As parents, we are likely to be confronted with questions about God from our children. When we, as adults, often have complex or conflicted understandings of God, how do we talk our children? With an eye toward the goal of "making a mensch," what do you think are good ways to handle these questions? What does Judaism have to say about God? During this session we take a look at a few Jewish texts that can help us think about different ways we might approach this topic with our children. We will think about:
- names of God
- prayer as talking with God
- blessings: making us aware of God in the world
"The role of religion is to teach us to like ourselves, and to trust the world." - Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People.
(13) And Moses said unto God: ‘Here, when I come to the children of Israel, and say to them: The God of your fathers has sent me to you; and they will say to me: What is his name? What will I say to them?’ (14) And God said to Moses: ‘I AM THAT I AM’; and He said: ‘That is what you will say to the children of Israel: I AM has sent me unto you.’
1. What is the question that Moses thinks the Israelites are going to ask him?
2. What are some questions you can imagine a child asking about God?
3. Why is it important to know someone's name?
Each of us has a name
By Zelda, translated by Marcia Lee Falk
Each of us has a name
given by God
and given by our parents
Each of us has a name
given by our stature and our smile
and given by what we wear
Each of us has a name
given by the mountains
and given by our walls
Each of us has a name
given by the stars
and given by our neighbors
Each of us has a name
given by our sins
and given by our longing
Each of us has a name
given by our enemies
and given by our love
Each of us has a name
given by our celebrations
and given by our work
Each of us has a name
given by the seasons
and given by our blindness
Each of us has a name
given by the sea
and given by
our death.
(4) Do not make for yourself a graven image, nor any picture, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
This is the 3rd commandment - don't make any images of God. When we are children we might understand that this means God is invisible, and it is true that we can't see God. We can also understand this commandment as communicating that God is intangible - impossible to understand. So how do we explain something like that to our children?
Why might the Torah describe God using human characteristics?
In what ways is it helpful to imagine God with a human body and human emotions? It what ways is it complicated or frustrating?
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (Excerpt from Union Seminary Quarterly Review, January, 1966)
Shakespeare's Hamlet said: "To be or not to be, that is the question." But that is no problem. We all want to be. The real problem, biblically speaking, is how to be and how not to be; that is our challenge, and it is what makes the difference between the human and the animal...The meaning of God is precisely the challenge of "how to be."
Rabbi Harold Kushner, When Children Ask About God, p. 159
We must avoid the “Santa Claus” mentality which presents God with a shopping list of our desires. What we do when we pray is express the hope that our lives will be marked by the presence of those qualities we consider divine, the wish to act justly, practice compassion, speak the truth and build peace. We acknowledge in prayer that we depend on God for all these qualities, that though we have them in potential, we need the sustaining force we call God actually to practice them in our lives.
(24) The LORD bless thee, and keep thee; (25) The LORD make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; (26) The LORD lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
Think of a time when you felt "blessed" by someone else through praise, words of encouragement or the like. In what way(s) were you transformed by the blessing? Have you ever blessed someone else? If so, what does that feel like?
(5) And ADONAI descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of ADONAI. (6) And ADONAI passed by before him, and proclaimed: ‘ADONAI, ADONAI, God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; (7) keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and unto the fourth generation.’
Tosephot to Rosh HaShanah 17b (Rabbenu Tam 1000-1071):
Adonai: The Lord is merciful before a person sins
Adonai: The Lord is merciful after a person has sinned and repented
El: He is all-powerful
rahum: He is compassionate
vehanun: and gracious
erekh appayyim: He is slow to anger
verav hesed: He is abounding in kindness
veemet: even after His scrutiny of our conduct
notzer hesed la'alafim: His kindness extends to future generations
nosei avon: He forgives sins committed willfully
vafesha: He forgives sins committed in defiance of His will
vehataah: as well as those committed unwittingly
venakkeh: He acquits the repentant sinner.
