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Do You Speak of God?
Here’s a conversation starter written by Peter Schogol. Please comment below.
I used to speak of God quite frequently. In Yiddish (and, as I’m learning, Ladino) it’s impossible to have even a rudimentary conversation without earthy references to God in the vernacular (Gott and Dio respectively) and the more pious HaShem. And there are so many set phrases in English which involve the word God that without it we’d be stuck with “gosh” and — south of the Ohio — “daggone.”
Erich Fromm, 20th-century humanistic psychologist, a nontheistic Jew raised Orthodox, spoke of God frequently. While not believing that “God” signified an independently existing reality, Fromm found that God is one way people speak of the epitome of their highest aspirations towards truth, justice and love. He wrote an entire book Ye Shall Be As Gods as a humanistic exegesis of the Tanakh.
Fromm did not find every word of the Bible holy, and he didn’t address the passages where Hebrews behave badly and God even worse. Fromm, like most humanists, was a picky reader. Fromm also did not refer to God as “Thou.” It’s safe to say that he spoke of but not to God (as opposed to Martin Buber).
I have no problem speaking of God but I do it less and less as it leads people to think that I’m a believer. My breakthrough — my moment of Zen, as Jon Stewart would put it — was realizing that while I was not an “observant” Jew, I was a “serious” Jew, and that is every bit as valid even without the God-talk.
So on any given day you will find me perusing siddurim (prayerbooks), pinching a passage here, a blessing there, for my own Handbook for Hebrew Heretics. I love good language, and in some prayer books like the Siddur Sha’ar Zahav from the GLBTQ synagogue of the same name in San Francisco the language is absolutely stunning. I love the poetry of blessing and prayer, but for me, when God and I pass we nod but don’t speak.
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10 Responses to “Do You Speak of God?”
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August 22nd, 2009 at 11:51 pm
I approach prayer often as a state of suspended disbelief like attending a play, reading a story or watching a movie. For that moment of connection, I feel the words I’m saying, even if I don’t intellectually believe it. David Noel called this “fictive power”, an act of imagination.
I admit I can only do this selectively especially when using rather theistic and dualistic language and admittedly sometimes play with the Hebrew, sometimes addressing the divine as female, a friend, a lover, etc.
August 24th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
One way I’ve explored the issue is to think of life as God. While we have life it’s as accurate to say that life has us, is more than us, generates, sustains, and receives us upon our deaths.
August 24th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
I’ve been reading through the siddur (prayer book) from Congregation Sha’ar Zahav — the GLBT synagogue in San Francisco — and I find I have a different reaction to its theistic language than I do when reading the usual prayer books in Reform temples. In the mouths of people who continue to know discrimination, marginalization, and depersonalization, invoking God has a different gravitas than when coming from well-healed suburbanites for whom discrimination is a historical memory.
August 28th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Peter – I’m glad you chose to share your convictions through Our Jewish Community. I find your comments to be most refreshing and thought-provoking, especially your “moment of Zen”, realizing that you are a “serious Jew” and the validity that represents for you. How much we struggle to define and describe our lives and beliefs.!
After many years of questioning whether my own beliefs follow traditional Orthodox,Conservative or Reform doctrine, I’ve finally set all that aside. Does proscribed doctrine identify who we are? I don’t think so.
Being a Jew is my birthright.It speaks to me and sustains me each and every day of my life. I believe that the essence of “godliness” rests within our own selves…I think both life and death are “God” and that we are all a part of a greater whole.
Wishing you good health and a peaceful Shabbat.
August 28th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I believe in God and I speak of God, although I don’t “throw it around” like evangelists do. I happen to be a reform Jew who adheres for personal reasons to certain more traditional customs, like kashrut. I do this as a personal choice, not because I’m “commanded,” which would be the reason for an orthodox person. Many of my friends know I believe in God. Because I’m open to discussion, but neither preachy nor judgmental, I find that people use me to explore their own thoughts and feelings about God, which range, as you can imagine, from agnostic to strong belief. When I’m asked how I justify my belief in God or alternatively, how I came to it, my answer is this: I choose it. Just as I choose kashrut. I cannot “know” with a certainty that God exists, but the “god concept” works for me. It centers me and helps me feel protected in an otherwise chaotic world. It matters not whether I have proof or no proof. Shabbat shalom all!
August 29th, 2009 at 12:25 am
Thanks, Selma. I am so convinced that Our Jewish Community provides an unique medium for speaking of our unique faith perspectives that I joined “the mother ship” Congregation Beth Adam! This is the first synagogue I’ve ever joined!
Rabbi Barr mentioned several Jewish theologians of the past century as offering God concepts which are workable for humanists. One name that doesn’t get put on the table much these days is Martin Buber, likely because many people feel Buber’s God to be in some sense too real. I understand Buber’s “Eternal Thou” to be the Thou of life, my life particularly. When I say things like “Why me?” or “Now why did I go and do that?” I’m addressing my life as if it had the capability of answering. When I pray for healing or greater understanding, whom am I addressing if not the power of the life which animates me to ramp up the volume, so to speak, on the capabilities my life already possesses?
So I would say it’s entirely possible for a humanist or a naturalist to have a lively relationship with the voice of one’s life. That, for me, is a relationship with God.
September 2nd, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Hi Peter!
Peter and I have run across each other on various forums as our spiritual seeking has connected with various groups at various times. All I can say is that Peter continues to express what is often in my own head.
On this question, I go back and forth on whether or not I use the term God. When I do use the term, it is with a more naturalistic interpretation generally similar to Kaplan.
September 12th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Peter wrote: “Rabbi Barr mentioned several Jewish theologians of the past century as offering God concepts which are workable for humanists.”
Could you please tell me who else, in addition to Buber, would be on that list?
September 13th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
In response to Jamie’s question about Jewish theologians who offer God concepts which are workable for humanists – take a look at Mordecai Kaplan, Erich Fromm, and Alvin Reines. If you want a quick overview of each of these philosophers you might consider the book “Finding God: Selected Responses” by Rifat Sonsino and Daniel Syme.
September 13th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Thank you, Rabbi Barr!