GOD - PART 1

 

WHO IS GOD?

 

The Talmud teaches that Aall beginnings are difficult.@  As we begin a new cycle of Torah readings, as I begin my 26^th year of the Rabbinate, it is difficult reflecting on what I really believe.   But I am ready to tackle the topic I chose this year: After Twenty Five Years After Ordination; What Do I Really Believe?  And the first topic that must be tackled is, what do I believe about God?

I have always believed in God.  I remember a class when I was still in college where a professor surveyed his students on a quiz - ADo you really believe in God?@   At that time I thought for a few moments, and then answered AYes.@   College is when we are supposed to be skeptics.  This sophisticated professor must have thought that I was naive, old-fashioned, still under the influence of my parents.  But belief in God was part of who I was.

However, I suppose it all depends on what we mean by God.  I recently heard the comedian George Carlin give his perspective on religion.  He said more or less, AI suppose some people believe there is an old man who sits in the sky watching everything we do, keeping track, and if we do things that are wrong we will burn forever in a fiery place, and this man loves us.@  Everybody laughed, myself included. 

This is a caricature of religion.  Carlin is a better comedian than a theologian.  He may not believe in the Aold man in the sky kind of God.@  Neither do I believe in such a God.  My views, and those of most the religious people I know, are far more sophisticated than that.

So what do I mean when I say that I believe in God.  Let me start by saying that there is more to reality than the material world.  We live in a material world, a world of matter and energy, space and time.  By material, we mean anything that we can see, hear, feel, smell, taste.  We mean those things that can be perceived by our senses, those things that can be measured in a laboratory.  Materialists believe that, if something cannot be measure in a laboratory, it does not exist.  There is only the material.

Many scientists are materialists.  They study natural phenomena.  If it cannot be measured, it doesn=t exist.  Napoleon Bonaparte sent a letter to the great eighteenth century French astronomer Pierre Simon de Laplace, saying that he had written a huge book without once mentioning the author of the universe.  Laplace=s reply has become the materialist credo, ASire, I have no need for that hypothesis.@   However, many scientists, including some of the greatest such as Albert Einstein, rejected this simplistic materialism.  There must be more to reality than what we can measure.

My belief in God begins with a belief that there is more to reality than what we can measure, touch, or perceive.  There is more than the material world.  I believe that God exists in a realm beyond the physical or material.  Things in the physical world can be divided, and will wear down and fall apart.  God is not of this world.  At the end of Friday night services, we sing in the prayer called yigdal, AHe has nothing that resembles a body and no body.@   (With much respect to my Christian friends, this is an area where we differ.  Christians believe in incarnation, that God literally took on a human body and walked on this earth.  As a Jew, I believe God dwells in a realm beyond the physical.)

Can I prove God exists?   Proofs are something of this material world.  Demonstrations of God involve the senses.  If God is part of a reality beyond this world, there can be no proof.  However, there are phenomena in this world that cannot be explained by anything of this world.  For example, how can we explain consciousness?   Our own consciousness seems to point to something beyond the material.

It is difficult even to find words from this world to describe the realm of God.  In kabbala, God is called ein sof, without end or infinity.  In the Bible, God has a name of four Hebrew letters yud, hey, vav, hey, from the Hebrew root Ato be.@  But these four letters are virtually unpronouncable.   The only one who ever spoke God=s name was the High Priest, and then only on Yom Kippur as part of the ceremony in the Holy of Holies.  The name was so special that it was only spoken by the holiest person on the holiest day in the holiest place on earth.

If God exists in a realm beyond the material, with a name that means infinity that cannot be pronounced, why do I still believe in God?   I go back to one of my favorite stories in the Bible.  Shortly after the incident with the Golden Calf, Moses turned to God and said, ALet me see your essence.@  God replied, ANo one can see my face and live.  Hide in the rock while I pass over you, and you will see my back.@  By God=s face, we mean God=s essence.  We humans cannot see God=s essence.  By God=s back, we mean what God does.  I believe in God because I see what God does in this world.

I believe in God because I see God=s actions.  And the actions point towards the unseen actor.

[To be continued.]

 

GOD ‑ PART 2

METAPHORS FOR GOD

Rabbi Alan Lew, in his book This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared, shares a wonderful insight.  R. Buckminister Fuller's students asked him to name the most important figure of the twentieth century.  His answer was Sigmund Freud.  They were surprised, until Fuller explained.  Freud introduced an idea on which every other great idea of the twentieth century is based.  "The invisible is more important than the visible."  Without this notion, twentieth century physics never could have developed.

Of course, Freud introduced the concept of the unconscious, and how it affects and even controls consciousness.  Einstein began his entire theory of relativity by asking the question, what would happen if you tried to pin down a beam of light?  Light seems to exist in a reality beyond the physical.  But these ideas are not new.  As I mentioned last week, any talk of God begins with a reality beyond the material world, a reality that we cannot perceive nor measure.  All of Judaism began with the idea that "the invisible is more important than the visible."

