Jewish Theology Part 5

4. G.o.d's power is limited only by His own volition. "He doeth what He willeth."(232) In man the will and the power for a certain act are far apart, and often directly conflicting. Not so with G.o.d, for the very idea of G.o.d is perfection, and His will implies necessarily the power to accomplish the desired end. His will is determined only by such factors as His knowledge and His moral self-restraint.

5. Therefore the idea of G.o.d's omnipotence must be coupled with that of His omniscience. Both His power and His knowledge are unlike man's in being without limitation. When we repeat the Biblical terms of an all-seeing, all-hearing, and all-knowing G.o.d, we mean in the first instance that the limitation of s.p.a.ce does not exist for Him. He beholds the extreme parts of the earth and observes all that happens under the heavens; nothing is hidden from His sight. He not only sees the deeds of men, He also searches their thoughts. Looking into their hearts, He knows the word, ere it is upon the tongue. Looking into the future, he knows every creature, ere it enters existence. "The darkness and the light are alike to Him." With one glance He surveys all that is and all that happens.(233) He is, as the rabbis express it, "the all-seeing Eye and the all-hearing Ear."(234)

In like manner the distinctions of time disappear before Him. The entire past is unrolled before His sight; His book records all that men do or suffer, even their tears;(235) and there is no forgetfulness with Him. The remotest future also is open before Him, for it is planned by Him, and in it He has allotted to each being its days and its steps.(236) Yea, as He beholds events ere they transpire, so He reveals the secrets of the future to His chosen ones, in order to warn men of the judgments that threaten them.(237)

6. The idea of divine omniscience could ripen only gradually in the minds of the people. The older and more child-like conception still remains in the stories of the Deluge and the Tower of Babel, where G.o.d descended from heaven to watch the doings of men, and repented of what He had done.(238) Obviously the idea of divine omniscience took hold of the people as a result of the admonitions of the prophets.

7. Philosophical inquiry into the ideas of the divine omnipotence and omniscience, however, discloses many difficulties. The Biblical a.s.sertion that nothing is impossible to G.o.d will not stand the test as soon as we ask seriously whether G.o.d can make the untrue true,-as making two times two to equal five-or whether He can declare the wrong to be right.

Obviously He cannot overturn the laws of mathematical truth or of moral truth, without at the same time losing His nature as the Source and Essence of all truth. Nor can He abrogate the laws of nature, which are really His own rules for His creation, without detracting from both His omniscience and the immutability of His will. This question will be discussed more fully in connection with miracles, in chapter XXVII.

Together with the problem of the divine omniscience arises the difficulty of reconciling this with our freedom of will and our moral responsibility.

Would not His foreknowledge of our actions in effect determine them? This difficulty can only be solved by a proper conception of the freedom of the will, and will be discussed in that connection in chapter x.x.xVII.

Altogether, we must guard against applying our human type of knowledge to G.o.d. Man, limited by s.p.a.ce and time, obtains his knowledge of things and events by his senses, becoming aware of them separately as they exist either beside each other or in succession. With G.o.d all knowledge is complete; there is no growth of knowledge from yesterday to to-day, no knowledge of only a part instead of the whole of the world. His omniscience and omnipotence are bound up with His omnipresence and eternity. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."(239)

Chapter XV. G.o.d's Omnipresence and Eternity

1. As soon as man awakens to a higher consciousness of G.o.d, he realizes the vast distance between his own finite being limited by s.p.a.ce and time, and the Infinite Being which rules everywhere and unceasingly in lofty grandeur and unlimited power. His very sense of being hedged in by the bounds and imperfections of a finite existence makes him long for the infinite G.o.d, unlimited in might, and brings to him the feeling of awe before His greatness. But this conception of G.o.d as the omnipresent and everlasting Spirit, as distinct from any created being, is likewise the result of many stages of growing thought.

