Traces of God : Seeing God in Torah, History and Everyday Life

by Gillman, Neil

• ISBN13: 9781580233699
• ISBN10: 1580233694
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-01
• Publisher: Jewish Lights Pub

Summary

The Torah is replete with references to hearing God but precious few references to seeing God. Seeing is complicated. What we look for and see are traces of God's presence in the world and in history, but not God. In order to identify those traces as reflections of divine presence, we need to re-examine how we see, what we see, and how we interpret that information.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
Seeing God
Connecting the Dots	p. 3
Faith in a Silent God	p. 7
Perceiving God's Presence	p. 10
God's When and Where	p. 14
God, Hidden and Revealed	p. 17
Discerning the Hand of God	p. 20
The Value of Atheism	p. 23
The Mystery of the Red Cow	p. 26
Holy Tension	p. 30
Abraham's Faith and Doubt	p. 33
Looking and Seeing	p. 36
The Holiness of Yom HaAtzma'ut	p. 39
Mundane Miracles	p. 43
Remembering to Remember	p. 46
Remember and Forget	p. 49
Images of God
The Divine Wrath	p. 55
Testing God	p. 59
The Rebuke	p. 63
Unshakable Covenant	p. 66
Symbol or Idol	p. 69
Face to Face with God	p. 72
The God of Jonah	p. 75
Arguing with God	p. 78
Schoenberg's Midrash on the Golden Calf	p. 81
Two Solitudes	p. 84
God Is Moved	p. 87
El Elyon	p. 91
An Emotional Roller Coaster	p. 94
The Ambiguities of a Metaphor	p. 97
A Single Sacred Spot	p. 100
When Liturgy Is Problematic	p. 104
Selective Memories	p. 108
Revelation and Law
Narrative and Law	p. 113
Sinai Was a Moment	p. 116
Boundaries	p. 119
Aggadah and Halachah	p. 122
The Best Interest of Judaism Clause	p. 126
In the Presence of a King	p. 130
The Fanatic	p. 134
Cosmos and Chaos	p. 138
Moments of Darkness	p. 141
A Written Record	p. 144
Suffering, Death, and Redemption
The Challenge of Job	p. 149
Suffering and Redemption	p. 152
Private and Public	p. 155
From Redemption to Reality	p. 159
Confronting Death and Resurrection	p. 163
Confronting Chaos	p. 167
Ultimate Vulnerability	p. 171
Separations	p. 175
Death Is Over	p. 179
Redeeming God	p. 183
From Cosmos to Chaos to Cosmos	p. 186
We Are Hagar	p. 190
The Prophet and the Person	p. 193
Redemption and Destruction	p. 196
The Dread of Time	p. 199
Jacob Lives	p. 202
Interim Eschatologies	p. 205
A Drama of Life and Death	p. 209
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 213
Index of Torah Readings	p. 215
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