If God exists in a reality beyond this world, how can we humans even talk about God?   As I mentioned last week, perhaps we should simply refer to God as Ein Sof, infinity, as the mystics do, or use the unpronounceable name Yud Hey Vav Hey, from the root "to be."  And yet, as humans who inhabit a material world, we want to relate to the ultimate reality.  So we use human language.  Yet, we know that such language is mere metaphor.  It can only approach God, not describe God.  Let me share several examples.

In our most evocative psalm, we say "the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."   Is God really a shepherd causing us to lie by still waters, comforting us with a staff and a rod?   Of course not.  We use human language to create an image of something beyond human.  The reality beyond the material is reflected into this world in a way that comforts us and protects us, just as a shepherd protects and comforts his flocks.  The language is a metaphor.

Sometimes we evoke the name of God as a lover.  When Rabbi Akiba wanted to include the book Song of Songs in the sacred canon, he argued that the book is not simply a group of erotic love poems.  It is an allegory.  The shepherd girl drawn into the palace of King Solomon is really the people Israel; her lover who comes to rescue her is really God.  We use the human language of the yearning of a young woman towards her lover.  Is God really a lover?  Of course not.  Again, the language is a metaphor.

When we have lost a loved one, we often feel that the world is devoid of God.  That is the reason that Judaism uses a particular metaphor for God when comforting mourners, HaMakom or "the Place."  It is a way of expressing that there is no place where God is not present, even if God seems hidden from us right now.  Is God really a place?  Of course not.  Again, the language is a metaphor.

Many people today are troubled that we use male language for God.  Obviously, God is not a man, nor is God a woman.  And yet, sometimes male metaphors evoke important emotions in us.  One of the most powerful moments on the Jewish High Holidays is when hundreds of voices sing in unison, Avinu Malkenu, "Our Father, Our King."  Something is lost when we make the language gender neutral ‑ Our Parent, Our Sovereign. 

       Erich Fromm spoke of fatherly love as the love of a parent towards a child that is a bit more distant and more demanding, laying down rules and expectations.  Perhaps that is the image of God we need to hear on the High Holidays.  In fact, Dennis Prager has written that in this age when so many children are being raised without fathers, the fatherly, male metaphors for God are particularly critical.

Having said that, today there is a search to find balance and rediscover the female metaphors for God.  This is particularly prevalent among many Jews attracted to New Age or Renewal forms of Judaism.   Many go back to sources in Kabbala or Jewish mysticism, where God becomes Shechina, the female presence.  They speak of God as a Source, a Well, even the Womb of all life.   There are times we humans need to feel embraced by that unconditional motherly love, when we need to feel the presence of the Shechina.  Perhaps the goal of our age is not to remove male and female aspects of the ultimate reality, but rather to balance them.

Freud, the Jewish atheist, taught the world that the invisible is more important than the visible.  God is part of a reality beyond the material.  We humans can only use metaphors to describe our relationship with God.  God may appear to us as a shepherd, a lover, the place, a father, or a mother.   But ultimately, God inhabits a reality we cannot describe.  We cannot know what God is, only what God does.

[To be continued.]

 

GOD - PART 3

CREATION, REVELATION, REDEMPTION

There is a reality beyond the physical, material world.  When we speak of God, we are speaking of something that dwells in a different dimension.  That is part of the reason we humans, who live in a world of time and space, matter and energy, cannot pin God down.  If we live in a world of four dimensions, the spiritual reality is part of a fifth dimension.  Even Moses could not view God=s essence.  He was permitted to view only God=s actions. 

Living in a material world, we can only view certain actions.  These actions do not prove there is a God.  But they do point in a direction.  Jewish liturgy is built around three different ways God interacts with the world.  We can summarize these actions by three words - creation, revelation, and redemption.  Each is worth exploring in greater detail.

If the world was allowed to follow its own nature, chaos would reign.  Scientists speak about entropy, the fact that all things naturally fall apart.  Disorder ought to be the way of the world.  And yet, I look at a universe where order and design seem to reign.  Out of chaos, order emerges.  First there are photons of light, then particles such as quarks and electrons, then simple hydrogen atoms.  Soon more complex atoms emerge, including carbon.  These form chains of molecules such as proteins.  Certain self-replicating proteins emerge, and so life begins.  More complex life emerges, eventually brains are formed, and with them consciousness.  Eventually a higher form of consciousness emerges, and humanity is born.

Does any of this prove God exists?  No.  What it shows is a tendency in the universe towards creativity, order, and higher forms of life and consciousness.  Could it be mere happenstance?  Possibly.  But in my mind, creation points towards a Creator, a force that caused order to emerge from chaos.  I know nothing about this Creator, but I am willing to give it the name God.  And so begins my religious faith.

It is not enough to say that God created the world.  There is an entire religious outlook called deism, which says that God created the world, set it into motion, and has proceeded to ignore it.  There may be a God, but He (or She) does not care what happens in this world.  We humans live in a created but disinterested universe.  I cannot accept this.

