God Talk
A lawsuite was filed against God.
That was the report on the morning news. It seems that a state senator in a Midwestern state filed a legal action against God in state court. His argument is that if God is everywhere, legal action could be filed anywhere. I imagine that you find that a little bizarre, but I find it a statement of God’s existence.
As Conservative Jews, we must believe that God exists. If not, why do we have prayer books filled with prayer to and in praise of God? However, it seems that God is not part of our vocabulary. We are uncomfortable talking about God, even in religious discussions. Last year I attended the Koach Kallah – Koach is United Synagogue’s program for college students, and the Kallah is its yearly gathering. I participated in a panel discussion with college students about their view of Conservative Judaism. After a long session of questions and answers, someone in the audience observed that God had not been mentioned once. Conservative Judaism is God centered. What is it that prevents us from speaking of God?
God loves you! How does that statement make you feel? Is it a Jewish expression or do we perceive it as Christian? It is in fact very Jewish. We find that in the opening words of the second blessing before the Shema: “Ahavah rabbah ahavtanu, adonai…” Deep is your love for us. Why then this disconnect? Is it that we have not been taught to speak of God? Back in the 1950s Dorothy Kripke z”l wrote a children’s book called Let’s Talk About God. Perhaps that book was meant more for the parent reading the book to the child than for the child being read to. In the generation since its publication our God talk has dissipated.
Not only don’t we speak of God, we don’t speak to God. Yes, our prayer books give us words and expressions to beseech and praise God, but do we, as individuals, take the time or know how to speak to God? There are times in our lives when we turn to God. My personal conversation with God began when my 10-month-old daughter died. I was ill prepared for that dialogue but I began it anyway. Too often it is personal loss that triggers these conversations. But there are other reasons and times for these conversations if we only knew how to start them. Rabbi Naomi Levy has written a lovely book, Talking To God, that provides guidance in beginning that personal conversation.
I find it paradoxical that Conservative Jews who follow halakhic rulings and perform mitzvot, both understood to have been given by God, have such great difficulty in speaking of or to God. It is time to have a better understanding of our relationship with God. The Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, in partnership with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly, has produced an adult education course, “Walking With God,” which brings together traditional and academic insights of God and provides an opportunity for us to respond to the paradox of God’s place in our daily and cognitive lives. This course is edited by Ziegler’s dean, Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, and Deborah Silver.
At Hanukkah, we add al hanisim to the Amidah. We thank God for our deliverance. It is time to make that conversation our own and to recognize that God is real and is everywhere. We each have a relationship with the God who loves us. We must begin to have a conversation with God as Conservative Jews.
Dr. Raymond B. Goldstein is president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
