God, Attributes

Jonah is resentful when God is ready to forgive the wicked city of Nineveh, and his book ends with God trying to change Jonah’s perspective. Whether or not God was successful, on Yom Kippur we read the words of Micah (7:18–20) as if Jonah finally accepts God’s compassionate nature.

But doesn’t YHWH tell Moses that “no human can see me and live”(Exodus 33:20)?

When YHWH sees the evil ways of humanity, he initially decides to wipe them out, but then determines to save Noah’s family. After the flood and Noah’s sacrifice, YHWH promises that He will never again destroy the earth and all life, even though humanity will continue in its evil ways. Thus, the story chronicles not the moral and emotional advancement of humanity but of YHWH.

The Shema has many interpretations, philosophical, eschatological, national, etc. A historical-critical way to understand the Shema is to read it (and Deuteronomy more broadly) against the backdrop of Assyrian domination, when Assyria touted their god Ashur as the supreme master of the world.

Ezekiel challenges the divine (in)justice of intergenerational punishment, even though it appears in the Decalogue.

As part of the selichot prayer service, the rabbis cut the biblical phrase וְנַקֵּה לֹא יְנַקֶּה “[YHWH] does not remit punishment” to read only וְנַקֵּה, which yields the opposite meaning, “[YHWH] remits punishment.” Although this edit is surprising, the rabbis are responding to a serious tension in the biblical text: Is YHWH a merciful God who pardons, or a vengeful God who will never remit punishment?

“God has not given you a mind to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear until this very day.”—Deuteronomy 29:3

The Difference between God’s “Name (שם)” and “Presence (כבוד)”