In our non secular traditions, we acknowledge that the truth
of God and the character of our relationship with the divine are a thriller that
transcend the constraints of human speech. To impart a way of God’s presence
and to make that relationship nearer and extra rapid, nevertheless, scripture and
liturgy make use of pictures and metaphors which have turn out to be acquainted and beloved to
those that attend worship or who learn and research non secular texts.
The pictures of God drawn from the realm of our human
expertise are quite a few and various. God is a loving dad or mum who guides and
watches over us, rejoices in our well-being and prepares us for the challenges
we’ll face once we attain maturity. God is a shepherd caring for the flock,
seeing to their wants, defending them and protecting them secure. God is a
sovereign, enacting sensible and simply legal guidelines that may allow communities to flourish
and can reduce violence, battle, and oppression.
What these pictures share is that they place people in a extra
passive position – as kids, as a flock to be tended, as topics of their
ruler, however alongside them there are different metaphors in our religion traditions
that assign to humankind a extra energetic position.
In Judaism, people are considered companions with God within the
work of creation. God normal a world wherein our wants for meals, clothes,
shelter and companionship may very well be supplied for. Once we recite grace earlier than a
meal or supply prayers of thanksgiving, we’re acknowledging God as the final word
supply of blessing, however none of those wants are met with out human effort. We
must plant and harvest the crops and put together the meals for our meals, and we
must spin, weave, lower to dimension and stitch the supplies for our clothes. To
benefit from the blessings of companionship, we’ve got to hunt out others, to interact
them, and to study to hear and to be attentive to their wants.
Partnership with God obligates us to behave as God’s brokers in
performing deeds of charity and lovingkindness. We turn out to be the eyes and ears of
God once we are conscious of and delicate to the overwhelming and unmet wants of
our fellow individuals, and we’re the arms of God once we freely and generously
give of ourselves and our personal substance. There can be limits to the assistance we
can supply and to what we personally may give, however the biggest sin is to
surrender our position as brokers and to push away a fellow particular person in want by telling
them that “God will present.”
Lastly, we’re obligated to behave as stewards of the world
that God created, to until the backyard wherein God has positioned us but additionally to
watch over and guard it (Genesis 2:15). To take advantage of the earth’s sources of
soil, earth, air and water solely for our personal rapid revenue and pleasure,
heedless of the hurt that we could be inflicting on our surroundings and of the
must restore the injury that has already been accomplished and to restrict future hurt
threatens the sustainability of life for our youngsters and their kids
and is a dereliction of our responsibility of
stewardship.
Rabbi Barry Marks is rabbi emeritus of Temple Israel in
Springfield.
