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It is time to recover rabbinic lessons of late antiquity: God is a God of grace and love; human beings can aspire to goodness and promise; on Yom Kippur the two of them meet—God's love energizes human potential and the world is reborn with hope restored.

The God of Jewish tradition is far from the strict God of justice commonly understood to be the God of the Hebrew Bible. God’s self-introduction to Moses atop Mount Sinai does indeed conclude with the image of punishment throughout the generations but begins with "God merciful and gracious," the imagery that finds its way into rabbinic liturgy and lore as solely the God of grace and compassion, pardon and love.

To arrive at this selective perception of biblical tradition, the Rabbis of the Talmud deliberately misread the biblical text, and then fashioned a myth of God who dresses up as a leader of prayer and promises pardon if Israel will only repeat these merciful attributes as part of its prayer ritual on that day. Ever since, the Thirteen Attributes—as the list comes to be known—becomes central to Jewish prayer, accompanying the liturgy for holidays generally, and framing the opening and closing services of the holiest day in the Jewish year, Yom Kippur, the “Day of Judgment” itself.

In this seventh volume in the Prayers of Awe Series, contributors—men and women, rabbis and laypeople, scholars and artists from across the spectrum of Jewish life, and representing the US, Israel, the UK, Germany, France, Canada, and Australia—chart the importance of these Thirteen Attributes of God. They explore the kind of God Jews meet in prayer and the consequent self-reflection about the human condition that Judaism recommends on the basis of its idealized image of God as, above all, merciful and gracious.

Sujets

Prayerbooks

Jewish

Philosophie et théologie

Lawrence Hoffman

Lawrence A. Hoffman

List of Jewish prayers and blessings

Religion

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Publié par	Turner Publishing Company
Date de parution	26 juillet 2016
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781580238663
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0700€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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ENCOUNTERING GOD
El Rachum V chanun - God Merciful and Gracious
Other Jewish Lights Books by Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman
My People s Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries , Vols. 1-10
My Peoples Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries , Vols. 1 2
(coedited with David Arnow, PhD)
The Art of Public Prayer , 2nd Ed.: Not for Clergy Only
(A book from SkyLight Paths, Jewish Lights sister imprint)
Rethinking Synagogues: A New Vocabulary for Congregational Life
Israel-A Spiritual Travel Guide: A Companion for the Modern Jewish Pilgrim
The Way Into Jewish Prayer
What You Will See Inside a Synagogue
(coauthored with Dr. Ron Wolfson)

