God Wears Tefillin

The fact that the rabbis envisioned God wearing tefillin tells us a great deal about how they viewed our basic relationship with God. They believed God was bound by the Torah just as we are. The commandments are not a one-way street. They are an expression of mutual love, responsibility, and commitment between the people of Israel and God and, as such, are shared by both parties. In many ways, the Torah is like a ketubah, a wedding contract between God and the Jewish people

Rabbi Judith Z Abrams
The Talmud for Beginners: Prayer, Volume 1

I know that a book is both going to be good and going to cause problems in my life when I start taking notes as I'm reading it. That's what seems to be happening with Rabbi Abram's book. As I go through the pages, my brain starts shooting off sparks and composing blogs. The "scary" part is that I've only read the first two chapters. What will happen by the time I've read the entire book?

But look at this.

I've read more than once that people, particularly the Jewish people but in fact, all humanity, are to consider ourselves as junior partners with God in the management of Creation. Our beings are intertwined and our purposes interwoven. We need God but in some way we can't fathom, He needs us, too. Rabbi Abrams goes so far as to say that Judaism views the relationship (between Jews and God) as reciprocal.

It's easy, as human beings, to think we don't count for much in the greater scheme of things. After all, what is one person more or less, balanced against the cosmic plan of God? Can an ant travel a light year? Can a grasshopper fathom a galaxy? Who are we? How can we understand God? Yet Rabbi Abrams says that there is a unique part of every human being that is specifically designed to understand God.

For the rabbis, we human beings are little lower than the angels, yet we are far from the Divine. God's nature is so lofty, and so different from ours, that we might feel discouraged trying to communicate with God. Therefore, they demonstrate that there is something in us, the soul, that is like God and can relate to God.

I never really looked at it that way before. I never thought there was a way for a human being to connect to God from where we are down here. I did however, consider how the Divine could relate to human beings.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. -Hebrews 4:14-16

It seems then, that the door swings both ways...not that it's become particularly easy for people to understand God, but looking at these issues and trying to understand the Jewish perspective, even a little, yields some insights, and occasionally a small surprise.

Judaism is primarily a relationship with God and only secondarily a set of tasks to do - that is, the mitzvot. The mitzvot serve little or no purpose unless they are an expression of our relationship with God. The assertion, commonly made, that Judaism is a religion of deed, not creed, is simply wrong.

Rabbi Abram's words seem to echo what I've heard about Judaism in Christian circles; that it's a "carnal" religion and lacks a true relationship with God. And yet how can any faith that pictures each and every one of us in partnership with God in tending the world and obeying the Torah be seen as cold and disconnected; without relationship? Imagine donning a tallit and tefillin and then catching a glimpse of yourself in the mirror. Now imagine that God is wearing the same thing. You have created and Creator, both dressed for the occasion, getting ready to keep an appointment with each other; to meet and to talk.

You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought from afar -Psalm 139:2