Musings: Faith And Protest

[struggle4progress]

Moses becomes the first person in the Bible to question the justice of what God has done. Earlier, Abraham questioned what God intended to do at Sodom, but Moses is more radical; as the Egyptian oppression grows more harsh he cries out: “O Lord, why did You bring harm upon this people...?”

God responds by saying, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make Myself known to them by My name Adonai.” Rashi assumes that God is comparing Moses unfavorably to the patriarchs, for they trusted in God’s justice, despite seeing less directly into God’s ways.

But we might reverse this, and consider that the revelation of the Divine name follows right after Moses’ daring question. Rather than disapproving of doubt, perhaps God cherishes the protest born of outraged faith. There is a popular image that untroubled, unquestioning faith is the ideal, but our tradition presents a more dynamic picture of the Divine-human relationship. The faith of the Bible is turbulent, deep, doubting, and yet resolved to trust. Religion, as Rabbi Soloveitchik wrote, is a “raging, clamorous torrent of man’s consciousness with all its crises, pangs and torments.”

“God, why have You done this?” is not the scoffing of denial, but the heart cry of faith. Our name is Israel, which means those who struggle with God.

David Wolpe - Rabbi David Wolpe is spiritual leader of Temple Sinai in Los Angeles.

http://www.thejewishweek.com/top/editletcontent.php3?artid=5715

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Yes

what people have to remember is what we are struggling with is our God concept. Exactly what is the nature of God? The prophets you cited above were questioning their God concepts, and receiving revelations that allowed them to refine and change their concepts. Sufi Inayat Khan explained this process with this phrase: "Shatter your ideals on the rock of Truth."

[Meshuga]

2. Struggle with God

The name Israel was given to Jacob after wrestling with God. Through history, wrestling (or strugling) with God has been at the core of Jewish identity. Among the meaning of the name Israel are "one who wrestles with God" or "one who is straight (direct, honest) with God". Another name for the Jewish people is "Children of Israel".

This quality of confrontation and engagement with God, as opposed to pure submission, is a distinguishing characteristic of Judaism and we are commanded to do it. The spontaneous and more challenging questions are considered more important.

[MistressOverdone]

3. Indeed

and the psalms are full of that "raging, clamorous torrent..."

I like the Bono version: "I have scaled these city walls only to be with You....but I still haven't found what I'm looking for." The eternal struggle.