Frequent questions to the Rabbi about Judaism. His answers will be appearing as Cyberthoughts over time.

Question # 6
Q. How do we reconcile the fact that God is quite vengeful, even mean-spirited? - for example, every time we read the Kriat Shma, we read that God will punish us by destroying our crops and cattles if we do not abide by the assigned mitzvot. That sounds very much like the parents we try not to be.

A. - Certainly the Hebrew Bible is responsible, on the one hand, for what we would call a vengeful God but in other contexts a loving God. Dr. Heschel used to explain of the vengeance of God as being the result of concern and involvement of God with humankind. After all, don't parents get very angry at children and sometimes punish them, when their moral compass or their actions are not in line with parental values? That anger is not necessarily the result of vengeance or meanness - but concern. When one is not concerned, he or she does not get concerned enough to even get angry! - And let's consider the example of the second paragraph of the Shma where we are told that if we don't observe God's mitzvot the earth will not give forth its produce and there will be a paucity of food. Isn't that what we are becoming very aware of with global warming and our contribution to that with waste of energy, and all the other items? Indeed that paragraph of the Shma seems very prescient. And if one starts with the belief in God, that means that we are violating God's order and these terrible things will happen. - But in all fairness, some of the vengeance of God - like against the innocent - seems over the top. We have spoken of looking at the Bible historically and understanding that there is both human and divine component. So I think we have to be judicious in recognizing that some vengeance of God is an expression of God's concern, and other vengeance of God as portrayed in the Torah is human overreaction human portrayal of an angry God.