Also in the Prayers of Awe Series
Who by Fire, Who by Water -Un taneh Tokef
All These Vows -Kol Nidre
We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism -Ashamnu and Al Chet
May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism -Yizkor
All the World: Universalism, Particularism and the High Holy Days
Naming God: Our Father, Our King -Avinu Malkeinu
PRAYERS OF AWE
ENCOUNTERING GOD
El Rachum V chanun - God Merciful and Gracious
Edited by
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD
Encountering God:
El Rachum V chanun- God Merciful and Gracious
2016 Hardcover Edition, First Printing
2016 by Lawrence A. Hoffman
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information regarding permission to reprint material from this book, please mail or fax your request in writing to Jewish Lights Publishing, Permissions Department, at the address / fax number listed below, or e-mail your request to permissions@jewishlights.com .
Grateful acknowledgment is given for permission to use: Never Will I Hear the Sweet Voice of God and When You Come to Sleep with Me Like God, from Wild Light: Selected Poems of Yonah Wallach , translated by Linda Zisquit (New York: Sheep Meadow Press, 1997), 1997 by Linda Zisquit; God of the Straw Mothers, by Orit Gidali, translated by Tania Hershman, 2015 by Tania Hershman.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hoffman, Lawrence A., 1942- editor.
Title: Encountering God : God merciful and gracious : El rachum v chanun / edited by Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD.
Description: Woodstock, Vermont : Jewish Lights Publishing, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016015870| ISBN 9781580238540 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781580238663 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: God (Judaism)-Worship and love. | God (Judaism)-Attributes. | Jewish way of life. | Judaism-21st century.
Classification: LCC BM610 .E53 2016 | DDC 296.3/11-dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016015870
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Manufactured in the United States of America
Jacket Design: Tim Holtz
Jacket Art: Vladimir Melnik/Shutterstock.com
Published by Jewish Lights Publishing
A Division of LongHill Partners, Inc.
Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, P.O. Box 237
Woodstock, VT 05091
Tel: (802) 457-4000 Fax: (802) 457-4004
www.jewishlights.com
I dedicate this book to someone who will never read it all-and others like her: my daughter Shira, who has suffered her whole life, cruelly and unfairly, from epilepsy. Her many brain surgeries have somewhat (but only somewhat) moderated the severity of her seizures, and at a cost, in that her cognitive capacities are now, as they say euphemistically, compromised. She regularly wonders what her use is, now that she is no longer able to hold a job, read a book, converse with ease, and live the life that people normally and properly aspire to. The answer, I say, with not a single hesitation, is that her tribulations have not robbed her of her extraordinary kindness. Not a day goes by without her taking time and energy to add cheer to the lives of all she meets and to do whatever she can to help even strangers whom she encounters.
As this book makes clear, God s attributes comprise a list of synonyms for love and compassion, grace and kindness. If that be the case, Shira mastered them long before I ever thought of writing about them. She is the epitome of someone made clearly in God s image.
Contents
Acknowledgments
About This Book
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD
The God of Grace in Judaism
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD
Encountering God: Can God Be Known?
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD
P ART I: T HE L ITURGY
The Thirteen Attributes: Translation and Commentary
Dr. Joel M. Hoffman
P ART II: T HE A TTRIBUTES OF G OD : T HEIR H ISTORY AND M EANING
Overview
Will the Real God Please Stand Up? Balancing the Classic Accounts
Rabbi Charles H. Middleburgh, PhD
Biblical Beginnings
God, Merciful and Compassionate?
Dr. Marc Zvi Brettler
Seeing God through the Metaphoric Imagination
Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss, PhD
Post-biblical Reinterpretation
How the Bible Became the Prayer Book: Not Threats of Punishment but Rabbinic Promises of Forgiveness
Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig, DD
Thirteen Attributes or Ten Sefirot ? The God of Medieval Mystics
Dr. Sharon Koren
Mercy or Grace?
By the Grace of God -A Biblical Idea?
Dr. Marc Zvi Brettler
By the Grace (Yes, Grace!) of God
Rabbi David Ellenson, PhD
Mercy and Truth
The Single, Solitary Self That Isn t
Rabbi Jonathan Blake
The Son of Truth Meets the God of Compassion
Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand
Truth: Cast Down and Resurrected
Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, DHL
A Cosmos with Give -and Moments of Truth
Rabbi Nicole Roberts
P ART III: T HE S ACRED T RIANGLE : G OD , S ELF, AND C OMMUNITY
Overview
God . . . God! Before, After, and Forever
Rabbi Asher Lopatin
Theology-Encountering God
Inviting God Back to the Garden
Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl
Being Honest about God
Rabbi Andrew Goldstein, PhD
God-Still All-Good and All-Powerful
Rabbi Walter Homolka, PhD, DHL
God Forgives Because He Has No Choice
Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur
Whose Attributes?
Catherine Madsen
A Love Letter from God
Rabbi Jonathan Magonet, PhD
God Is a Long, Deep Breath
Rabbi Jay Henry Moses
Adonai, Adonai : The Message of Awe but the Sound of Compassion
Rabbi Sonja Keren Pilz, PhD
Cutting God Slack
Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin, DMin
Becoming God
Rabbi Dennis C. Sasso, DMin
Anthropology-Encountering the Self
The Common Thread of Judaism: God s Character and Our Own
Dr. Annette M. Boeckler
Not What We Were but What We Will Be
Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson
A Divine Gardener, the Human Face, and a Thousand Acts of Mercy: Innovative Insights from the New Reform Machzor
Rabbi Edwin Goldberg, DHL
Like God: Not Perfect, but Living Up to Our Best Selves
Ruth W. Messinger
Mercy: Who Needs It?
Rabbi David A. Teutsch, PhD
In Whose Image? Yom Kippur s Annual Choice
Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel
Communology -Encountering Community
Loose Ends Can t Always Be Tied
Rabbi Lawrence A. Englander, CM, DHL, DD
A Dual Message to the Jew in the Pew from the Throne of Mercy
Rabbi Aaron Goldstein
Who Knows Thirteen? Jews Do
Rabbi Julia Neuberger
I Show Up: My Unexpected Gift of Compassion
Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, DMin
P ART IV: S ECULARISM AND G OD : T HE C ASE OF I SRAEL
Israeli Secular Poets Encounter God
Rabbi Dalia Marx, PhD
Facing God s Face and God s Back: Hebrew Poetry as Prayer
Dr. Wendy Zierler
Appendix
Thirteen Attributes Elsewhere in the Bible
Notes
Glossary
Acknowledgments
As always, a book such as this owes an enormous debt to all its contributors, for whom the explication of the liturgy is a labor of love. I am grateful to each and every one of them. In particular, my thanks go to Dr. Joel M. Hoffman, who translates the series but also oversees many of the Hebrew-related issues that inevitably arise.
My thanks go continually also to my extraordinary publisher, Stuart M. Matlins, founder of Jewish Lights, and to Emily Wichland, vice president of Editorial and Production there. It was Stuart who first approached me with the idea for the Prayers of Awe series, as suggested to him by Dan Adler in response to a High Holy Day program developed by Rob Eshman, editor in chief of the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles , and David Suissa. Their program sprang from an idea first conceived by Rabbi Elazar Muskin of Young Israel of Century City. Emily continues to amaze me with her wisdom, skill, patience, and perseverance. For her copyediting, my thanks go again to Debra Corman. I happily include as well all the others at Jewish Lights, especially Tim Holtz, director of Production, who designed the cover for this book and typeset the English text.
Special gratitude goes always to my wife, Gayle, who encourages my work-some would say, my obsession-to open the liturgy s magnificence to worshipers. Her support is exceptional.
About This Book
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD
The synagogue experience on the High Holy Days can be profound but problematic. Its profundity arises largely from the cultural baggage that Jews bring to the occasion: memories of memories, mostly-what they felt as children when the High Holy Days rolled around, a feeling for what their parents and grandparents felt, thanks to the recollections that they too had about the feelings that once gripped their own parents and grandparents, centuries back. Year after year, when August comes, the rest of the world enjoys the fading days of summer; not rabbis, cantors, and synagogue administrators, however, who know full well the heightened expectations for the season and return early from vacation to write sermons, assemble music, and organize the massive effort that goes into the annual New Year reunion of the Jewish People with their God.
The liturgy for the occasion can frequently be up to the task. Familiar melodies like Kol Nidre and Avinu Malkeinu , cantorial mast