Introduction to Judaism: Thinking about God

Along the same lines, Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Yosei: From where is it derived that the Holy One, Blessed be He, prays? As it is stated: “I will bring them to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in the house of My prayer” (Isaiah 56:7). The verse does not say the house of their prayer, but rather, “the house of My prayer”; from here we see that the Holy One, Blessed be He, prays. The Gemara asks: What does God pray? To whom does God pray? Rav Zutra bar Tovia said that Rav said:
God says: May it be My will that My mercy will overcome My anger towards Israel for their transgressions,
and may My mercy prevail over My other attributes through which Israel is punished,
and may I conduct myself toward My children, Israel, with the attribute of mercy,
and may I enter before them beyond the letter of the law. Similarly, it was taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha, the High Priest, said: Once, on Yom Kippur, I entered the innermost sanctum, the Holy of Holies, to offer incense, and in a vision I saw Akatriel Ya, the Lord of Hosts, one of the names of God expressing His ultimate authority, seated upon a high and exalted throne (see Isaiah 6).
And He said to me: Yishmael, My son, bless Me.
I said to Him the prayer that God prays: “May it be Your will that Your mercy overcome Your anger,
and may Your mercy prevail over Your other attributes,
and may You act toward Your children with the attribute of mercy,
and may You enter before them beyond the letter of the law.”
The Holy One, Blessed be He, nodded His head and accepted the blessing. This event teaches us that you should not take the blessing of an ordinary person lightly. If God asked for and accepted a man’s blessing, all the more so that a man must value the blessing of another man. And Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Yosei: From where is it derived that one must not placate a person while he is in the throes of his anger, rather he should mollify him after he has calmed down? As it is written, when following the sin of the Golden Calf, Moses requested that the Divine Presence rest upon Israel as it had previously, God said to him: “My face will go, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14). Rabbi Yoḥanan explained: The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Moses: Wait until My face of wrath will pass and I will grant your request. One must wait for a person’s anger to pass as well. The Gemara asks: And is there anger before the Holy One, Blessed be He? Can we speak of God using terms like anger? The Gemara answers: Yes, as it was taught in a baraita, God becomes angry, as it is stated: “God vindicates the righteous, God is furious every day” (Psalms 7:12). How much time does His anger last? God’s anger lasts a moment. And how long is a moment? One fifty-eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty-eighth of an hour, that is a moment. The Gemara adds: And no creature can precisely determine that moment when God becomes angry, except for Balaam, about whom it is written: “He who knows the knowledge of the Most High” (Numbers 24:16).

(215) If one should ask: Is it not written, “For ye saw no manner of similitude” [Deut. 4:15], the answer would be: Truly, it was granted us to behold him in a given similitude for concerning Moses it is written, “and the similitude of the Lord doth he behold” [Num. 12:8]. Yet the Lord was revealed only in that similitude which Moses saw, and in none other, of any creation formed by His signs. Therefore it stands written: “To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?” [Isa. 40:18].

(216) Also, even that similitude was a semblance of the Holy One, be blessed, not as he is in his very place which we know to be impenetrable, but as the King manifesting his might of dominion over his entire creation, and thus appearing to each one of his creatures as each can grasp him, as it is written: “And by the ministry of the prophets have I used similitudes” [Hos. 12:11].

(217) Hence says He: Albeit in your own likeness do I represent myself, to whom will you com- pare me and make me comparable? Because in the beginning, shape and form having not yet been created, He had neither form nor similitude. Hence is it forbidden to one apprehending him as he is before Creation to imagine him under any kind of form or shape, not even by his letters He and Vav, not either by his complete holy Name, nor by letter or sign of any kind. Thus, “For ye saw no manner of similitude” means, You beheld nothing which could be imagined in form or shape, nothing which you could embody into a finite conception.

(218) But when He had created the shape of supernal man, it was to him for a chariot, and on it he descended, to be known by the appellation YHVH, so as to be apprehended by his attributes and in each particular one, to be perceived. Hence it was he caused himself to be named El, Elohim, Shaddai, Zevaot and YHVH, of which each was a symbol among men of his several divine attributes, making manifest that the world is upheld by mercy and justice, in acordance with man’s deeds. If the radiance of the glory of the Holy One, be blessed, had not been shed over his entire crea- tion, how could even the wise have apprehended him? He would have continued to be unknowable, and the words could not be verily said, “The whole earth is full of His glory” [Isa. 6:3].

(219) However, woe to the man who should make bold to identify the Lord with any single attribute, even if it be His own, and the less so any human form existent, “whose foundation is in the dust” [Job 4:19], and whose creatures are frail, soon gone, soon lost to mind. Man dare project one sole conception of the Holy One, be blessed, that of his sovereignty over some one attribute or over the creation in its entirety. But if he be not seen under these manifestations, then there is neither attribute, nor likeness, nor form in him;

(220) as the very sea, whose waters lack form and solidity in themselves, having these only when they are spread over the vessel of the earth. From this we may reckon it so: One, is the source of the sea. A current comes forth from it making a revolution which is Yod. The source is one, and the current makes two.

(221) Then is formed the vast basin known as the sea, which is like a channel dug into the earth, and it is filled by the waters issuing from the source; and this sea is the third thing. This vast basin is divided up into seven channels, resembling that number of long tubes, and the waters go from the sea into the seven channels. Together, the source, the current, the sea, and the seven channels make the number ten. If the Creator who made these tubes should choose to break them, then would the waters return to their source, and only broken vessels would remain, dry, without water.

(222) In this same wise has the Cause of causes derived the ten aspects of his Being which are known as sefirot, and named the crown the Source, which is a never-to-be-exhausted fountain of light, wherefrom he designates himself Eyn Sof, the Infinite. Neither shape nor form has he, and no vessel exists to contain him, nor any means to apprehend him. This is referred to in the words: “Refrain from searching after the things that are too hard for thee, and refrain from seeking for the thing which is hidden from thee” [Ben Sira 3:21].

(223) Then He shaped a vessel diminutive as the letter Yod and filled it from him, and called it Wisdom-gushing Fountain, and called himself wise on its account. And after, he fashioned a large vessel named sea, and designated it Understanding [binah] and himself understanding, on its account.

(224) Both wise and understanding is he, in his own essence; whereas Wisdom in itself cannot claim that title, but only through him who is wise and has made it full from his fountain; and so Understanding in itself cannot claim that title, but only through him who filled it from his own essence, and it would be rendered into an aridity if he were to go from it. In this regard, it is written, “As the waters fail from the sea, and the river is drained dry” [Job 14:11].

(225) Finally, “He smites [the sea] into seven streams” [Isa. 11.15]. that is, he directs it into seven precious vessels, the which he calls Greatness, Strength, Glory, Victory, Majesty, Foundation, Sovereignty; in each he designates himself thus: great in Greatness, strong in Strength, glorious in Glory, victorious in Victory, “the beauty of our Maker” in Majesty, righteous in Foundation [cf. Prov. 10:25]. All things, all vessels, and all worlds does he uphold in Foundation. In the last, in Sovereignty, he calls himself King, and his is “the greatness, and the strength, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all” [1 Chron. 29:11].

(226) In his power lie all things, be it that he chooses to reduce the number of vessels, or to increase the light issuing therefrom, or be it the contrary. But over him, there exists no deity with power to increase or reduce.

(227) Also, he made beings to serve these vessels: each a throne supported by four columns, with six steps to the throne; in all, ten. Altogether, the throne is like the cup of benediction about which ten statements are made [in the Talmud], harmonious with the Torah which was given in Ten Words [the Decalogue], and with the Ten Words by which the world was created.