Avot201

8:
Having established an understanding of man's free will we must now turn our attention to God's knowledge and knowing.

9:
All ancient polytheistic religions had at least one thing in common: they conceived of their deities in human form. The gods and goddesses were simply 'super' humans – 'man writ large'. In a sense they were not really all that different from modern creations such as Superman: outwardly appearing to be a human being but possessed of such powers that no human being could ever aspire to. This visualization of the deity in human terms received emphasis when Christianity conquered the western world and the Aegean basin. Not only did God resemble human beings but in some mysterious manner God even became a human being!

10:
All this is anathema to traditional Judaism. For devotional purposes Judaism has used – and continues to use – anthropomorphisms in order to help the worshipper to be able more easily and more readily to establish an emotional rapport with the Deity. God is described as "Father" and "King", terms which certainly conjure up a mental picture of human shape (and possibly also human characteristics). But Jewish theological thought has always emphasized that such images are only anthropomorphisms: they are not 'the real thing'. I dealt with this subject at length in an essay I wrote on "God". If you are interested in pursuing further my thoughts on this matter please use this link.

11:
For Judaism, God is not human in any way nor in any sense. Judaism's concept of God is that of a being which is completely and absolutely not physical – a Creator that is not a part of His creation but exists outside and beyond the physical universe which we know and can explore. God cannot be seen – except in the mind's eye through the use of our imagination. The Torah [Deuteronomy 4:15-19] emphasizes this point:

In other words, God is not possessed of any physical shape or form which can be physically seen or appreciated by human beings. We share the divine characteristic of cogitation and intellectualization but we share no physical characteristics whatsoever.

To be continued.

n Avot 200 I brought to your attention a concern of David Lobron concerning Rambam's teaching concerning man and the divine image. To a great extent Ed Frankel shares David's concern:

Something recently occurred in my life that gives me considerable pause as we consider what it means to be created in God's image. I am meeting with a group of people that works with the severely, developmentally handicapped. If these persons still have the capacity for real thought, it is hard to imagine. Yet, there is no doubt that these people, some of whom are nearly living vegetables, are human in their physical needs. Perhaps there was a time when they had the same capacities as the rest of our species. Yet, at this time it is most perplexing, as one has to ask, what reflection of God is it that remains in them?

I respond:

I believe that I addressed Ed's concerns in my response to David in Avot 200. Let me just add that it is an inevitable consequence of our physicality that we are subject to debilitating 'wear and tear'. Sometimes this manifests itself in the form of mortal disease, sometimes it is just the onset of age; but at some stage or other in the life of every human being the physical aspects of our being are the cause also of our mortality. I think that this thought lies at the basis of a comment sent to me by Jim Feldman. He sent this as a counter-argument to David Lobron:

The imagery of the Tanach is wonderfully poetic. I think that it is best tasted rather than explained. But who can deny that those unfortunate enough to suffer from advanced Alzheimer's have indeed lost their humanity before they die? The Rambam got it right.

Because of the incidence of the festival of Shavu'ot the next shiur in this series will be, God willing, on Monday June 5th. Ĥag Samé'aĥ to everybody.