2. The primitive mind imagines G.o.d as dwelling in a lofty place, whence He rules the earth beneath, descending at times to take part in the affairs of men, to tarry among them, or to walk with them.(240) The people adhered largely to this conception during the Biblical period, as they considered as the original seat of the Deity, first Paradise, later on Sinai or Zion, and finally the far-off heavens. It required prophetic vision to discern that "the heavens and the heavens' heavens do not encompa.s.s G.o.d's majesty," expressed also in poetic imagery that "the heaven is My throne and the earth My footstool."(241) The cla.s.sic form of this idea of the divine omnipresence is found in the oft-quoted pa.s.sage from Psalm Cx.x.xIX.(242)

3. The dwelling places of G.o.d are to give way the moment His omnipresence is understood as penetrating the universe to such an extent that nothing escapes His glance nor lies without His dominion.(243) They are then transformed into places where He had manifested His Name, His Glory, or His Presence ("Countenance," in the Hebrew). In this way certain emanations or powers of G.o.d were formed which could be located in a certain s.p.a.ce without impairing the divine omnipresence. These intermediary powers will be the theme of chapter x.x.xII.

The following dialogue ill.u.s.trates this stage of thought: A heretic once said sarcastically to Gamaliel II, "Ye say that where ten persons a.s.semble for wors.h.i.+p, there the divine majesty (_Shekinah_) descends upon them; how many such majesties are there?" To which Gamaliel replied: "Does not the one orb of day send forth a million rays upon the earth? And should not the majesty of G.o.d, which is a million times brighter than the sun, be reflected in every spot on earth?"(244)

4. Nevertheless a conception of pure spirit is very difficult to attain, even in regard to G.o.d. The thought of His omnipresence is usually interpreted by imagining some ethereal substance which expands infinitely, as Ibn Ezra and Saadia before him were inclined to do,(245) or by picturing Him as a sort of all-encompa.s.sing s.p.a.ce, in accordance with the rabbis.(246) The New Testament writers and the Church fathers likewise spoke of G.o.d as Spirit, but really had in mind, for the most part, an ethereal substance resembling light pervading cosmic s.p.a.ce. The often-expressed belief that man may see G.o.d after death rests upon this conception of G.o.d as a substance perceptible to the mind.(247)

A higher standpoint is taken by a thinker such as Ibn Gabirol, who finds G.o.d's omnipresence in His all-pervading will and intellect.(248) But this type of divine omnipresence is rather divine immanence. The religious consciousness has a quite different picture of G.o.d, a self-conscious Personality, ever near to man, ever scanning his acts, his thoughts, and his motives. Here philosophy and religion part company. The former must abstain from the a.s.sumption of a divine personality; the latter cannot do without it. The G.o.d of religion must partake of the knowledge and the feelings of His wors.h.i.+per, must know his every impulse and idea, and must feel with him in his suffering and need. G.o.d's omnipresence is in this sense a postulate of religion.

5. The second earthly and human limitation is that of time. Confined by s.p.a.ce and time, man casts his eyes upward toward a Being who shall be infinite and eternal. Whatever time begets, time swallows up again.

Transitoriness is the fate of all things. Everything which enters existence must end at last. "Also heaven and earth perish and wax old like a garment. Only G.o.d remains forever the same, and His years have no end.

He is from everlasting to everlasting, the first and the last." So speak prophet and psalmist, voicing a universal thought(249); and our liturgical poet sings:

"The Lord of all did reign supreme Ere yet this world was made and formed; When all was finished by His will, Then was His name as King proclaimed.

"And should these forms no more exist, He still will rule in majesty; He was, He is, He shall remain, His glory never shall decrease."(250)

6. But the idea of G.o.d's eternity also presents certain difficulties to the thinking mind. As Creator and Author of the universe, G.o.d is the First Cause, without beginning or end, the Source of all existence; as Ruler and Master of the world, He maintains all things through all eternity; though heaven and earth "wax old like a garment," He outlasts them all. Now, if He is to manifest these powers from everlasting to everlasting, He must ever remain the same. Consequently, we must add immutability as a corollary of eternity, if the latter is to mean anything. It is not enough to state that G.o.d is without beginning and without end; the essential part of the doctrine is His transcendence above the changes and conditions of time. We mortals cannot really entertain a conception of eternity; our nearest approach to it is an endless succession of periods of time, a ceaseless procession of ages and eons following each other. Endless time is not at all the same as timelessness. Therefore eternity signifies transcendence above all existence in time; its real meaning is _supermundaneity_.(251)

7. This seems the best way to avoid the difficulty which seemed almost insuperable to the medieval thinkers, how to reconcile a Creation at a certain time and a Creator for whom time does not exist. In the effort to solve the difficulty, they resorted to the Platonic and Aristotelian definition of time as the result of the motions of the heavenly bodies; thus they declared that time was created simultaneously with the world.

