God

Allah

WHO IS GOD?

G-d¹  is the Being through which everything exists.  Without Him, nothing else would or could exist.

Judaism taught the world about the absolute Oneness of this Being.  By One, Judaism does not just mean that there are no competing gods or powers.  It means that His Oneness, which is unique and absolute, encompasses all things and all phenomena.  Nothing but nothing exists outside of Him.  All things – people, places, energy, data, the rules of Nature and the dimensions in which they operate – are His work.

Because nothing exists outside of Him, he is the Creator – not only in the sense of originally creating the universe ex nihilo (i.e. out of nothing), but in the ongoing continuation of that world.   His Will, in effect, constantly creates all things.

G-d is so unique that to fully and accurately understand Him, one would have to be G-d.  What we know about Him is restricted by the limitations of human understanding.  Remarkably, Judaism spends relatively less time dwelling on the nature of G-d than the religions that were based on it, and focuses far more attention on what G-d expects of Man.

WHAT CAN WE SAY ABOUT HIM?

Some Jewish thinkers like Maimonides (1135-1204) argued that we could not make any affirmative statements about G-d.  Anything we said about Him would limit and diminish Him.  If we speak of G-d as being wise, or wiser than anything we can imagine, we still limit Him, because there is a limit to our conception of wisdom, while He is in fact far wiser than that limit!  Maimonides argued that we should only speak of negatives.  We can accurately speak about what G-d is not.  We can say that G-d lacks no wisdom, or strength, or any other ability. (Maimonides had a huge impact on all subsequent Jewish thought.  Although he suffered horribly from Muslims zealotry associated with the  Almohad campaigns, he asserted that Islam’s conception of G-d was a true monotheism, a compliment he was not prepared to grant to other religions.)

One great thinker summed up the most useful and essential concepts that we must understand in order to relate to Him, taken from both Scripture and the teachings of the Rabbis of the Talmud: 

 The fact of His existence
 His perfection
 The necessity of His existence
 His absolute independence
 His simplicity
 His unity 

These ideas are extremely important in the way Jews relate to G-d.  Because G-d is perfect, nothing can be added to Him, nothing can make Him better or more complete.  This means that everything that G-d commands us to do can only be for our own sake, not because He needs it!  When we obey his Commandments and wishes, we are the beneficiaries, not He.

A perfect being can have no limitations.  Physical objects are always limited – by their own boundaries and dimensions.  Judaism, therefore, rejects attributing any physicality to G-d.

A perfect being cannot receive, since there is nothing that He does not have.  He can only give.  Indeed, of the different characteristics that are ascribed to G-d in the mystical tradition, the single most important one is as a Giver, as a G-d of lovingkindness and compassion.  While G-d also shows justice and strength – as in meting out punishment to those who disobey Him – this is seen as secondary to His attribute of Chesed, of lovingkindness.  G-d’s strictness is in fact an outgrowth of His kindness.  If He showed us nothing but love and excused all our misdeeds, we would commit far more of them!

Aside from the challenge of which words we use to define G-d is the question of what about G-d can mortals possibly comprehend.  There are two chief approaches.

KNOWING G-D THROUGH HIS ACTIONS

We learn about G-d not directly, but from His actions.  We can’t study Him directly, but we can study the tracks He leaves, whether in the beauty and complexity of Nature, or the way He orchestrates history.  (When Moses requested to “see” G-d, he was told that this was impossible, and the most he could “see” is His “back,” meaning the clues left behind by His Presence and His actions.) We understand that within Him there are no different “personalities” or moods, but as limited human beings, we note that He acts in ways that would be interpreted as such if He were human.  For example, we sometimes see Him as a lawgiver.  At other times, he acts towards us as a compassionate father would to a child.  On other occasions, he seems to behave as a mighty warrior.  In human beings, these different behaviors at times are contradictory.  Within our own personalities, these different tendencies often compete for expression.  Within the reality of G-d, this is not true.  All the apparent differences are only so to a human observer; at their core, they all stem from the absolute Oneness of G-d.

Nonetheless, the different observed behaviors of G-d give us an important tool for relating to Him.  The holy Names we use for G-d each reflects a different facet of His behavior as seen by imperfect and limited observers. Jewish practice recognizes seven most important Names that are used in the Bible, although the mystical tradition lays claim to many, many more. (The Names are really tools to enable us to relate to Him, even if imperfectly.  Judaism teaches that when the Bible wishes to make a point about what we cannot fully understand, it employs language that is within our experience to at least give us a glimpse of His reality.  The challenge to us is to understand that this language is figurative and not literal.  Thus, although the Bible speaks of G-d’s “hand” and “finger” and “eyes.” we understand that these refer to instruments He uses to translate His Will into action.  Not being physical in any manner, He does not have a finger or hand. When G-d “speaks,” it is not at all similar to our speech, other than that a message gets to the intended recipient.  Similarly, when the Bible describes G-d as “pleased” or “angry,” it does not mean in the sense that we know those words.  G-d cannot have emotions like ours, because emotions are a response to new situations, and nothing ever changes within His reality.)

KNOWING G-D THROUGH EXPERIENCE

A second way of “comprehending” G-d is through the experience of His closeness, which we feel while performing the mitzvoth, the many commandments He requires of us.  Especially according to the mystical tradition, when a person concentrates more on Whom he or she stands before, puts more heart and mind into the performance of a mitzvah, and has previously worked on his character to elevate it and make it more G-dlike, the soul is able to draw closer and closer to G-d, and eventually attach itself to Him for some amount of time.  While the soul clings to G-d it experiences Him more directly, and comprehends Divinity at first hand, albeit in a way that cannot always be put into words.

As the source of everything, there can be nothing more pleasurable than getting closer to Him.  This, traditionally, was the goal of committed Jews at all times in history.

Notes:

[1] Out of reverence, many Jews have a custom (this is not a matter of Jewish law) to spell out any of the Names or words used most often to refer to God. They will substitute a dash for the middle “o” in the word G-d.

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