Elul 28: Seeking the Right Metaphor for God

Sometimes, the traditional way of understanding God just doesn't work for me.

Although God is not frequently described as a king in the Torah, that image is featured heavily in the Prophetic works and everything that follows.  The ancient rabbis found the concept of God as King appealing, because it spoke to their yearning for a Jewish order in a world where Jews lived only in exile.  The Jewish kingdom was found in the heart and mind, not in the earthly Jerusalem, and the one true King was eternal, everywhere and yet nowhere.

As such, God's kingship has always resonated especially powerfully on Rosh Hashanah, when we invoke the symbol of God as Sovereign Ruler again and again, implicitly and explicitly.  Not only do we recite ten verses about God's kingship in the Musaf Amidah, but we also physically prostrate ourselves before the King, we chant special piyyutim (intricately-crafted liturgical poems), and we even change certain berakhot in the weekday liturgy during the rest of the Ten Days of Repentance to reflect God's role as King.  And then there is the whole Book of Life overlay, which sees God as dictating the annual verdicts of each of us during this time.

And yet, portraying God as King simply does not inspire me to seek forgiveness or prostrate myself or whatever.  Perhaps this is because, as an American, I have never been the subject of flesh-and-blood royalty.  Somehow, the idea of God as democratically-elected President or Speaker of the House simply doesn't cut it.

Or perhaps it speaks to my general discomfort with traditional theological approaches.  Regardless, it makes my task harder on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when the liturgy relies so heavily on kingship; I have to find the right metaphor.

Still working on it.  Will let you know.  Meanwhile, if the vision of God as King works for you, use it.  If not, find an image that does.

Thursday Kavvanah, 6/30/2011 - Tefillin: Where the Physical Meets the Spiritual

In the daily binding of tefillin, the physical and the metaphorical align. We recite the in the first paragraph of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:8):

וּקְשַׁרְתָּם לְאוֹת, עַל-יָדֶךָ; וְהָיוּ לְטֹטָפֹת, בֵּין עֵינֶיךָ
Uqshartam le-ot al yadekha, vehayu letotafot bein einekha
Bind them as a sign on your arm, and wear them as frontlets between your eyes

Never mind that we don't know what "totafot" (here translated as "frontlets") are. Perhaps the words of the Torah are to be taken literally, as an instruction to actually attach these words to our arms and foreheads. Or perhaps the image simply suggests the devotion of mind and hand, i.e. thought and deed.

Regardless, the tefillin that we wear in the morning remain with you all day, long after they are physically removed. This sign of devotion to the Torah begins with the concrete and continues metaphorically all day, a unity of the spiritual and physical.

Wednesday Kavvanah, 3/30/2011 - Stepping Out of Yourself

The Amidah (standing, silent tefillah) is on a higher level then other parts of the Jewish service. As such, it is customary to leave your regular self behind before beginning by taking three steps forward. (Many people also take three steps back first, so that they have room to take three steps forward, although it's the forward steps that are the essential choreography.) As such, we enter the court of the King (i.e. God) at the start of the Amidah.

I can think of many times that I would have liked to have left myself behind for a few minutes or a few months, but of course it is never so simple as simply taking three steps. However, the idea that we have the ability, even metaphorically, to step out of ourselves, suggests a certain control that many of us doubt that we actually have. Perhaps the physical and mental exercise of taking a few steps forward can bring that possibility closer to reality.