reply to post by Philodemus
Secondly, I would like to point out that I do not believe in a god as an actual being.
Interesting that you didn't capitalize God - in the personal sense. This is because you believe in the "God of Plato" and of the "philosophers". Which
is a perfectly impersonal God. A god which conveniently fits their standards and assumptions of what God should be, and not what God may be.
What a conundrum for them, as they write books of esoteric philosophy in an attempt to disprove the God of the Jews, which only incidentally, is
worshiped by Christians, or lay Christians, to be precise..(According to the Valentinian school of Gnosis, a system probably followed by the
ecclesiastical arm of Christendom, the 'demiurge' or 'personal God' worshiped by the masses, is only for the ignorant, or those who havnt yet learned
of the inner metaphysical doctrine. Thus, within Christianity, there is worship of the 'false God', which no pope or bishop or initiated priest pays
any real deference to, and the 'father', which 'transcends' the God of the Jews, which is the real object, or subject, of their piety. )
So, to be exact, and entirely within the realm of fact, there is no 'Judeo-christian' God (or theology, for that matter). There is only the God of
Israel, worshiped by the Jews, in the way the God of Israel prescribed, and the God of Christianity, which happens to be the same 'philosophic' God
worshiped the world over, from the pagan east to Islam.
Not that the Kabbalah doesn't speak of the philosophic God. Anybody acquainted with Hebrew and the hermeneutics of Torah knows that the entire 5 books
of Moses is a book of metaphysics. Genesis, which is called 'Bere#h in Hebrew, broaches on an almost entirely metaphysical level. Exodus, called
shemoth in Hebrew (Names), ventures more into the theological. In this book the God of Israel is revealed, and the divine process of mans redemption
from the world of limitation is outlined. With each subsequent book, the Hebraic doctrine becomes more and more particularized, and less and less
understood, or relevant, to non - Jews.
In terms of a pure philosophy, the Kabbalah of the Ari (Isaac Luria) remarks on the same depths that other esoteric philosophies speak of; but
perhaps, that of Ari is more explicit and less allegorical than it predecessors.
Anyways, I will not debate whether or not God is time, which is an obscene concept to me..To think that you could reduce God to a mere archetype! My
God, which is the God taught by the Jewish tradition, is both immanent (personal) and transcendent (philosophical), which is akin to the Sufi doctrine
in some ways. He is Elohim, which is the totality of all of creation; not merely physical creation (Hateva, nature, which has the same numerical value
as Elohim = 86) but all levels of metaphysical existence. YHVH, the uniquely "Jewish" God, is the content that is meant to fill the vacuum of the name
of Elohim. In the traditional Israelite expression of faith "Shema Yisrael, YHVH Eloheinu, YHVH Echad", it is explained that the name YHVH, the
personal God, the God which relates with man in dualistic terms, in this world he created for this precise purpose, is completely identical with the
name Elohim. The metaphysical, and philosophical explanation of the gradations of worlds and levels of existence, is by itself devoid of moral
direction. Theology fills that void. The name YHVH, the God of Israel, created this physical realm not to 'torment man' as Gnostics believe, or suckle
energy from man, or exists as some cosmic reflection of mans own ego(the theories are endless which try to explain away the Jewish God) but IS God,
the infinite being, which takes on a finite archetypal form in the same way that man exists as a finite and individualized unit, as a means to
establish a one-on-one relationship with man. Yes, man is meant to know that God is beyond all description, the infinite Ein Sof, or Al Hoq (truth, in
arabic). But in addition to this understanding, paradoxically, God wants man to abide by a particular moral code. This moral code is mans own
'creation', which is the unformed and chaotic exteriority of the social realm, which he completes by perfecting it through his own discrimination and
particularization, in choice, of choosing the good and rejecting the evil. And so, the positive is integrated and the negative discarded (in accord
with their fundamental natures). Through this action, society is completed. The veiling of the One, YHVH, which means 'being' and refers to all levels
of existence, is designed to keep the other, separated and concealed from multiple. The ONE is recalled and brought down to exist WITH man, but not
overwhelm him, and obliterate the individual units i.e. diversity, within created reality itself. We know where such totalitarian thinking leads.
I completely, with every ounce of my being, reject the philosophical ALL which surmounts all distinction. Judaism is entirely different. The God of
the Jews is behind the veil, concealed from mortal eyes. This is not because man is not able to experience the infinite - which of course is possible,
but because the infinite is eternally closed off to mans prying eyes. The creator is not divorced from reality, and the infinite is not different or
other from the created. Being and non-being are not different. They are one and united.
As for the time thing. It is interesting that the Midrash remarks that the Rabbis who translated the Torah from Hebrew into Greek deliberately
translated the first word of the Torah "Bere#" as, "with wisdom", to avoid the predictable pagan interpretation that bere#h, which literally means 'in
the beginning' was the name of a god; which would parallel their own myths, i.e. Cronus of Greek myth.
It is understood as well in Jewish esotericism that Bere#h is an archetype that provides the conditions for the subsequent creations; in other words,
it is within time that creation unfolds. Not 'time' as we know it, but time in a sequential sense i.e. of causation. Distinction implies time, and so
the Torah starts of with the word "Bere#h". The first letter, the Bet, being equivalent to 2, again implying that creation, or a discussion of the
metaphysical, is an inherently dualistic process. The word Bere#h can also be read "in the first", which would mean, in the primordial homogeneity of
the first cause, creation (multiplicity) takes place.
edit on 27-1-2012 by dontreally because: (no reason given)
edit on 27-1-2012 by dontreally because: (no reason given)