18 [Moses] said, "Oh, let me behold Your Presence!" 19 And [God] answered, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you the name Lord, and the grace that I grant and the compassion that I show. 20 But," He said, "you cannot see My face, for man may not see Me and live." 21 And the Lord said, "See, there is a place near Me. Station yourself on the rock 22 and, as My Presence passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and shield you with My hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take My hand away and you will see My back; but My face must not be seen."
(ה) וַיֵּ֤רֶד ה' בֶּֽעָנָ֔ן וַיִּתְיַצֵּ֥ב עִמּ֖וֹ שָׁ֑ם וַיִּקְרָ֥א בְשֵׁ֖ם ה' (ו) וַיַּעֲבֹ֨ר ה' ׀ עַל־פָּנָיו֮ וַיִּקְרָא֒ ה' ׀ ה' אֵ֥-ל רַח֖וּם וְחַנּ֑וּן אֶ֥רֶךְ אַפַּ֖יִם וְרַב־חֶ֥סֶד וֶאֱמֶֽת ׀ (ז) נֹצֵ֥ר חֶ֙סֶד֙ לָאֲלָפִ֔ים נֹשֵׂ֥א עָוֺ֛ן וָפֶ֖שַׁע וְחַטָּאָ֑ה וְנַקֵּה֙ לֹ֣א יְנַקֶּ֔ה פֹּקֵ֣ד ׀ עֲוֺ֣ן אָב֗וֹת עַל־בָּנִים֙ וְעַל־בְּנֵ֣י בָנִ֔ים עַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁ֖ים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִֽים׃
5 The Lord came down in a cloud; He stood with him there, and proclaimed the name Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed: "The Lord! the Lord! a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, 7 extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He does not remit all punishment, but visits the iniquity of parents upon children and children's children, upon the third and fourth generations."
(טו) רבי ינאי אומר, אין בידינו לא משלות הרשעים ואף לא מיסורי הצדיקים.
(15) Rabbi Yanai says: We don't have the ability to explain the success of the wicked or the suffering of the righteous.
Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism
The true meaning of existence is disclosed in moments of living in the presence of God.
Mordecai Kaplan in The Many Faces of God: A Reader of Modern Jewish Theologies edited by Rifat Sonsino, pp. 22–23
In brief, God is the Power in the cosmos that gives human life the direction that enables the human being to reflect the image of God.
Martin Buber
When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them.
Eliezer Berkovits, Faith after the Holocaust, p. 64
The hiding God is present; though man is unaware of him, He is present in his hiddenness. Therefore, God can only hide in this world. But if this world were altogether and radically profane, there would be no place in it for Him to hide. He can only hide in history. Since history is man's responsibility, one would, in fact, expect him to hide, to be silent, while man goes about his God-given task. Responsibility requires freedom, but God's convincing presence would undermine the freedom of human decision. God hides in human responsibility and human freedom.
Erich Fromm:You Shall Be As Gods, 1966
1900-1980
The concept of God has gone through a process of evolution from the jealous God of Adam, going on to the nameless God of Moses, and continuing to the God of Maimonides, of whom man can know only what He is not. The 'negative theology' of Maimonides leads, in its ultimate consequence--though one not contemplated by Maimonides- to the end of theology. How can there be a 'science of God' when there is nothing one can say or think about God? When God himself is the unthinkable , the 'hidden,' the 'silent' God, the Nothing?
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Halakhic Man, 1984
1903-1993
When God created the world, He provided an opportunity for the work of His hands – humanity – to participate in His creation. The Creator, as it were, impaired reality with the promise that mortal man could repair its flaws and perfect it. God gave the Book of Creation – that repository of the mysteries of creation – to man, not simply for the sake of theoretical study but in order that man might continue the act of creation...
The perfection of creation, according to the view of the halakhic man, is expressed in the actualization of the ideal Halakhah in the real world. … The Halakhah fills the “deficiency” by drawing the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, downward into the lowly world, by “contracting” transcendence within our flawed world. … If man wishes to attain the rank of holiness, he must become a creator of worlds. If a man never creates, never brings into being anything new, anything original, then he cannot be holy unto his God.