The Body of Faith: God in the People Israel by Michael Wyschogrod

The Body of Faith: God in the People Israel Reviews

• 
  Carlos Laflauta

  Upon finishing Michael Wyschogrod’s book I could only say to myself “Thank goodness he doesn’t speak for Judaism” though no doubt he believes he does I cannot emphasize strongly enough that to many Jews Wyschogrod’s Judaism is not Judaism and Judaism as a whole must not be judged according to his standard But the philosophical strain for which he stands has become sufficiently influential that it merits thorough analysis Hence the perhaps regrettable length of this review and in fact because it is so long I had to submit it in pieces please see the first three comments for the continuation and conclusion I wanted to give Wyschogrod ample opportunity to speak in his own words so that no one can accuse me of misrepresenting him At least no one can say that I failed to take him seriouslyThere has always been in Judaism a delicate balance between universalism and particularism Jews are the “chosen people” of God in the sense that it was through their story that ethical monotheism became known to the world a view with which Michael Wyschogrod is vehemently at odds as we shall see It should not mean that Jews are in any way superior to or favored than others“Chosenness” is a calling not a privilege and it is not unconditional nor is it guaranteed by one’s ethnicity “Now therefore if you obey my voice and keep my covenant you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples Indeed the whole earth is mine but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” Exodus 195 6In the Hebrew prophets there are to be sure strong elements of particularism But there are universalistic aspects as well “For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” Isaiah 567 Indeed when Israel tried to claim chosenness as its exclusive possession God set them straight “Are you not like the Ethiopians to me O people of Israel says the Lord Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir” Amos 97 Israel is not the only nation whom God loves and guidesGod cares for others just as God has cared for the Jewish people While Isaac was chosen to carry forth Abraham’s legacy God also made Ishmael a great nation Genesis 1720 2118 God responded not only to Sarah but also to Hagar Genesis 2117 God even sent a Hebrew prophet Jonah to save the hated people of NinevehIn the Midrash rabbinic commentaries on the Bible we also find indications that the people of Israel are not God’s only children When the Egyptians were perishing in the sea after they tried to pursue the fleeing Hebrew slaves the angels in heaven wanted to sing with Moses a song of triumph but God interrupted them “The work of my hands are drowning in the sea and you are singing a song” Talmud Megilah 10b The joy of the Passover celebration is tempered by this realizationThus balance is important But in Wyschogrod’s work there is no balance He takes the particularistic pole of Judaism and runs it completely off the rail and over the cliffWyschogrod’s argument is uite long not built upon a firm logical structure and freuently meanders For purposes of clarity we can break his theology down into the following four subject areas which do flow logically from one another and which we can consider seuentially1 The election of Israel2 The nature and personality of God3 Implications for Jewish suffering4 Ethics and relations with non Jews1 The Election of IsraelFor Wyschogrod God’s preferential love for the Jewish people is not only one aspect of the Jewish religion it is actually the definition of Judaism“The foundation of Judaism is the family identity of the Jewish people as the descendants of Abraham Isaac and Jacob” p 57“Judaism and even God cannot be defined except in reference to the people of Israel God chose the route of election and of the election of a biological instead of an ideological people” p 58“Judaism is the election of Abraham and his descendants as the people of God the house of Israel is therefore not a voluntary association defined by acceptance or rejection of a set of propositions Judaism is a carnal election” p 175The essence of Judaism according to Wyschogrod is God’s love of the Jewish people above all others“Why does God proceed by means of election the choosing of one people among the nations as his people Why is he not the father of all nations calling them to his obedience and offering his love to man whom he created in his image”The answer is that God loves the Jewish people because God first loved their father Abraham Wyschogrod describes this love almost like an irrational infatuation“God’s relationship to Abraham is truly a falling in love The biblical text tells us this when it fails to explain the reason for the election of Abraham The rabbis of course were aware of this omission and perplexed by it They supplied reasons making of Abraham the first natural philosopher who saw through the foolishness of the idol worship of his time and reasoned his way to the one God in the Bible it is not Abraham who moves toward God but God who turns to Abraham with an election that is not explained because it is an act of love that reuires no explanation” p 64For Wyschogrod whose Judaism is biblical than rabbinic it