This is impossible for the modern thinker, who has learned from Kant to regard time and s.p.a.ce, not as external realities, but as human modes of apperception of objects. So the contrast between the transient character of the world and the eternity of G.o.d becomes all the greater with the increasing realization of the vast gap between the material world and the divine spirit.

At this point arises a still greater difficulty. The very idea of creation at a certain time becomes untenable in view of our knowledge of the natural process; the universe itself, it seems to us, extends over an infinity of s.p.a.ce and time. Indeed, the modern view of evolution in place of creation has the grave danger of leading to pantheism, to a conception of the cosmos which sees in G.o.d only an eternal energy (or substance) devoid of free volition and self-conscious action.(252) We can evade the difficulty only by a.s.suming G.o.d's transcendence, and this can be done in such a way as not to exclude His immanence, or-what is the same thing-His omnipresence.

8. Both G.o.d's omnipresence and His eternity are intended only to raise Him far above the world, out of the confines of s.p.a.ce and time, to represent His sublime loftiness as the "Rock of Ages," as holding worlds without number in "His eternal arms." "Nothing can be hidden from Him who has reared the entire universe and is familiar with every part of it, however remote."(253)

Chapter XVI. G.o.d's Holiness

1. Judaism recognizes two distinct types of divine attributes. Those which we have so far considered belong to the metaphysical group, which chiefly engage the attention of the philosopher. They represent G.o.d as a transcendental Being who is ever beyond our comprehension, because our finite intellect can never grasp the infinite Spirit. They are not descriptions, but rather inferences from the works of the Master of the world to the Master himself. But there are other divine attributes which we derive from our own moral nature, and which invest our whole life with a higher moral character. Instead of arising from the external necessity which governs nature in its causes and effects, these rest upon our a.s.sumption of inner freedom, setting the aims for all that we achieve.

This moral nature is realized to some extent even by the savage, when he trembles before his deity in pangs of conscience, or endeavors to propitiate him by sacrifices. Still, Judaism alone fully realized the moral nature of the Deity; this was done by investing the term "holiness"

with the idea of moral perfection, so that G.o.d became the ideal and pattern of the loftiest morality. "Be ye holy, for I the Lord your G.o.d am holy."(254)-This is the central and culminating idea of the Jewish law.(255)

2. Holiness is the essence of all moral perfection; it is purity unsullied by any breath of evil. True holiness can be ascribed only to Divinity, above the realm of the flesh and the senses. "There is none holy but the Lord, for there is none beside Thee," says Scripture.(256) Whether man stands on a lower or higher level of culture, he has in all his plans and aspirations some ideal of perfection to which he may never attain, but which serves as the standard for his actions. The best of his doings falls short of what he ought to do; in his highest efforts he realizes the potentiality of better things. This ideal of moral perfection works as the motive power of the will in setting for it a standard; it establishes human freedom in place of nature's compulsion, but such an ideal can emanate only from the moral power ruling life, which we designate as the divine Holiness.

3. Scripture says of G.o.d that He "walketh in holiness,"(257) and accordingly morality in man is spoken of as "walking in the ways of G.o.d."(258) "Walk before Me and be perfect!" says G.o.d to Abraham.(259) Moses approached G.o.d with two pet.i.tions,-the one, "Show me Thy ways that I may know Thee!" the other, "Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory!" In response to the latter G.o.d said, "No man can see Me and live", but the former pet.i.tion was granted in that the Lord revealed Himself in His moral attributes.(260) These alone can be understood and emulated by man; in regard to the so-called metaphysical attributes G.o.d will ever remain beyond human comprehension and emulation.

4. In order to serve as vehicle for the expression of the highest moral perfection, the Biblical term for holiness, _Kadosh_, had to undergo a long process of development, obscuring its original meaning. The history of this term gives us the deepest insight into the working of the Jewish genius towards the full revelation of the G.o.d of holiness. At first the word _Kadosh_(261) seems to have denoted unapproachableness in the sense in which fire is unapproachable, that is, threatening and consuming. This fiery nature was ascribed by primitive man to all divine beings. Hence the angels are termed "the holy ones" in Scripture.(262) According to both priestly practice and popular belief, the man who approached one of these holy ones with hand or foot, or even with his gaze, was doomed to die.(263) Out of such crude conceptions evolved the idea of G.o.d's majesty as unapproachable in the sense of the sublime, banis.h.i.+ng everything profane from its presence, and visiting with punishment every violation of its sanct.i.ty. The old conception of the fiery appearance of the Deity served especially as a figurative expression of the moral power of G.o.d, which manifests itself as a "consuming fire,"(264) exterminating evil, and making man long for the good and the true, for righteousness and love.

