In response to Daas Hedyot's recent post, where he asks "What persona was your god?," he gave me pause to recall how I conceived of God as a child, and this is what I pictured:
I can't remember a time when I ever considered God to be any kind of person. Even as a child if I tried to picture God, I thought of a black misty cloud against a dark backdrop or of my standing before a focused yet endless expanse of white presence. God was the moral imperative that without words communicated approval or disappointment for my behavior.
In retrospect, I guess I had a different kind of picture than most people. This may be instructive.
Onwards to a rational observant Judaism!
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"You speak of dogmas, dogmas of faith! In answer thereto, I would briefly say that Judaism enjoins six hundred and thirteen duties but knows no dogmas." - R' Samson Raphael Hirsch, Fifteenth Letter
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10 comments:
I always thought God wore aviator sunglasses.
Actually my conception was quite similar to yours. I never thought of God as a person. If I ever tried imagining him, it was that he was unimaginable. It's kinda weird I know, but that's how it was for me.
I thought God had a sort of snake like body, with a lions head on each end. That way, he was able to see everywhere on in the world. I guess this his how idols where first made.
Rather than perceiving God as an entity, you should see him/her/it as a reality, and yes there is a stark difference between the two. Anyway God himself gave us tools to "understand", as much as is possible anyway in this sphere of existence.
Where I come from God expresses this in eight positive metaphysical attributes and eight negative ones.
The positive attributes are Qadir, the Almighty; Aalim, the All-Knowing; Mudrik, the EverPerceiving; Hai, the Ever-Living; Mureed, the All Independent in will and action; Mutakallim, the Creator of Speech; and Sadiq, the Ever-Truthful.
The negative attributes are Murakkab, compound; Makan, accommodation; Holool, incarnation; Maryee, visibility; Ehtiyaj, need; Shirkat, association; Mahaile hawadis or Tagha'iyyar, change; and Sifate-zaid, addition of qualities.
The negative attributes cannot be attributed to God. The final negative attribute, addition of qualities, forbids conceiving of the positive attributes as separable from the essence of God. Finally, according to All, God is a being consistent and not arbitrary, whose essential attribute is justice.
Focus on the attributes, and God becomes easy to understand (that is ofcourse if you even believe he exists, or are even open to the possibility that he's there)
When I really need to focus on G-D I just imagine a really noble looking person with a white beard. When I just want to think about G-D I try to contemplate the what He wants from me. However, I think I might change my mind and go for the HH version, that sounds waaaay cooler.
ok this sounds kind of dopey, but have you ever watched Nikolodeon? (not sure about the spelling there.) During the the cartoons for really little kids in the morning, they have a thirty second to two minute segment which consists f a face - eyes and mouth, maybe a nose, but no head or jaw-line - that changes colors. I kind of always pictured G-d like that amorphous face. He's white when He's being serious, green when He's being jealous, red when He's being angry, etc. But the more important thing in my mind was that He was there as somene to talk to in my head. I tend to have Tevya-like conversations with G-d in my head. Or, well, monologues really, and G-d just sort of raises his eyebrows and strokes his non-existent chin. But that was the more important feature, the ever-present ear, rather than the appearance.
I always thought of God as my socks. That way, he could carry my soul around wherever I went.
When I was in high school, taking geometry, I pictured God as a point. A point has no dimension at all, yet it's still there. In addition, I had pictured the entire universe as a point (right "before" the big bang) -- dimensionless, yet still there.
May I suggest that you read the Judaism books of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, especially his book about the 13 Principle of Jewish Faith of the Rambam, and The Handbook of Jewish Thought.
His books are in English, and I find that all of them are worth reading many times.
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