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I'm Jewish writing a story that at least Modern Orthodox I hope will consider fit to read, even if not necessarily to be consider frum by some to the right.

I'm at the point where the heroine needs a direct audience with Hashem for advice.

Now, I fully understand that in Torah that Hashem is supposed to be completely invisible and at most represented by an angel in the real and normal world.

That's a given. But the heroine is near death and semiconscious, certainly not in a realm of her own, and is not fully lucid. May Hashem appear to her in a form she is comfortable with, such as a person who only indirectly refers to Himself as Hashem, the better for her to understand His instructions?

Do observant writers have some choices regarding respectful depiction in literature?

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    Welcome to Mi Yodeya, and thanks very much for bringing your concerns here, and trying not to offend people. I hope you get an answer. :)
    – Scimonster
    Mar 2, 2015 at 11:32
  • you can present it perhaps as an analogy, like this aish.com/sp/ph/Transcendence-and-Oneness.html
    – ray
    Mar 2, 2015 at 11:53
  • She can have someone she respected while alive come and speak to her. Since she knows he is dead, then it would have to correct effect. Alternatively, she can have Eliyahu Hanavi speak to her.
    – sabbahillel
    Mar 2, 2015 at 12:59
  • What about an actor she watched in a movie a long time ago who 'played' Hashem as a character in said movie, like George Burns, who by the way is Jewish and respectable?
    – Aule
    Mar 2, 2015 at 13:34

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Use existing imagery - a cloud, fire, darkness, a storm. Basically non-corporealness.

There is also a principle of Ruach-HaKodesh, or divine inspiration, that is a step down from true prophecy but is "on the same scale."

Alternately, you could have the heroine experience a vision of the future event (e.g.: what she has to do) with the clear visceral understanding that it is her task, but omit any direct "verbal" communication. Instead, let the dialogue be an internal conflict trying to accept the word of Hashem, and the "response" be a complex emotional understanding.

It's harder to depict, sure, but it seems like something the average person could experience, while still presenting a clearly spiritual "God-experience."

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  • Does a note or letter or a message in a bottle count as non-corporealness?
    – Aule
    Mar 2, 2015 at 20:12
  • Interesting proposal. Those wouldn't be representing Hashem per se, merely acting as a conveyance for His word. I think a dream witha divine message conveyed through a note would be perfectly respectable. IIRC, there are many rabbanim who wrote about receiving similar dreams.
    – Isaac Kotlicky
    Mar 2, 2015 at 20:21

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