“And God took us out of
Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with great awe, and with
signs and wonders.” (Deuteronomy 26:8)
Tziporah:
This verse was made famous
by the rabbis who compiled the Haggadah,
the book that Jews use to recount the story of the Exodus at the Passover
Seder, and who expounded upon it as follows: “Not through an angel, not
through a seraph and not through a messenger, rather The Holy One Blessed be He
did it in His glory by Himself.” The traditional text of the Haggadah focuses entirely on God as the
Redeemer of the people of Israel. While Moses is the conduit for God’s signs
and wonders in the biblical account, the rabbis removed him from the Passover narrative
so that future generations would understand that Moses was merely a messenger
or prophet of God. Both texts—the Hebrew
Bible and the Haggadah—contain
numerous references to God’s strength, using anthropomorphic language to
describe God. But these descriptions are not intended to be taken literally, as
Jews believe that God has no corporeal being. Nor are we permitted to create
graven images of God; we are, however, comfortable speaking metaphorically
about God’s physical attributes.
My understanding is that
Christians regard Jesus as the son of God—some believe Jesus to be a physical
embodiment of God—whereas Muslims do not speak, even metaphorically, of God’s
physical attributes. Although Jews
appear to fall somewhere between these opposing views, Maimonides (1135-1204)
cautioned against describing what God is because, by doing so, one might
inadvertently imply what God is not.
Is there anything that you
believe your tradition forbids you to say about God?
