Grace
(in an e-mail to Tziporah and Yasmina):
Christians can sometimes
get very angry with one another when they express their opposing social and
political viewpoints as "God's will." Yasmina, I know the phrase
"God willing" is powerfully important in Islam, an ever present
reminder of submission. I’m wondering if each of you would be interested in
talking about how you and your faith tradition approach the question of
"God's will," or is that even a concept that you deal with in those
terms?
Tziporah:
The
idea that God is the Ruler of the Universe and controls our fate is a
centerpiece of Judaism. Philosophers throughout the ages have addressed the
tension between human beings’ free will—our ability to make choices and the
consequences of our actions—and God’s ultimate control of each person’s
destiny. Jewish grandmothers, meanwhile,
have instructed entire generations of Jews to ward off the evil eye and
recognize God’s protection of our good fortune.
Yiddish, Hebrew and English all include idioms that express this central
idea. My Ashkenazi (Eastern European)
forbears would always say “God willing” when speaking of an event that would
take place in the future, and in their Polish accents it would sound like “Got
vill ink.” Many Jews include the acronym for the Hebrew phrase “b’ezrat ha-shem” (with God’s help) on
wedding invitations, indicating that we do not take for granted that our plans
will come to fruition without divine intervention. Finally, the Hebrew phrase “im yirtzeh ha-shem” (if God wills it) is
recited by religious Jews whenever they speak of their hopes, goals or
plans. This is both an expression of
faith in God’s providence and of humble acceptance of God’s judgment.
Grace:
I
love how your take on this subject is both humorous and serious, Tziporah! And I believe that the habitual use of the
phrase “God willing” makes a powerful theological statement. Where the catch
comes for me is having clarity on what God’s will is. Did not the Crusades, the Holocaust, slavery, and
the 9/11 attack all come about because of individuals' claims to be following
God’s will? I suspect that if we were to
examine ourselves carefully, we would find that we are far more bent on
justifying our own beliefs with the stamp of “God’s will” or approval than we
are willing to engage in a deep and painful search that will probably lead to
our own reshaping. I suspect that seeking,
not just claiming, God’s will is likely to disturb and unsettle us rather than
allow us to rest comfortably in the beliefs we already hold.
Tziporah:
In light of this week’s
murder of Sikh priests in their Temple, I’d like to add a serious response to
your question about discerning “God’s will.” In Jewish tradition, only the
Prophets are privy to God’s will and the period of prophecy was determined to
be finished with the canonization of the Hebrew bible. Nevertheless, people claiming to know God’s
will—false prophets—seem to arise in every generation. My favorite definition
of false prophets is “those who twist God's word to fit their own fancies…who
aim at nothing but their hearers' applause.”(Micah 3:5-7) In my humble opinion,
those who believe in God the Creator who is eternally righteous and loves all
creatures cannot simultaneously believe that God’s will is for them to destroy
God’s creation or murder God’s creatures.
When we pray for God’s protection and benevolence, we use the phrase
“May it be God’s will,” because we know that we cannot really change God’s will
to suit our own desires. We also pray for the righteous to flourish and the
wicked to perish by God’s will and not (God forbid!) by our words or deeds.
Yasmina
is on vacation this week.