As a human being, I have certain deep insights into how we ought to live our lives.  Some would call these insights Anatural law.@  Others would argue for revelation; that at one point in history God revealed certain rules and teachings on how to live our lives.  How exactly this happened is a mystery.  I am not a literalist, believing that God gave us teachings word by word and letter by letter, as we would download a document over a modem.  Perhaps God chose certain individuals with deep human insight, and revealed the law to them.     

I believe that there are God-given rules on how we humans are to live our lives.  When we learn AThou shall not murder,@ AThou shall not steal,@ AHonor your parents,@ or ARemember the Sabbath Day,@ these are not mere human constructs.  These laws were not invented by human beings, but flowed from the One Who created us.  Revelation is a second way to see the interaction between God and the world.

There is a third way that points towards God in this world of space and time.  I will admit that it is often the most difficult for us to see.  We Jews have always viewed the hand of God in history.  To the pagans, history was a great cycle, things never became any better, there was Anothing new under the sun,@ to quote Ecclesiastes.  Every human would die no better off than when he or she was born, there was little hope that anything would become better.  If you were born a slave, you would die a slave, that was your place in the universe, and it could never change.

The Hebrew Bible gave the world a brand new paradigm for the universe.  (See Thomas Cahill=s wonderful book The Gift of the Jews for a fuller treatment of this idea.) History has a direction.  Slaves could become free.  And the world could become a better place over the course of generations.

I look at human history and see the hand of God.  God acts by redemption.  The world is far from perfect, but it is certainly far better today than it was for our ancestors.  And I believe it will be even better for our progeny.  In human history I see the hand of God.

The great Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig built his entire world view on the three ways God interacts with the world - creation, revelation, and redemption.  However, he carried these ideas even further.  He taught that creation is mainly between God and the world.  Revelation is between God and humanity.  And Redemption is between humanity and the world.  Out of these six points - creation, revelation, redemption, God, the world, and humanity, Rosenzweig built his six point Star of Redemption.  And so Rosenzweig laid out our path.  Our task as humans is to help God in redeeming the world.

[to be continued.]

 

GOD - PART 4

EVIL IN THE WORLD

For one last week, I want to explore my belief in God.  I hope this will segue into what I believe about human beings.

We cannot prove God exists, or if God does exist, we cannot prove that God interacts with the world in any way.  However, I see certain things in this world of space and time that points towards God.   I see a world bursting with creation, which seems to point towards a Creator.  I see humans inspired by revelation, which seems to point towards a Revealer.  I see history moving toward redemption, which seems to point towards a Redeemer.  Creation, revelation, and redemption are the three indicators of God=s presence in this world.

The problem is that many will look at the evil in the world and see it as pointing towards the absence of God.  If there is a God, why do we live in a world of such cruelty and hatred, with innocent lives being taken all the time?  Why was there a holocaust or the terror of 9/11?  If God is all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful, why is there disease in the world?   Why are there birth defects, hurricanes and floods, cancer cells?  One could even ask, why did a good God create the mosquito?  Great questions, to which there are no easy answers.  Perhaps there is no God at all, and the world is here by random chance.  Perhaps we do live in a cold, unfeeling cosmos.

Some would answer by limiting God.  Perhaps God is not all- powerful.  (See Harold Kushner=s When Bad Things Happen to Good People for a fuller treatment of this.  AGod may not be able to cure the disease, but God cries with us.@)  Some would say that what we consider evil is not really evil at all.  All our suffering would make sense, if we could see it from God=s point of view. ( AThis is all part of God=s plan, and God must have such a plan.@)  Some would say God is not all knowing.   The kabbalists would teach that God limited God=s power through the act of tzimtzum, contraction.

As a religious Jew, I have struggled with the reality of evil in the world.  I have cried with families who have endured unspeakable sadness, and who have turned to me with the unanswerable question, ARabbi, why did this happen to us?@  Obviously, when sadness hits, it is not the time to start speaking theology.  All I can do is hold them and be present for them.  But then I must ask, AGod, where are You?   How did you allow this to happen?@  And yet, even through sadness, I repeat the words of Job, AThough He slay me, still I trust in Him.@(Job 13:15)

How can I believe in God in a world so filled with sadness and cruelty?  Allow me to grope towards an answer that has sustained me and given me faith.  I believe in God, but I also believe in evolution.  The world was not created at one moment.  Creation is an ongoing process.  I believe there is evil in this world because the world  is incomplete.   According to the Bible, God saw that the world was tov meod Avery good.@  Very good but not perfect.  The world is still in the process of being perfected.  Scientists teach that out of destruction comes growth; out of sadness come rebuilding.  Each act of evil is a step along the way towards the perfection of the world.

When disease hits, we must not only visit the sick and comfort the family.   We must be inspired to find a cure for the disease, or better still, prevent the disease altogether.  When the hurricane comes (a sensitive issue to me in Florida), we must not just help each other rebuild.  We must find ways to predict storms, and build better homes that can withstand the wind and rain.  And when murder becomes a political weapon, we must not only defend against murderers.   We must find ways to teach people to see the humanity of other people, and work towards the day when Anation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore.@  (Isaiah 2:4)