5. The divine attribute of holiness has accordingly a double meaning. On the one hand, it indicates spiritual loftiness transcending everything sensual, which works as a purging power of indignation at evil, rebuking injustice, impurity and falsehood, and punis.h.i.+ng transgression until it is removed from the sight of G.o.d. On the other hand, it denotes the condescending mercy of G.o.d, which, having purged the soul of wrong, wins it for the right, and which endows man with the power of perfecting himself, and thus leads him to the gradual building up of the kingdom of goodness and purity on earth. This ethical conception of holiness, which emanates from the moral nature of G.o.d, revealed to the prophetic genius of Israel, must not be confused with the old Semitic conception of priestly or ritual holiness. Ritual holiness is purely external, and is transferable to persons and things, to times and places, according to their relation to the Deity. Hence the various cults applied the term "holy" to the most abominable forms of idolatry and impure wors.h.i.+p.(265) The Mosaic law condemned all these as violations of the holiness of Israel's G.o.d, but could not help sanctioning many ordinances and rites of priestly holiness which originated in ancient Semitic usages. Hence the two conceptions of holiness, the priestly or external and the prophetic or ethical, became interwoven in the Mosaic code to such an extent as to impair the standard of ethical holiness stressed by the prophets, the unique and lofty possession of Judaism. Hence the letter of the Law caused a deplorable confusion of ideas, which was utilized by the detractors of Judaism. The liberal movement of modern Judaism, in pointing to the prophetic ideals as the true basis of the Jewish faith, is at the same time dispelling this ancient confusion of the two conceptions of holiness.

6. The Levitical holiness adheres outwardly to persons and things and consists in their separation or their reservation from common use. In striking contrast to this, the holiness which Judaism attributes to G.o.d denotes the highest ethical purity, unattainable to flesh and blood, but designed for our emulation.

The contemplation of the divine holiness is to inspire man with fear of sin and to exert a healthful influence upon his conduct. Thus G.o.d became the hallowing power in Judaism and its inst.i.tutions, truly the "Holy One of Israel" according to the term of Isaiah and his great exilic successor, the so-called Deutero-Isaiah.(266) Thus His holiness invested His people with special sanct.i.ty and imposed upon it special obligations. In the words of Ezekiel, G.o.d became the "Sanctifier of Israel."(267)

The rabbis penetrated deeply into the spirit of Scripture, at the same time that they adhered strictly to its letter. While they clung tenaciously to the ritual holiness of the priestly codes, they recognized the ideal of holiness which is so sharply opposed in every act and thought to the demoralizing cults of heathenism.(268)

7. Accordingly, holiness is not the metaphysical concept which Jehuda ha Levi considers it,(269) but the principle and source of all ethics, the spirit of absolute morality, lending purpose and value to the whole of life. As long as men do good or shun evil through fear of punishment or hope for reward, whether in this life or the hereafter, so long will ideal morality remain unattained, and man cannot claim to stand upon the ground of divine holiness. The holy G.o.d must penetrate and control all of life-such is the essence of Judaism. The true aim of human existence is not salvation of the soul,-a desire which is never quite free from selfishness,-but holiness emulating G.o.d, striving to do good for the sake of the good without regard to recompense, and to shun evil because it is evil, aside from all consequences.(270)

8. The fact is that holiness is a religious term, based upon divine revelation, not a philosophical one resting upon speculative reasoning. It is a postulate of our moral nature that all life is governed by a holy Will to which we must submit willingly, and which makes for the good. How volition and compulsion are with G.o.d one and the same, how the good exists in G.o.d without the bad, or holiness and moral purpose without unholy or immoral elements, how G.o.d can be exactly opposite to all we know of man,-this is a question which philosophy is unable to answer. In fact, holiness is best defined negatively, as the "negation of all that man from his own experience knows to be unholy." These words of the Danish philosopher Rauwenhoff are made still clearer by the following observations: "The strength in the idea of holiness lies exactly in its negative character. There is no comparison of higher or lesser degree possible between man's imperfections and G.o.d's perfect goodness. Instead, there is an absolute contrast between mankind which, even in its n.o.blest types, must wrestle with the power of evil, and G.o.d, in whom nothing can be imagined which would even suggest the possibility of any moral shortcoming or imperfection."(271) As the prophet says, "Thou art too pure of eyes to look complacently upon evil,"(272) and according to the Psalmist, "Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, and who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart."(273)

