One of the dilemmas facing a modern Jew is the question of how to know God.
Increasingly disappointed with our previous faith in progress and in the power of reason to bring about salvation, we turn increasingly to some of the timeless resources of our ancestral faith, looking to Judaism to root our search for meaning, to ground us in something eternal.
For some contemporary Jews, the search is straightforward--the Torah is the literal words of God, so anything we want to know about God is to be found there. And if it isn't mentioned in the Torah, it means that we aren't meant to know it.
That view has much to commend it - its simplicity, its certainty, and its clarity. For those Jews who can believe that the Torah is literally true, it provides community and direction in great abundance.
For most American Jews, however, the claim that every word of the Torah (and every word of the Talmud too) is literally the word of God doesn't ring true. Most American Jews affirm that the Torah is in some sense divine and does reflect divine will, but not necessarily word-for-word. And most American Jews insist that life experience and secular learning can also contribute to our knowledge of God.
Within that framework, just how much of God’s characteristics can we know. Can we know God absolutely? Today's Torah portion suggests not. After the tragedy of the Golden Calf, Moses brings about a reconciliation between God and the Jews. Sensing that God is inclined positively toward him, Moses asks God "Let me see Your Presence!" God's response, however, is "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you the name LORD, and the grace that I grant and the compassion that I show. But...you cannot see My face, for man may not see Me and live."
God tells Moses, the person who has the most direct possible experience of God, that there are intrinsic limits to how well a human being can comprehend God's nature. After all, God is infinite--beyond all description or limit. And human beings, finite as we are, can't possibly comprehend so vastly different an order of existence. We can relate to God, but we cannot encompass God with our minds.
The great medieval rabbi, Maimonides, says virtually the same thing in his magisterial code, the Mishneh Torah. There he explains that theology can only be taught to one person at a time; not to a class, but with one teacher who can focus on one student. After selecting a student intelligent enough to grasp theological insights, Rambam adds an additional caveat: The student "is given [only the most] fundamental points [of theology], and an outline of the concepts is made known. He is expected to continue to contemplate until he reaches understanding with his powers of knowledge and knows the ultimate meaning and depth of the concept."
With this remarkable passage, Rambam asserts that theological truths cannot be reduced to words without becoming distorted. Only the broadest outline of Jewish theology can be transmitted verbally. Then, the intelligent student must rely on prayer, meditation, and solitary contemplation to arrive at a personal, provisional understanding of God's nature.
This view concedes that any theology--however brilliant or satisfying--is only an approximation of a truth that remains ultimately beyond expression. Any verbalization necessarily trivializes and distorts the very meaning it means to convey. In the words of the Maharal of Prague, "God is not merely beyond the limits of human knowledge; He is unknowable in essence."
While God may remain ultimately beyond knowledge, we can still strive to understand as best we can. We each must formulate our own understanding of God, each of us learn to appreciate God's presence in our own introspection and silence.
Knowledge of God is a private affair. Living in the presence of God, however, is the proper business of Judaism and the living community of the Jewish People. It is that cornerstone of Jewish living, our brit (covenant) with God that commands the attention of the sages of every period of history, and it is that realm which deserves our energies today as well.
Shabbat shalom.