December 22, 2010: What is God?

Dear Chevre (Friends):

In this week’s Torah portion, God summons Moses out of the burning bush to go forth and redeem the Children of Israel. “Who is this God?,” the reluctant and skeptical prophet wonders: “Who shall I say has sent me?” (Exodus 3:14) God simply responds: ehyeh asher ehyeh. What, exactly, do the words signify? Ehyeh is the verb “to be” in the imperfect tense, which can be translated either as present or future tense in English; asher is the relative pronoun “what” (or “who”). Therefore, there are at least four possible translations: “I am what I am,” “I will be what I will be,” “I am what I will be,” and “I will be what I am.” Is this just smoke and mirrors? Is God just toying with Moses? Is God reprimanding him for inquiring into the unknowable, as when God pronounces later on: “No person may see My face and live!” (Exodus 33:20) Or, does ehyeh asher ehyeh convey a more positive, profound message about the Jewish conception of the deity whom we worship?

Many Rabbinic commentators point to the occurrence of the very same word ehyeh just two verses before: ehyeh imach, “I will be with you [when you free the Israelites from Egyptian bondage].” (Exodus 3:12) Accordingly, they interpret ehyeh asher ehyeh as divine reassurance: “Who shall you say has sent you? The One who has already promised: ‘I will be with you.’” Rabbi Michael Lerner goes further. For him, God not only comprises the ultimate Source of comfort, but the ultimate Source of transformation. “‘I shall be what I shall be’… God is the Force that pulls all Being to move beyond what it is to what it ought to be.” (Jewish Renewal, p. 65) Lerner derives his interpretation from the context, which is the moment of liberation. “At its heart, Judaism is a proclamation to the world that the way things are is not the way things have to be.” (p. 66) The Jewish God stands for the capacity within us to transform the present world of oppression and cruelty we see around us into a future world of justice and kindness.

The Midrash writes: “the burning bush is like the human heart. They burn, but are not consumed.” The human heart is the storage tank for love, strength, determination, courage, creativity, and purpose. Thanks to God, the tank never runs dry.

Rabbi Brian