9. The idea of holiness became the preeminent feature of Judaism, so that the favorite name for G.o.d in Rabbinical literature was "the Holy One, blessed be He," and the acme of all ceremonial and moral laws alike was found in "the Hallowing of His name."(274) If the rabbis as followers of the Priestly Code were compelled to lay great stress upon ritual holiness, they yet beheld in it the means of moral purification. They never lost sight of the prophetic principle that moral purity is the object of all human life, for "the holy G.o.d is sanctified through righteousness."(275)

Chapter XVII. G.o.d's Wrath and Punishment

1. Scripture speaks frequently of the anger and zeal of G.o.d and of His avenging sword and judgment, so as to give the impression that "the Old Testament G.o.d is a G.o.d of wrath and vengeance." As a matter of fact, these attributes are merely emanations of His holiness, the guide and incentive to moral action in man. The burning fire of the divine holiness aims to awaken the dormant seeds of morality in the human soul and to ripen them into full growth. Whenever we to-day would speak of pangs of conscience, of bitter remorse, Scripture uses figurative language and describes how G.o.d's wrath is kindled against the wrongdoing of the people, and how fire blazes forth from His nostrils to consume them in His anger. The nearer man stands to nature, the more tempestuous are the outbursts of his pa.s.sion, and the more violent is the reaction of his repentance. Yet this very reaction impresses him as though wrought from outside or above by the offended Deity. Thus the divine wrath becomes a means of moral education, exactly as the parents' indignation at the child's offenses is part of his training in morality.

2. Thus the first manifestation of G.o.d's holiness is His indignation at falsehood and violence, His hatred of evil and wrongdoing. The longer men persist in sin, the more does He manifest Himself as "the angry G.o.d," as a "consuming fire" which destroys evil with holy zeal.(276) The husbandman cannot expect the good harvest until he has weeded out the tares from the field; so G.o.d, in educating man, begins by purging the soul from all its evil inclinations, and this zeal is all the more unsparing as the good is finally to triumph in His eternal plan of universal salvation. We must bear in mind that Judaism does not personify evil as a power hostile to G.o.d, hence the whole problem is only one of purifying the human soul.

Before the sun of G.o.d's grace and mercy is to s.h.i.+ne, bearing life and healing for all humanity, His wrath and punitive justice must ever burst forth to cleanse the world of its sin. For as long as evil continues unchecked, so long cannot the divine holiness pour forth its all-forbearing goodness and love.

3. On this account the first revelation of G.o.d on Sinai was as "a jealous G.o.d, who visiteth the sins of the fathers upon the children and the children's children until the third and fourth generation." So the prophets, from Moses to Malachi, speak ever of G.o.d's anger, which comes with the fury of nature's unchained forces, to terrify and overwhelm all living beings.(277) Thus Scripture considers all the great catastrophes of the h.o.a.ry past,-flood, earthquakes, and the rain of fire and brimstone that destroys cities-as judgments of the divine anger on sinful generations. Wickedness in general causes His displeasure, but His wrath is provoked especially by violations of the social order, by desecrations of His sanctuary, or attacks on His covenant, and His anger is kindled for the poor and helpless, when they are oppressed and deprived of their rights.(278)

4. Thus the divine holiness was felt more and more as a moral force, and that which appeared in pre-prophetic times to be an elemental power of the celestial ire became a refining flame, purging men of dross as in a crucible. "I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger," says the prophet, "for I am G.o.d and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee, and I will not come in fury."(279) So sings the Psalmist, "His anger is but for a moment; His favor for a life-time."(280) In the same spirit the rabbis interpreted the verse of the Decalogue, "The sin of the fathers is visited upon the children and children's children only if they continue to act as their fathers did, and are themselves haters of G.o.d."(281)

The fact is that Israel in Canaan had become addicted to all the vices of idolatry, and if they were to be trained to moral purity and to loyalty to the G.o.d of the Covenant, they must be taught fear and awe before the flame of the divine wrath. Only after that could the prophet address himself to the conscience of the individual, saying:

"Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?