My
father, who taught 7th-10th Grade Religious School
classes for 15 years, had what
might be the best answer of all, “I just don’t try to
define God.” For him, God
was definitely a presence, maybe even a feeling, because I didn’t attend services with my parents nearly every Friday
night of my growing years for nothing.
We were committed and dedicated members of a worshipping community. We enjoyed melodies with which we could
sing along. We appreciated a meaningful D’var Torah,
in whatever form it was presented. We had a sense that our prayers could change us
spiritually and challenge us to practice the positive values of Judaism. God, defined or not, was
definitely there.
This past Tuesday night, I taught the
session of Temple’s Judaism: Roots and Rituals class
that focuses on Jewish philosophy and theology. In 90 minutes, we reviewed 2500 years of Jewish
thought. We were guided by succinct
descriptions of Jewish belief from George Robinson’s book ESSENTIAL JUDAISM , and FINDING GOD: SELECTED JEWISH RESPONSES
by Rabbis Daniel Syme and Rifat Sonsino. What struck me this past Tuesday night was the
particular set of values reflected in the perspectives we discussed. Here are the thoughts and ideas about
God which emerged from our study:
·
God is present within
all the interconnections in the Universe.
·
All religions can lead a
person to God and salvation.
·
Human relationships can
reflect divine love.
·
The most godly type of
relationship is one where two people stand together in dialogue, characterized
by mutuality, openness, directness and human sympathy.
·
We best reflect what God
asks of us when we transcend our petty, egocentric interests and respond to
creation and to our fellow human beings with love and devotion.
·
The key to ethics is “seeing
the face of the Other” –meaning anyone we encounter – and acting towards him or
her out of goodness because we recognize that there is common ground between
us.
·
We are partners with God
in bringing goodness into the world.
·
God is “our sense of self and our
innermost essence” which we can discover in God’s creation.
·
God is the totality of
all those forces, powers and processes which help us become the best that we
are capable of becoming.
What do all of these beliefs about God
have in common? Nothing
tangible and nothing material, for sure! Every one of them is about what we know and what
we feel but what we can’t touch. On a day like today when so many people focus on love – yes, even in Israel – it is appropriate to talk about feeling, mutuality,
goodness, empathy, and trust.
When did Moses truly get to know more
about God’s essence? It was
only after the episode of the Golden Calf. It took the backsliding of the people into the need
for a visible symbol of the divine to reveal to Moses what was special about
God.
Moses pleaded to God on behalf of the people to give them another
chance. Yes, they had made an
idol, yes, the tables of God’s 10 utterances were broken, but there could be
healing between God, Moses and the Israelites. It was that renewal of their commitment and relationship
that brought them closer than ever before. God said to Moses: “I will make all My goodness pass before
you, and I will proclaim before you the name Adonai/Eternal, and the grace that
I grant and the compassion that I show.
But you cannot see my face.”
God then told Moses that he could only see the “back of God,” which some
interpret as the “after-effects” of God’s
presence. And while passing by
Moses, who was standing in the cleft of a rock, God declared the divine
attributes that are stated in the portion I will read from Exodus Chapter
34. Those traits included
kindness, compassion, faithfulness and forgiveness. The judgment noted in verse 7 – “yet I will not remit
all punishment” would occur only if the people lost their focus on the value of
intangible aspects of life and if they succumbed to the “golden calves” of power, excessive wealth, the need to control
others, and the absence of equal respect and consideration towards every human
being, created in the divine image.
Second chances can lead us to realize that we need to acknowledge that
what we can’t see is more important than what is visible to our
eyes. Last Sunday morning, our
youngest Religious School students were sitting on the bimah for their music
session, in which we were talking about the Shema. Before we sang the Shema, I had them recite it, first
with their eyes closed, then with their eyes open. I asked them whether it is easier to feel that
everything is connected – that God is One and that we are One – when their eyes
are open or closed. They said it is when their eyes are closed that they have a
greater sense of the unity that binds all of creation together.
Living in this world does require us to
keep our eyes and ears open, especially to note whether people are acting with
generosity or selfishness, love or hatred, compassion or cold-heartedness. That is why Judaism demands that
when we see injustice in the world, we must give voice to the teachings about
God that have guided our heritage throughout the ages. It is we who are God’s eyes, ears,
hands and heart to be sure that people approach one another with kindness,
consideration, grace and goodness.
People in need, those whose rights are denied, those who need hope
restored, need us to bring God’s compassion to their lives. So may we do!
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