Many Sages One Truth
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I ask this because I believe that God is loving, and I find some of the things that the Jewish scriptures say hard to reconcile with a loving God. How do Jews explain this?
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I ask this because I believe that God is loving, and I find some of the things that the Jewish scriptures say hard to reconcile with a loving God. How do Jews explain this?
I ask this because I believe that God is loving, and I find some of the things that the Jewish scriptures say hard to reconcile with a loving God. How do Jews explain this?
Okay to get more specific. How could God be loving and then order the total erradication of the Canaanites?
Okay to get more specific. How could God be loving and then order the total erradication of the Canaanites?
My thought on this would be, "either we can feed and shelter you, but you have to do what we say, or you can leave. Your choice."The Rabbis of the Talmud teach us that God did not simply order their eradication, but ordered the eradication of those fighting males who refused to give up idolatry and surrender to the Israelites, or leave the land of Canaan. Women and children whose families refused to leave or give up idolatry were to be either ejected from the land or taken as servants.
There have been a lot of speculations made about the justification for such harsh measures (a thing never again commanded by God). No agreement has ever existed about the reasons, but many suppose that it had to do with the novelty and tenuous nature of monotheism, and the danger posed by influxes of idolatrous practices from foreign nations.
What does Judaism believe about God's nature?