God In The Jewish Tradition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

God In The Jewish Tradition - Essay Example Clearly, the meaning of God is one that is uniquely personal to each and every person. Only the individual can decide what God means to them which is based to a great degree on the individual's values and personal beliefs. The role that God plays in that individual's life and religion will be strongly based on these subjective assessments, but it will also be strongly influenced by the teachings of the synagogue, the rabbi, and the traditions that the individual experienced as they grew. In many tales of the Jewish faith, it was God who helped keep the Israelites alive throughout all their various persecutions through history, creating a type of human-like heroic identity. It was God who led them out of Israel and slavery and it was God who spoke to them through burning bushes and from mountaintops while they wandered in the desert, giving them help and direction. Mordecai Kaplan, known as the father of Reconstructionism, who pushed this type of identification of God. In his writings , he said that God chose the Jews and determined to help them with their success (Kaplan, 1937). However, Kaplan was not necessarily suggesting that God was a personality. Instead, he was attempting to say that God was something greater than this. He said, â€Å"God is neither a being nor a philosophical abstraction. God is a creative force in the universe. He was an inspiration for the Jews and the voice that gave with both hands" (1937). Even here, though, God seems to be a greater than normal personality.