is as futile to explain why God chose Abraham as it is to understand why a teenage boy chooses a particular sweetheart There is no rational basis for it “In spite of rabbinic elaborations the Bible does not portray the election of Abraham as a merited one” p 213 God’s love for Abraham is intense and passionate as we shall see So intense in fact that this love is extended to every Jew throughout the end of time“If God continues to love the people of Israel – and it is the faith of Israel that he does – it is because he sees the face of his beloved Abraham in each and every one of his children as a man sees the face of his beloved in the children of his union with his beloved” p 64So there really is a passionate erotic component to God’s love for Israel God singles Israel out and literally makes this people his location in the world“The existence of the Jewish people is the medium by means of which God enters the universe” p 13“The Jewish people is the dwelling place of Hashem God It is the people among whom he lives” p 103“The presence of God in the world makes itself felt through his word in the Bible and through the people of Israel” p 209“God dwells in Israel Israel is Hashem’s abode in the created world” p 212“Hashem appears in the world as the God of Israel There is no other way for man to refer to him to particularize him to distinguish him from other gods except by calling him the God of Israel” p 102“God is in and with the people of Israel and that is all that matters” p 12At the same time God also loves Israel as a parent loves a favorite child“In speaking of God’s love for Israel one finds oneself alternating between the language of man woman love and parent child love” p 12“Israel is a favorite child of God’s” p 12In summary God’s love is partial preferential passionate and parental All of this has profound implications for the nature of God “himself”2 The Nature and Personality of GodAll of this means primarily that God is a person “God is a real rather than imaginary person” p 104 Wyschogrod is explicitly anti Maimonides pp xxxii 84 86 89 92 in his ascription of personal characteristics to God To begin with Israel’s God has a special name “Hashem” meaning literally “the name” since God’s real name is too sacred to utter But not only does he have a name he is male and always referred to by masculine pronouns God may not have a physical body but comes pretty close He has all the human emotions God plays favorites loves selectively and he can feel hurt jealous and angry He is even localized in space“The God of the Bible is a person He is one of the characters who appears in the stories told in the Bible He has a personality that undergoes development in the course of the story He is subject to the emotions of anger and jealousy among others He is also filled with burning love particularly toward Abraham and his descendants” p 84Wyschogrod then makes reference to the Jewish philosophical tradition best represented by Maimonides that insisted on interpreting this language symbolically instead of conceiving of God in human terms Wyschogrod chooses his own side suarely against Maimonides “Maimonides’ demythologization of the concept of God is unbiblical and ultimately dangerous to Jewish faith” p xxxii For Wyschogrod God is indeed uite human“We come up against the realization that God has a personality is a person has emotions and plans makes calculations that sometimes succeed and sometimes fail And if he has a personality then this personality also has weaknesses insecurities neuroses” p 99Wyschogrod also says that while this might not be literally true we should nevertheless not rush to correct this impression of God since it is the Bible’s original thesis It is closer to the truth than the “corrective” that God possesses no human traits at all“Our purpose is to focus on the personality of Hashem on the reality of his being as a person of whom a psychological portrait can be drawn” p 101God’s personhood has two particularly important aspects God can be located in space and God has intense emotional reactionsGod’s location in space is related to a vague uasi corporeality“So we cannot inuire into the physical appearance of Hashem; but we must not be misled by this into accepting as biblical the dogma of the noncorporeality of Hashem Without rushing to the opposite conclusion and inferring that the Bible does attribute corporeality to Hashem we note somewhat cautiously that Hashem is located in certain places at certain times and that men meet him in these places when Hashem so desires Just as man is a dweller in a space and his personality lives in a location so there are locations in which Hashem dwells” p 100Wyschogrod goes on to say that God’s original domicile is heaven but he comes down from heaven “to the earth where he appears at certain places at certain times If it is man as man who is to have a relation to Hashem if man is not to cease being man in spite of this relation then Hashem must be able to enter space and to be near man wherever he is And not only near man but in man or specifically in the people of Israel” p 101Now we see where Wyschogrod is going God forsakes his original home in the heavens so that he can dwell on earth specifically within the Jewish people They are the place of his