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What does Judaism believe about God's nature?

Many Sages One Truth

Active Member
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?
 

Poisonshady313

Well-Known Member
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?

You may need to get a bit more specific to get a meaningful answer. I know a lot of the things you might talk about... but then an answer to your question could take up a whole page.
 

TheKnight

Guardian of Life
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?

I always find it interesting when people say that they feel the God of the Jews is not loving, or they view Him as angry.

I would say that as a general rule, however, the view of the Jewish God that He is angry is almost always based on a misunderstanding of the text. Additionally, there is a general human flaw in that we tend to superimpose what we think should be onto how things are, which results in disappointment most of the time.

For your specific question regarding the Canaanites there are many reasons given for the order to completely annihilate them.

The main reason is that, from the Jewish perspective, they attacked the Jews in a weakened state for no other apparent reason than sheer enjoyment when the Jews were leaving Egypt. The eternal message we are supposed to get from that is that evil should be combated at all times because that is what the actions of the Canaanites in that instance represents, pure evil.
 

Levite

Higher and Higher
Okay to get more specific. How could God be loving and then order the total erradication of the Canaanites?

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.
 

Rakhel

Well-Known Member
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.
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."
 
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