What Jews Say about God: From Biblical to Modern Times

Kolatch (The Jewish Book of Why) argues that God reveals himself to Jews in many different guises. The complexity and often contradictory Jewish views of God, he explains, are enigmatic both to Jews and to outsiders. Kolatch gathers the voices of poets, novelists, rabbis, politicians, scientists and humorists as they talk about the nature of God, the experience of God, ""God, Jews, and the World-at-Large,"" miracles and messianism, a personal God and ""Sin, Suffering, and Repentance."" Thus, on the nature of God, Beat poet Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) notes, ""The Jews always complained, kvetching about false Gods, and erected the biggest false God, Jehovah, in the middle of western civilization,"" while the Baal Shem Tov (1700-1760), the founder of Hasidism, declares, ""Everything created by God contains a spark of holiness."" On experiencing God, American actor Kirk Douglas says, ""The Bible tells us that God created us; we can't create God. God is beyond and above us all."" Theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), speaking of the search for God, notes, ""God is not indifferent to man's quest for Him. He is in need of man, in need of man's share of redemption. God who created the world is not at home in the world, in its dark alleys of misery, callousness, and defiance."" Finally, on miracles and messianism, the great Reform rabbi Leo Baeck (1873-1956) exclaims, ""The thought underlying the Messianic conception is that the soul must not allow itself to be subjugated to anyone but God."" On the same topic, Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, proclaims, ""Nothing could be more repugnant to the thinking man of today than the fundamental doctrine of Orthodoxy which is that tradition is infallible. Such infallibility could be believed in as long as the human mind thought of God and revelation in semi-mythological terms."" Kolatch's collection offers a lively introduction to various ways of thinking about God, for Jews and non-Jews alike. (Sept.)