Must Jews Believe in God?
Rabbi Evan Moffic
Chicago Sinai Congregation
January 27, 2008
I was recently discussing this evening's sermon topic--must Jews believe in God?--with a temple member, and she brought up the following story. When their youngest daughter was six and seven, she and her husband used to read to her before bed. A little conversation would follow. Then, before they turned off the lights, the daughter would ask them--do you believe in God? Dad would say, yes, absolutely. Mom would say a bit more, talking about her various feelings and questions. This routine continued for several weeks. Finally, one evening the daughter asked the same question--do you believe in God?--dad said yes, mom started her winding and thoughtful explanation. After a few minutes, her frustration growing, this finally shouted: Would you just say you believe in God!!
This young girl desired a simple answer. This desire reflects a yearning for order and stability in this confusing world. Especially at a young age, we want to know that everything is okay and that the world makes sense. Sigmund Freud linked this yearning to the helpless infant's dependence on mother and father. Like a baby relies on his parents, Throughout life, he argued, every person yearns for an powerful and authoritative figure who can meet our needs and help us make sense of life. That figure becomes God. Some people maintain this view of God throughout their lives. Others develop a different--what we might call a more mature view of God--seeing God not as all-powerful but as some kind of force for goodness and order in the universe. Many of the theologians of liberal Christianity and Judaism fall within this camp. Others, however, are simply perplexed. They don't what to believe about God. I think many Jews--especially we Reform Jews--fall within this camp.
Statistical studies of American Jewry seem to bear this out. According to recent study, about half of the 5.3 million Jews in America identify themselves as "secular" or "somewhat secular." Whereas 95 percent of Americans profess belief in God or some kind of higher power, another recent survey indicated that about 60 to 70 percent of Jews claim such a belief (2003 Harris Interactive Poll).
What can we make of this? Does belief in God matter to Jews? Must it be something we embrace? My answer is Yes....But. God is central to who we are. Our Jewish approach to God has shaped Western civilization. Yet, Judaism does not ask us to believe in God in the way that belief is commonly understood.
First, in Judaism, to believe in God is not know everything about God. Indeed, the 12th century Rabbi Joseph Albo said that "If I knew God, I would be God." To believe in God is not say God does this, this and this. To believe in God is not say if I do "x" I will go to heaven, or if I do "y", I will be punished. That is not faith. That is hubris. Rather, the Hebrew word for belief--emunah--really means faithfulness. In Judaism, to believe in God is to be faithful to what God asks and demands of us. The Torah is our guide to discovering what these demands are. They include the Ten Commandments, which are part of this week's Torah portion and which Zach will discuss tomorrow. These demands derive from the underlying assumption of the Torah, which is that there is a moral purpose and order to the universe. We believe in God if we live our lives with faith in this proposition. We believe in God if we live as if there is more to life than the satisfaction of our own needs and desire, if we believe that there is something beyond ourselves that shapes how we live. One of the greatest Jewish thinkers of the 20th century, Mordecai Kaplan, put it well when he said, "It matters very little how we conceive God, as long as we so believe in God that belief in Him makes a tremendous difference in our lives." In other words, actions demonstrate belief. Our deeds, rather than our words or logic, illustrate our faith.
A profound example of this type comes, interestingly, from a well-known Catholic figure--Mother Teresa. A few months ago a book of her letters was published. In it she revealed her profound doubts about God's role in her life. She described her feelings of emptiness at prayer and unfulfilled yearning to understand God's truth. Despite her doubts, many in the world continue to see her as an exemplar of faith. She lived her life in a way that responded to God's demands even if she didn't know exactly who or what God is. In a way, Mother Teresa's doubts humanized her and illustrated the way that genuine faith is within everyone's reach. Rabbi Irwin Kula, reflecting on Mother Teresa's legacy, put it well when he said, "Mother Teresa’s honesty about her spiritual emptiness is uncomfortable for us because we tend to see genuine faith and love as free of doubt. But nothing could be further from the truth. A mature faith and a rich love, a genuine relationship with God or with another person is born of the grit and insecurity of life." Belief, faith is not certainty. It is the courage to do what is right in a world of uncertainty.
Since Judaism sees belief expressed through action, it follows that the best way to understand God is not as a noun. Rather, God is a verb. God comes into being only as we act in Godly ways. This idea was first proposed by Rabbi Harold Schulweis, who called it predicate theology. According to Schulweis, the important question is not whether we believe that God is caring or that God is merciful, but whether we act in Godly ways by caring for and having mercy on others. This view fits well with the structure of the Ten Commandments. One of its peculiar features is that the first commandment is not really a commandment. If we read it closely we see that the first commandment is "I am the Lord your God, who brought who out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." That's it. It's not a commandment. It's a statement. Only when we get to the second commandment do we see an actual command: "You shall have no other gods before me." The familiar other commanments--you shall not steal, you shall not murder, etc--follow. Why this peculiar structure? It's not the same in Christianity, which counts "You shall have no other gods before me" as part of the First Commandment. Why does Judaism begin the Ten Commandments with a statement--I am the Lord your God? Because the ultimate commandment is to live up to that statement--to demonstrate that proposition--by following the particular commandments that follow. The relationship between the first commandment and the nine others is like the relationship between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Like the First Commandment, the Declaration of Indpendence sets out a vision--that vision of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Like the other Ten commandments, the Constitution is our way of realizing it.
The statistics that measure belief in God use the wrong measurements. In Judaism, we don't illustrate belief by words. We demonstrate it by action. We don't see God as an old man in the sky with a beard and a lightening bolt. We see God when we see the pain and needs of another. We touch God as we reach out to help those in need. We demonstrate our belief in God through the details of our lives. Indeed, in my paraphrase and slight emendation of the prophet Micah: If we "do justly and love mercy, then we will walk humbly with our God."