[ad_1]
(JTA) — One of many centerpieces of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur liturgy is the “Avinu Malkeinu” prayer — Our Father, Our King. It’s a determined and emotional enchantment for forgiveness, set to highly effective melodies over the centuries.
It’s additionally a hurdle for many individuals, common and occasional synagogue-goers alike. Some can’t relate to a “king,” or bristle on the gendered implications of “father.” No matter they hoped to really feel or obtain in prayer is undermined by the archaic language and metaphors that don’t converse to them.
That’s the problem described in Rabbi Toba Spitzer’s new ebook, “God Is Right here: Reimagining the Divine.” The religious chief of Congregation Dorshei Tzedek in Newton, Mass., Spitzer understands how the language of Jewish prayer can stand in the best way of the significant religious expertise many individuals are searching for. Her resolution is to “dislodge” unhelpful metaphors of prayer and search for which means in several ones — historical and trendy — in ways in which assist individuals suppose and discuss “one thing that’s better than ourselves.”
The ebook asks what may be helpful if we have been to consider God as water, or hearth, or a spot, or sure, even a king. All are metaphors for God discovered within the Torah and the Jewish prayer ebook. You don’t must ask whether or not you imagine that God is a dad or mum or a monarch, she says, however reasonably discover the place the poetry of metaphor can take you. “My hope,” she writes, “is that we will recapture the alive-ness which as soon as pervaded our holy texts, and reconstruct our metaphors in order that they’re as soon as once more participating and significant.”
Spitzer is the previous president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Affiliation — the primary LGBTQ rabbi to move a nationwide rabbinic group. She spoke with me through Zoom.
Our dialog has been edited for size and readability
Jewish Telegraphic Company: It’s the Excessive Holidays. Individuals discover themselves in a synagogue for the primary time all yr, the place even common synagogue-goers face that firehose of liturgical language that won’t converse to them. For each units of individuals, there could also be a way that the Iron Age metaphors of the prayer ebook — God is king, heavenly father, shepherd, or perhaps a potter — don’t resonate with them. You say “individuals don’t have a God drawback as a lot as a metaphor drawback.” Are you able to clarify that?
Rabbi Toba Spitzer: Once I began this journey into metaphor and cognitive linguistics, I spotted, and this can be a quote from the anthropologist Barbara J. King, that “the non secular creativeness thrives on the human craving to enter into emotional expertise with some power vaster than ourselves.” There may be some foundational human expertise of the sacred that’s existed always and in any respect locations. And sooner or later, individuals began utilizing metaphors to consider and work together with that have:
“God is an enormous particular person” or “God’s an outdated man within the sky.” It’s not that that may be a dangerous metaphor, however there are some problematic elements to it. Or the “king” one: I feel People have an enormous drawback with royalty. We’re skilled to not like authority so it doesn’t work for lots of People.
So the metaphor drawback is, “Wow, I do have religious experiences. I do wish to feed my spirit. After which I turned to a metaphor that doesn’t work for me, what do I do?”
I exploit this analogy of a restaurant — like I simply stroll out of the restaurant, as a result of there’s nothing on the menu that satisfies me. And but our ancestors had a a lot richer palette of metaphors to select from that would convey their experiences of the sacred. So, the ebook is nothing new. It’s simply attempting to say, what if we took these different metaphors critically?
So, whenever you attempt to reclaim metaphors, you’re nonetheless drawing on a few of these present in custom: God is hearth, or a warrior, or an eagle, water, a rock.
I wish to reclaim all of it. Within the first couple of chapters I lay out this argument, which is the argument of cognitive linguists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, that in an effort to apprehend actuality and get our minds round summary issues, we want metaphor. I really feel like these have been metaphors that have been very alive in our ancestors’ lives and never simply phrases on the web page, so it’s not shocking a whole lot of them are from the pure world. I attempted out extra trendy ones, like electrical energy and GPS, however I really like the traditional ones.
I wish to dig into a number of of these in a second, however I like your framing of easy methods to take care of doubt. As a substitute of asking, “Do I imagine this?” we will ask of a prayer: “The place is that this attempting to take me?” How may that work in follow?
Let’s return to the Excessive Holidays and among the human metaphors. We are saying, “Our Father, our King.” Do I imagine God is a king? No. But when I say that is poetry and my ancestors have been attempting to evoke one thing, it takes me to a couple instructions. I feel the massive theme of Rosh Hashanah is like, “I’m not the middle of the universe. There’s one thing a lot greater than me.” So what did a king signify to the ancients? One thing highly effective, somebody who held the ability of life and demise of their fingers, however who can be largely beneficent. The Excessive Vacation liturgy is asking me to confront my mortality and confront the truth that I’m extraordinarily, extraordinarily miniscule within the scheme of the cosmos. I used to be simply performing some analysis and located that referring to God as a king within the Roman interval was subversive — at a time when the Roman emperor was thought of God. So the metaphor is saying that whereas we’ve earthly rulers, there’s one thing increased than that. So even when the phrase “king” may not work for me, that’s highly effective, and I wish to go in that course.
How may that work with water, which you write is among the most typical metaphors for God within the Hebrew Bible, as in Psalm 42: “Because the deer longs for water, so does my soul lengthy for You, O God.”
