Silver Trumpets

A recent FaceBook conversation with a Christian lead to following, deceptively succinct question, “But as a Jew, do you believe [Hashem] is a person, or a force?”

My response was that Hashem is beyond human comprehension, and I was respectfully asked to explain the position.  As I started gathering scriptural passages to support this view, my response grew to a blog post, and here we are.  I also realized I had never really thought about the ineffable nature of Hashem before.  It was an assumption–one I had never consciously tested against the peshat (plain meaning) of the TaNaKh.  It is an idea that, in my experience and study, is common among most Avrahamic religions, including many denominations of Christianity.  This is an idea with which I was raised.  I never questioned it.  It was frequently reinforced, and I never saw anything contrary to it in scripture.  

What was the official “party line” on the subject?  Honestly, I had to look it up.  The answer I found, was that Jews (in general, both Rabbinic and Karaite) consider Hashem to be beyond comprehension, but also know Him to be infinite, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.  Some would also add omnibenevolent, although I would argue that benevolence is a highly human attribute, and that omnibenevolence is not supported by peshat.  

For Rabbinical Jews, what is known and understood about the Nature of Hashem also includes various statements in Maimonides’ Thirteen Articles of Faith.  And Maimonides’ Thirteen Attributes of Mercy describe what Rabbinical Jews believe to be the human understanding of Hashem’s methods of action (they are not part of Karaite belief).

For Karaite Jews, HaDassi’s Ten Articles of Faith, which were written in the century preceding Maimonides’ life, include our understanding of Hashem’s Nature:

1. The uniqueness of God’s creation and wisdom; God is the Creator who causes life and death. 
2. He is the first, one without a second, powerful, knowing, existent, and living in his essence as we understand; there is none like him.

However, Karaites also pride ourselves on “searching the Scripture,” instead of relying on the interpretations of man.  HaDassi and Maimonides may have had insightful things to say, but they were not prophets.  What does the TaNaKh tell us?

First, both Rabbinical and Karaite Jews hold that human-like characteristics (face, hands, wrath, repentance, love, etc.) ascribed to Hashem in Scripture are metaphorical in nature, and not literal characterizations of Hashem.  Moreover, without such comparisons, we would be hindered in our effort to understand Hashem’s will for us. Hashem sometimes describes Himself in an anthropomorphized manner in order to help us understand His message.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”–Shemot (Exodus) 20:4

The wickedness of idolatry is never far from the subject in discussing Scripture.  If we believe we understand what Hashem is, whether “person,” “force,” or something else, a solid definition is a man-made creation, and therefor and idol, even if not a material one.  A solid definition is also a limitation of Hashem, as the act of defining requires exclusion as much as inclusion.

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”–1 Shmuel (Samuel) 16:7

Hashem is not interested in cover so much as He is in the book.  That doesn’t just apply to His interest in man, it applies to everything.  Hashem is interested in the heart of the matter, too–in His larger plan, rather than the outward appearance of finite details.

And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a thin silence.–1 Melechim (Kings) 19:11-12

Scripture tells us to approach Hashem with awe, with trembling, and even with fear.  In this passage concerning Eliyahu (Elijah) waiting to speak with Hashem, Eliyahu experiences several awe- and fear-inspiring phenomena, but none of them are Hashem, who is in the silence.  The awe with which we should approach the Divine is the awe of encountering that which we do not understand.  This is a common experience in the natural world.  The falling silent of a flock of birds, an army of frogs, or an orchestra of crickets is a good reason to stop and listen intently.

In a prophecy against the city of Ariel, Yesheyahu (Isaiah) wrote:

“But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built!”–2 Dvrei HaYomim (Chronicles) 6:18

Hashem is infinite.

Finally: