3 ms·

Is the YHWH character allegorical?

pron 11y ago
That depends on what you mean by "allegorical" (it usually means "stands for something else", but in this case whatever that something else is, we can just call that "God"), but there's much discussion (and disagreement) about the role god plays in the physical universe, if any. Just to get a sense for Jewish theology, see this quote by rabbi David Hartman: "I never had a clear concept of God. As a people with multiple traditions and different strands, today we stand before a multiplicity of models and are expected to declare which one we identify with"[1] One of the greatest modern Jewish orthodox philosopher, Y Leibowitz[2] (who was a scientist, too; a professor of biochemistry, organic chemistry and neurophysiology), believed that the Jewish god is not even necessarily personal (in the sense that he possesses a persona). He said that all questions about the nature of god are meaningless and idolatrous. He believed that the only relevant question about god is whether it is an entity worthy of worship. I.e. God is "that which should be worshiped". He also believed that the relationship between God and man is completely one sided and consists solely of man worshiping god, which in Judaism means to observing Halakha. So to him, religion was definitely not an explanation of anything, but an obligation -- a discipline -- one chooses to take upon oneself (and the observance of that obligation = belief in God). Leibowitz believed that his views simply mirrored those of Maimonides', who called them (in the 12th cetury) "negative theology". Simply put, Maimonides said that there can be no contradiction between the truths which God has revealed and the findings of the human mind in science and philosophy (simply because the two involve different realms) [3]. He even said that one cannot say that God exists, but only that God is not non-existent (which echoes modern intuitionistic logic, which lacks the axiom of excluded middle). [1]: http://hartman.org.il/Blogs_View.asp?Article_Id=33 http://hartman.org.il/Blogs_View.asp?Article_Id=33 [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshayahu_Leibowitz#Religious_philosophy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshayahu_Leibowitz#Religious_... [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides#Negative_theology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides#Negative_theology

pron 11y ago

That depends on what you mean by "allegorical" (it usually means "stands for something else", but in this case whatever that something else is, we can just call that "God"), but there's much discussion (and disagreement) about the role god plays in the physical universe, if any. Just to get a sense for Jewish theology, see this quote by rabbi David Hartman: "I never had a clear concept of God. As a people with multiple traditions and different strands, today we stand before a multiplicity of models and are expected to declare which one we identify with"[1] One of the greatest modern Jewish orthodox philosopher, Y Leibowitz[2] (who was a scientist, too; a professor of biochemistry, organic chemistry and neurophysiology), believed that the Jewish god is not even necessarily personal (in the sense that he possesses a persona). He said that all questions about the nature of god are meaningless and idolatrous. He believed that the only relevant question about god is whether it is an entity worthy of worship. I.e. God is "that which should be worshiped". He also believed that the relationship between God and man is completely one sided and consists solely of man worshiping god, which in Judaism means to observing Halakha. So to him, religion was definitely not an explanation of anything, but an obligation -- a discipline -- one chooses to take upon oneself (and the observance of that obligation = belief in God). Leibowitz believed that his views simply mirrored those of Maimonides', who called them (in the 12th cetury) "negative theology". Simply put, Maimonides said that there can be no contradiction between the truths which God has revealed and the findings of the human mind in science and philosophy (simply because the two involve different realms) [3]. He even said that one cannot say that God exists, but only that God is not non-existent (which echoes modern intuitionistic logic, which lacks the axiom of excluded middle). [1]: http://hartman.org.il/Blogs_View.asp?Article_Id=33 http://hartman.org.il/Blogs_View.asp?Article_Id=33 [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshayahu_Leibowitz#Religious_philosophy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshayahu_Leibowitz#Religious_... [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides#Negative_theology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides#Negative_theology