Questions tagged [theology]
Questions regarding our understanding of God, such as it is. NOT for every question about Jewish beliefs.
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How do we know that God exists?
Simple enough question, and very much related to the topic.
According to traditional Jewish sources, on what basis should people believe that there's a God?
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Bereishit vs. science
How does Judaism deal with the differences between scientific evidence of the beginning of the world and the account(s) in Bereishit?
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How can we be sure that Judaism is true/the truth?
I borrowed (with permission) a question from Ahmed Han, which is:
People of every religion claim that they are the ones in the right
path. Even the people of sects in these religions think that ...
user1550
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Why isn't the Kabbalistic doctrine of Sefirot considered Shittuf if the Christian Trinity is?
From the answers to this question it seems that most if not all Jewish sources treat Trinitarian Christianity (in particular, their doctrine of the Trinity) as either Shittuf or outright Avoda Zara, ...
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How does one explain God to little kids?
As I understand it, the ability to understand abstract concepts develops gradually in kids and is certainly not all there when they first start having conversations. This comes into play when kids ...
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How does Judaism deal with God and paradoxes?
How does Judaism deal with paradoxes relating to the omnipotence of God?
For example: Can God create a rock that he himself cannot lift?
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Can a Noachide continue to believe in religious tenets that are against the Torah?
Say you have a Christian* or a Muslim (or a member of any other monotheistic religion) who accepts the Seven Noachide Laws, and (as per Mishneh Torah, Hil. Melachim 8:11) does so because he believes ...
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Have Jews believed that Ezra was the son of God?
In reading the Qur'an, I noticed this passage:
Qur'an 9:30 The Jews say, "Ezra is the son of Allah "; and the Christians say, "The Messiah is the son of Allah ." That is their statement from their ...
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Do religious Jews generally believe the serpent of Garden of Eden was Satan?
Upon reading the recent CNN article, That Actually Isn't In The Bible, one not-really-in-the-Bible misconception they cite is the idea that serpent in the Garden of Eden was the Satan.
The article ...
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What is the machlokes between the Gra and Ba'al HaTanya?
What is the famous argument between the Vilna Gaon and the Ba'al HaTanya in understanding the Sod HaTzimtzum? And what are some ma'areh mekomos in their works where this Machlokes is seen?
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When did usage of "Hashem" to refer to G-d gain traction?
It seems as though virtually all seforim (especially those written by Acharonim and earlier) refer to G-d as either Hakodosh Boruch Hu or Ribono Shel Olom, and never as "Hashem." Similarly, I don't ...
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Is there sufficient evidence to support the theory that ancient Israel practiced monolatry?
I just came across this Wikipedia article on monolatrism that says some people believe ancient Israel practiced monolatry.
The highest claim to be made for Moses is that he was, rather than a ...
user1002
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Why did Yonah run away?
If Yonah understood that he was being commanded by God, then how could he have possibly thought that he could run away? Did he believe that God was tied to a particular land, the way pagan gods were ...
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Hashem studies Torah?
The Gemara in Avodah Zarah 3b lays out the 12-hour schedule of Hashem's day. I realize that any kind of description of Hashem in human terms is allegorical as Hashem is not a human bounded by time and ...
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Does God love non-Jews?
I've read the topic of whether or not God discriminates between Jews and non-Jews, but does God love non-Jews? Does it say anywhere that He does love non-Jews. I don't believe that God hates non-Jews ...
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Reconciling the evidence for the Uncertainty Principle with belief in an omniscient G-d
One of the foundations of modern quantum mechanics is the Uncertainty Principle. This principle is not an assumption, but rather is derived from assumptions made with regard to the structure of nature....
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Do we really have free choice?
I was told Hashem created us with free will; so we can make a choice to do good or evil, right? Well, Hashem knows what we are going to do in 10 minutes. So do we really have free will? Hashem can see ...
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Do people have an effect on the mood of God?
If a person commits idolatry or fornication he is sinful. Not only that, but the curse of Hashem is with that person. On the other hand, if a person does a lot of mitswots (commandments) and believes ...
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Yearning for Moshiach while the Temples stood
Did we (the Jewish people) yearn for the complete Redemption (with the Techias HaMasim, etc) like we do today, at the time the either Temple was standing? It can't be that we just assumed "This is it"...
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Is God swayed by popular appeal?
When we pray for someone to be healed, we pray this individually in the Amidah but we also often have a community mi shebeirach list. I assume that there is a theological reason for the public prayer,...
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What should our response be to ancient scripts that mirror the Torah?
There are quite a number of ancient documents that have been found that (supposedly) predate the Torah, and yet they share many lines practically verbatim. If the Torah is truly divine, how could this ...