Water provides a number of issues. We are saying we’re created in God’s picture, and I’m 70% water. There may be sacred stuff actually flowing by means of me. In order that’s one piece. And that psalm leads me to ask, how am I dry? How do I nourish myself spiritually, what do I would like? Water can be a metaphor for godly energy within the Bible. If within the Bible, God’s justice is usually imagined as water, how can we align ourselves with the move? How do I get my values and my actions aligned within the new yr? Proper now in New England, we’re in a drought and in different components of the world they’re getting an excessive amount of water. That’s scary, and God is horrifying. So it’s each: We want each a way of awe and sustenance, and as we transfer by means of the Excessive Holidays, these two items are an enormous a part of the liturgy.
Rabbi Toba Spitzer is the creator of “God Is Right here: Reimagining the Divine.” (Thea Breite/Macmillan)
You write that within the early rabbinic interval, or the primary two centuries of the Widespread Period, the time period “HaMakom” — “The Place” — had turn out to be a reasonably well-known Jewish title for God. I at all times considered it as only a euphemism and probably not a metaphor, the best way the individuals in Harry Potter’s world discuss “the one who shall not be named.” How is it helpful to consider a spot as a metaphor for God?
The rabbi’s name [God] that for 2 causes. One is as a result of wherever you’re, there’s godliness. The rabbis have been in a interval when the Holy Place — actually, the Temple — had been destroyed they usually have been recreating connections to the Divine all over the place. So actually HaMakom was the place we skilled the Divine in each place. It’s at all times related to compassion, and a way of God’s nearness. I’ve discovered that when persons are in misery, no matter they suppose or don’t take into consideration God, I ask them to explain for me experiences of the sacred. They usually virtually at all times discuss locations. I feel it’s very simple for most individuals to conjure up locations the place they really feel sheltered, the place they really feel a way of marvel or the sacred. Place could be very accessible.
Do you are concerned that in case you cast off what you name the “God is an enormous particular person” metaphor, it dangers making God much less private? Nature metaphors are beautiful, however can they blur the intimate relationship many individuals hope to have with God?
I’m actually not attempting to eliminate any metaphors. Generally, you recognize, I need God to carry my hand or I wish to really feel like I’m being embraced by the Beloved or or cherished by, you recognize, a cosmic mom or no matter it’s. I don’t wish to eliminate these metaphors. I feel the particular metaphor of God as a distant emperor, which has type of someway acquired extra dominant in Jewish custom, is problematic as a result of it says tyrannical energy is godly. However sure, we would like a deep private connection, and the concept God is a instructor or a lover or dad or mum is gorgeous.
Human metaphors don’t deal effectively, for example, with the entire realm of theodicy, the entire realm of “when dangerous issues occur to good individuals.” As a result of then you’re caught with, “Why is that this taking place to me?” or “Why is God doing this to me?” Or, “If God is nice, how may God enable this to occur?” These are simply not helpful questions. Against this, after I was going by means of my very own heartache and exhausting instances, the water metaphor mentioned to me, “Okay, I’m within the water, the water is godly. It’s additionally completely overwhelming. How do I navigate this?” That’s a very helpful query.
Can the seek for new or totally different metaphors be pushed too far? Are you able to stretch the definition of God in such a approach that it’s now not God as understood by Jewish custom? If God is water, can water create and management the universe or enter right into a covenant with Abraham and Sarah or punish the Israelites for the Golden Calf, as we’re advised within the Bible?
Metaphors are usually not definitions. Within the historical Close to East, each divinity had a number of methods of being represented. And once more, I feel the ancients had a way more direct expertise of the Divine than we will even think about. They usually knew they wanted plenty of metaphors, and that’s why our scriptures are stuffed with them.
However we want all these metaphors as a result of totally different ones converse to totally different experiences. Hearth is usually a metaphor for God’s anger. We want to take care of anger. There may be such a factor as holy anger and unholy anger and even holy anger can result in destruction. That’s what most of the biblical tales present us. I feel that metaphor is way more helpful to me than, like, “the offended outdated man.” As a result of I perceive hearth. I perceive how hearth is totally essential to human life and will burn you actually rapidly. Most individuals can wrap their heads round that after which take into consideration divine hearth or holy anger in a very totally different approach than like, “why is God mad at me?” which once more, shouldn’t be helpful in any respect.
My pal Rabbi David Nelson wrote a ebook a number of years in the past known as “Judaism, Physics and God,” during which he drew on metaphors from trendy science to explain God, like God is a fractal, or God is a neural community connecting billions of human consciousnesses. Do you encourage individuals to search out metaphors in present know-how or society, like, I don’t know, God is a life coach or one thing like that?
You understand, no matter works for individuals. For a metaphor to be one thing we reside by, we have to actually make it energetic in our lives. I exploit GPS as a metaphor as a result of it’s actually helpful. There’s three components of GPS: There’s the placement half: The place am I? That’s the religious query. There’s the map: How do I discover my approach from right here to there? That’s religious follow. After which there’s the crowdsource: individuals telling me the place the bumps within the highway are or the place the cop automotive is. That’s the group. I discovered that abruptly that metaphor was actually helpful. So I completely encourage individuals to dive right into a metaphor, realizing that what might resonate with you right now might not really feel helpful tomorrow.
is editor in chief of the New York Jewish Week and senior editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Company. He beforehand served as JTA’s editor in chief and as editor in chief and CEO of the New Jersey Jewish Information. @SilowCarroll
The views and opinions expressed on this article are these of the creator and don’t essentially mirror the views of JTA or its dad or mum firm, 70 Faces Media.
[ad_2]
Source link