glory“Hashem is with Israel wherever it is because Hashem has taken up residence among this people and therefore in this people The Jewish people is the dwelling place of Hashem It is the people among whom he lives” p 103Wyschogrod goes even further and identifies a specific geographic location for Hashem“Hashem has chosen to dwell with his people He dwelled with him in the Tabernacle before the Temple in Jerusalem was built and he chose the Temple in Jerusalem as his dwelling place after the Temple was built in Jerusalem Hashem is therefore the God who dwells in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount” p 102 “But the God of the Bible enters space by dwelling in the Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem” p xxxiii Wyschogrod appears to take such assertions uite literallyIt might be worth noting that this territorial theology is directly at odds with the Kedushah prayer that Jews recite every Sabbath “Where is the place of God’s glory God’s glory fills the universe”God is therefore a being defined by time space and personality This poses an obvious problem for Wyschogrod Doesn’t this make of God just one being or thing among other beings and things Doesn’t it subordinate God to a larger category the category of beingWyschogrod tackles this problem in his enigmatic but fascinating chapter 4 “Created Being” Despite Wyschogrod’s reassurances this chapter is not for the philosophically untrained; yet I find it the most interesting chapter in the book Its argument is long and complex but may be reduced to its essentials as followsI The uestion “Does God exist” poses a dilemma If we say no we veer into atheism But if we say yes that God exists like the Eiffel Tower exists or like my Aunt Mary exists then God is just one thing or being among many othersII Therefore to say simply that God exists makes God less than ultimate “There would then be a concept above God that would embrace God and all other entities possessing being Being would then be an umbrella concept covering God and many other things God would thus be dethroned and being would become the ruling concept” p 140III Therefore since we cannot ascribe nonbeing to God nor can we ascribe being to God there must be another alternative God must be the creator of being itself “Before he created being there was no being There was only Hashem” p 167 “As the creator of being Hashem cannot be considered a being or even being itself since to do so would be to include Hashem into the realm of being Instead Hashem creates being and prior to his creation there is no being” p 172So there you have it The dilemma of God’s being a being among other beings is solved by positing God as the actual originator of being The dilemma is solved – but only through word play and sophistry much as the so called “Ontological Argument” of St Anselm which Wyschogrod takes very seriously is really an elegant piece of sophistry The “solution” only confuses the issue first by reifying “being” making it a thing among all the things that God created but importantly by begging the uestion Wyschogrod must preserve God’s personhood at all costs “we must not sever the link of personhood that connects man to Hashem” p 161 “Hashem is a person with a psychology to whom we can speak and from whom we can ask and either receive or be refused” p 162 For Wyschogrod God is a person with feelings who can even be located in space whether or not he has a material body One would be perfectly justified in asking whether such a “person” exists And that uestion throws us right back into the original dilemmaIt is a nonsensical abuse of language to say that absolutely nothing existed before God created being but that this “divine” person nevertheless existed before existence existed If such a God exists then one cannot say he precedes existence Or are we perhaps talking about hierarchical levels of being Did God the cosmic person exist on some kind of different and higher level of being than his creations If so how many levels of being are there Why stop at just two And how did Hashem come into his own level of being Was there yet an even higher level of being that produced him If not then how could he exist as a person with a psychology and emotions Did he create himself If so then he would have had to be in existence before he was created One can easily see how ridiculous this becomes Wyschogrod’s own explanations are even incoherent“Being is created It is not its own foundation It is brought into being out of nonbeing not by nonbeing but by Hashem But if that is so then Hashem was before he brought being into being out of nonbeing and therefore there was being before Hashem created it But that would constitute the triumph of ontology over Hashem while the truth is that Hashem is the Lord of being The being of Hashem before he created being could therefore not have been the being of being It could only have been Hashem” p 165This paragraph satirizes itself It saves Wyschogrod’s personal and human God by means of a semantic trick If God’s “being” is not the “being of being” then what is it It is Hashem Yes that explains it all You don’t understand it I suspect that Wyschogrod knows an emperor with a suit of new clothes you might like to try onBefore leaving the issue of God’s spatiality and