God Is Not a Man Who Lives in the Sky

Nine Essential Things I’ve Learned About Life by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner is a book I would recommend. Rabbi Kushner’s writings have helped many people through very difficult times in their lives, especially his famous book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. In that book, he chronicled the experience of being with his sick and dying child, Aaron, who had one of the world’s rarest diseases, progeria (the “rapid-aging” syndrome).

I discovered how inadequate the traditional perspective was that I had grown up with and had been taught, that God has His reasons, which we cannot comprehend or judge. It neither made sense of the suffering nor offered us much in the way of comfort. If I was to continue to serve as a rabbi and to honor my son’s memory, I would have to find a better explanation. (p. 6)

The second chapter of Nine Essential Things I’ve Learned About Life is called God Is Not a Man Who Lives in the Sky and he shares some things he believes and doesn’t believe about God. Before you read the quotes from Rabbi Kushner’s book, it is important to remember what Hebrew scholar William Chomsky wrote about words.

Language is not merely a means of expression and communication; it is an instrument of experiencing, thinking and feeling, as well as a means of self-expression and personal growth. Our ideas and experiences are not independent of language; they are all integral parts of the same pattern, the warp and woof of the same texture. Words and idioms are as indispensable to our thoughts and experiences as are colors and tints to a painting. Language and experience are inextricably interwoven, and the awareness of one awakens the other. (Hebrew: The Eternal Language by William Chomsky © 1957 by the Jewish Publications Society of America, Philadelphia, PA; p. 3)

Rabbi Kushner was ordained in June 1960. Over the past 55 years, he has faced many joyous and extremely painful life experiences members of his congregations and others, as well as sharing his personal experiences with the public. Those experiences are woven into the following words.

● The truth is, life is unfair, and we would do well to come to terms with that fact. (p. 29)

● I don’t believe in a God who treats human beings like puppets, pulling our strings to make us do things, or a God who spends His mornings deciding who shall live and who shall die, let alone who will win a high school football game. (p. 31)

● I don’t believe in a God who is so emotionally needy that He can be bribed by flattery or blind obedience. (p. 32)

● The God I believe in is not so insecure that He holds it against people who doubt His existence, nor is He so eager to punish that He condemns people to Hell for errors of heart, mind, or faith. (p. 32)

● The God I believe in is under no obligation to be the kind of God we would like Him to be, or even the kind of God we need Him to be. Begging Him, bargaining with Him, even living by His mandates will not cause the rain to fall and give us an abundant harvest, nor will it cure our disease or help us win the lottery. God’s role is not to make our lives easier, to make the hard things go away, or to do them for us. God’s role is to give us the vision to know what we need to do, to bless us with the qualities of soul that we will need in order to do them ourselves, no matter how hard they may be, and to accompany us on that journey. (p. 33)

As I said above, I highly recommend Rabbi Kushner’s book and appreciate his service to mankind.

Shalom,

Jim Myers