishment.

Angry God?

The punitive concept of God is also reflected in the Torah reading Haazinu. Heaven and earth[i] are called to be witnesses against the Jews[ii] in case they sin. In anticipation of sin, the Jews are called twisted and warped[iii], a “Naval[iv]” nation which is interpreted as stupid[v], and ingrates[vi]. God’s anger is described as “my anger has kindled a fire,   burning to the lowest depths, it shall consume the land…[vii]” God says he will use all his arrows against them. God is described as reflecting that “I thought I will exterminate them, I will make their memory vanish from among mankind”. The reason he would not do so is because “I was afraid[viii] that the enemies of the Jews would think that they achieved the destruction of the Jews themselves rather than recognising the calamity as being an act of God, thereby damaging God’s brand as the master of the universe. Wow! No “God is Love” here.

Beyond any Emotional expression

In Chasidic and Kabalistic teachings, the essence of God is understood to transcend any emotional or intellectual expressions or forms. God can only thought of as being kind or judgemental when he takes on such a role in order to connect with his creation. This process is referred to as Tzimtzum/ Contraction. I would compare this to the time that I had to wake up some Yeshiva students on the morning after some were drinking at the Purim feast. We were scheduled to put on a performance for school children at 8:30. Leib[ix] decided he was going to stay in bed, which was no big loss, his part in the play could be covered by one of the other actors. I knew that Getzl in the other room was probably overhearing our conversation and if Leib got away with this, he might also refuse to get up and I really needed Getzl. I put on a show of being absolutely furious with Leib I screamed and seemed to lose it. When I got to Getzl’s room, he gave me no argument. In a sense, God puts on an angry persona to relate to us as a strict parent.

God would like to be Liberated from the Current World Order

The Yom Kippur service begins with a solemn prayer about vows that might have been violated called Kol Nidre (which means all vows). The words are technical and legalistic, the tune moving. I find this prayer quite meaningful because of an interesting explanation[x]. A story is told in the Talmud[xi] about a sage overhearing a heavenly voice lamenting, “Woe is to me that I made a vow and I have no one to annul my vow”. Essentially God wishes he would never have promised to destroy his temple and exile the Jews from the holy land if they sin, and now would love to have someone to release him from this vow. For me, Kol Nidre this year was about asking God to “free Himself” and us from the world as it has developed. A world in which if western troops stay in Afghanistan innocent people will die, if they leave other death and terrible things will happen. A world in which, Iran is presumably seeking nuclear weapons and according the “rules” of the real world, there are some very scary and deadly choices. Please God, liberate us from all that. Do something magical.

God as Mother or Sibling?

It has become popular to talk about “mother nature” or mother earth. The idea of God as the force behind nature is authentically Jewish. I took a few minutes to wander outside during the service and admire the very tall majestic old trees that testify to God’s greatness. In our Torah reading God is discussed as delighting in finding the Jews in the desert[xii]. Protectively, carrying the Jews like an eagle carries it’s young on its wings[xiii], nursing him with honey from bedrock[xiv]. This is very nurturing, even maternal imagery. Even God as a sibling almost has a source in our holy books, when we imagine God as a lover calling on us to open our hearts to him. “Open for me, my sister, my friend, my dove…[xv]”. Perhaps what works best for me is God as Mystery, His essence utterly un-knowable and indescribable. We can pray “according to the mind of the young child[xvi]. Still, I need to accept that my tradition still has a strong patriarchal idea of God as well. For today, the conceptualisation of God is less important, there are a few more bamboos to throw on to the Pergola. Ah, what joy!

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[i] Deuteronomy 32:1

[ii] Rashi

[iii] Deuteronomy 32:5

[iv] Deuteronomy 32:6

[v] Bchor Shor,

[vi] Ramban

[vii] Deuteronomy 32:22

[viii] Translation of Ibn Ezra of the word “Agur” in Deuteronomy 32:6

[ix] Names changed to protect privacy

[x] Munk, Rabbi E, (1963) The world of Prayer Vol 2.

[xi] Talmud Bava Basra chapter 5

[xii] Deuteronomy 32:10

[xiii] Deuteronomy 32:11

[xiv] Deuteronomy 32:13

[xv] Song of Songs 5:2

[xvi] Derech Mitzvosecha