uasi corporeality it is worth mentioning some analogous passages about the Jewish people Israel’s election is a “carnal” one as Wyschogrod never ceases to remind us God’s non Maimondean corporeality has its analogue on the human plane in the physicality of the Jewish people“The being of Israel is embodied being It is customary to treat with derision the phenomenon of “delicatessen Judaism’ There are those for whom their Judaism means gefilte fish bagels with lox and cream cheese or the smell of chicken simmering in broth Those who think of such things with derision do not understand Jewish existence as embodied existence Just as the gait and face of that person is that person at least in part so the physiognomy of the Jewish people is at least in part the people It is of no small significance that those who hate the people of Israel hate the particular physiue of the Jewish people whose characteristic features they caricature It is generally fashionable to deny the reality of the Jewish face as an invention of anti Semites But there is a typically Jewish face that is the result of the absence of significant outbreeding over many centuries and therefore gives the Jewish people its characteristic family resemblance There exists also a typically Jewish cuisine which varies among the different cultures to which Jews have adjusted but retains something specifically Jewish in relation to its gentile counterpart The physical can thus also be Jewish” pp 26 27This statement is ethnocentric practically to the point of being racist Has Wyschogrod never heard of Jews who do not trace their origins back to Europe and who do not look like him or sound like him or eat the same food As a Sephardic Jew I find his statements highly offensive Gefilte fish and matzo ball soup make me gag Does that make me any less JewishAs we will soon see Wyschogrod’s biological elitism extends to non Jews as wellLet us now turn from God’s corporeality to God’s emotionalityFirst of all God is lonely There is only one of him and before he created man he had no one to talk to“Hashem is a biblical character whose motivations and actions reuire analysis as do those of other biblical characters But Hashem faces problems that no other character does Above all he is desperately alone” p 110This emotional vulnerability of God is no false front It is God as he really is“Loneliness is a human trait The God who is lonely is already a God who has human traits If the personality of Hashem is simply some sort of disguise or face that Hashem puts on for the sake of man then the Hashem to which man speaks is not the real God of his life We either stand in relation to Hashem or we do not” p 113“It is loneliness that causes Hashem to create man” pp 113 14Since God has done people a favor by creating them he asks for something in return God too has needs and created “man” to fulfill them“The love with which God has chosen to love man is a love understandable to man It is therefore a love very much aware of human response God has thereby made himself vulnerable he asks for man’s response and is hurt when it is not forthcoming” p 63Out of compassion for man God creates woman But it seems that God can’t win because man’s preoccupation with woman only makes God lonelier “Hashem creates the sexual difference in the knowledge that he will be excluded from it He observes human companionship from which he is excluded” p 111 So God assuages his loneliness by “falling in love” – with Abraham as have seen earlierBut God is a very vulnerable and jealous lover “His feelings have also been hurt by Israel’s infidelities The measure of Hashem’s love for Israel is the Jew’s love for his children” p 123 as if non Jews don’t love their children tooGod’s love for the Jewish people is so intense because it contains elements of both parental and erotic love“In speaking of God’s love for Israel one finds oneself alternating between the language of man woman love and parent child love God’s frenzy when he detects affection on the part of Israel for other gods the deep sense of hurt God shows when Israel is not faithful are typical of romantic love The tenderness for the people the nurturing and caring for it are characteristic of a parent’s love for a child” p12Hashem is a needy God “it is this very same humanization of God that introduces into his love for Israel a need for Israel’s response and leaves God deeply hurt when this response is not forthcoming It is this divine vulnerability that makes real the relationship between God and man” p 13God’s vulnerability has conseuences The intensity of God’s love for Israel is matched only by the depth of God’s pain and anger when Israel is unfaithful“Only because of this love is there his anger Hashem’s humiliation at being rejected by Israel presupposes this love and cannot be understood without it It is of course easy to be free of jealousy if one does not love By being jealous Hashem reveals his passion for Israel and his dependence on this people” pp 118 19It now becomes clear that being so loved by God comes at a heavy price
• 
  David M. Goldberg

  This is an extraordinary book on Judaism and the relationship of G d to the Jewish People Christians and Jews who wish to understand Judaism will find this book essential I know of no other like it