What Jews say about God...

Who or what is God? How is His presence manifested in the world? To Jews God has many faces, and He appears in many guises. From the ultra-Orthodox to the ultra-liberal, from the affiliated Jew to the secular one, each individual conceives of God in a unique and self-defining way:"The seal of God is truth,"said Rabbi Chanina, the first-century deputy High Priest."The beginning and end of all things is God,"affirmed German poet Heinrich Heine."God is one; He is not two, but one," wrote Moses Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah."The closest we can come to thinking about God is as a process rather than a being," says Rabbi David Cooper in his God Is a Verb. Rabbi Alfred J. Kolatch, bestselling author of the Jewish Book of Why, has sifted through the writings and utterances of many hundreds of Jewish poets, philosophers, humorists, scientists, novelists, clergy, politicians, and others, and here presents selected passages that reflect the range of J!ewish thinking about God, His relationship to man, and man's relationship to God. Organized into six chapters The Nature and Essence of God; Searching for and Experiencing God; God, Jews, and the World-at-Large; Miracles, Messianism, and the World-to-Come; Faith in a Personal God; and Sin, Suffering, and Repentance: What Jews Say About God will give the reader an overview of how Jews from ancient to modern times have conceptualized God and how they have put those thoughts into words. In addition to its value to the scholar, theologian, and student of religion, What Jews Say About God will serve to inspire those wishing to experience God on a new and perhaps higher level.