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Native American Traditions and Mass Revelations
In Deuteronomy(4:32-34), two points are made in reassuring Israel that God has not abandoned them. The reader is tasked with searching from one end of the heavens to the other to see if a God ever ...
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Why is God so hidden from us
Why did God institute a natural order so that His presence would be hidden. I know so many people who are hopelessly convinced of the scientists' belief that the world is basically a machine running ...
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If Hashem doesn't change, how does prayer work?
If Hashem is perfect and unchanging, how can we pray to Him to have mercy on us? Doesn't that imply a change?
I've heard it implied that the way this works is that the prayer itself has the effect ...
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Why is being religious a duty if God chose to not have a proof to his existence in this world?
According to the answers to the question "How do we know that God exists" it seems some (if not most) Jews on this site believe there is no way to verify whether or not God even exists.
If this view ...
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Sources for Hashem being corporeal/incorporeal?
I heard of a discussion over Peseach about whether Hashem is corporeal.
Which classical Jewish sources (Talmud/Achronim/Rishonim) offer definitive opinions about this? (Please cite references!)
I ...
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What happened to Avraham's students?
We read how Avraham was going around convincing people to believe in one G-d and of his many students. Yet we don't hear of those students (or their descendants) ever again.
What happened to them ...
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What did the 70 elders see?
Parshat Mishpatim says of the 70 elders who went up on Har Sinai with Moshe and Aharon:
וַיִּרְאוּ, אֵת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל; וְתַחַת רַגְלָיו, כְּמַעֲשֵׂה לִבְנַת הַסַּפִּיר, וּכְעֶצֶם הַשָּׁמַיִם, ...
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What does "Baruch shem k'vod malchuso l'olam vaed" mean?
A sentence commonly said during prayer is "בָּרוּךְ שֵׁם כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד". How do we interpret it? What does it mean?
It sounds like it means:
Blessed is/be the name of the glory/...
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Reconciling "פותח את ידך" and knowing people are starving?
Tehillim 145:16 (Sefaria's translation):
פּוֹתֵחַ אֶת־יָדֶךָ וּמַשְׂבִּיעַ לְכָל־חַי רָצוֹן׃
You give it (the food mentioned in the previous pasuk) openhandedly, feeding every creature to its ...
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How do you know what is God's will in a particular situation?
After reading this superb article by the great Rabbi Noah Weinberg I'm left pondering point number 5 "Make your will God's will".
I understand that this does not mean that whatever you personally ...
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How do scientists such as Natan Aviezer and Gerald Schroeder understand the fourth day of creation?
If I understand correctly, scientists such as Natan Aviezer and Gerald Schroeder have readings of Genesis Chapter 1 that fit with the current scientific understanding of how the universe/planet/life ...
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What is the proof that HaShem's purpose in creation was to bestow good?
Rabbi M Ch Luzzatto in Derech HaShem (1:2:1) gives HaShem’s purpose in creation to “bestow of His good to another”. (Translation Aryeh Kaplan.) The translator in his notes gives several sources/...
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Is belief in a G-d a commandment?
I am studying to convert to Judaism and one of the questions I was asked was about the Ten Commandments. I remember reading at that time that there was debate about the division of the statements ...
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God's Pair of Teffilin
How is it that when Moshe turns his head not to see God's face, he sees He's got on teffilin? I thought God had no physical form.
kimbo
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Was Kriyas Yam Suf difficult?
The gemora in Pesachim 118a says "קשין מזונותיו של אדם כקריעת ים סוף", and there is a similar expression in Sota 2a and Sanhedrin 22a "קשה לזווגן כקריעת ים סוף". What exactly was difficult about ...
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Is calling The LORD as "Father" common during Jesus time?
Most of the time I hear from some Christian friends that the "Father" name for to The LORD was founded by Jesus.
Because I find it odd (if Jesus was the first person to start calling The LORD "...
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"God is Fire": Trying to Source an Analogy for Prayer
I remember reading once a very clever analogy, which I was sure that I had found in the writings of Yeshayahu Leibowitz (who sourced it, from memory, in the writings of the Rav, R' Yosef Ber ...
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Was R' Yishmael aware that his blessing was Hashem's prayer?
Berachos 7a:
אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן מִשּׁוּם רַבִּי יוֹסֵי: מִנַּיִן שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מִתְפַּלֵּל? ... מַאי מְצַלֵּי? אָמַר רַב זוּטְרָא בַּר טוֹבִיָּה, אָמַר רַב: ״יְהִי רָצוֹן ...
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Rashi and Corporealism
Shemos 7:4-
וְלֹא-יִשְׁמַע אֲלֵכֶם פַּרְעֹה, וְנָתַתִּי אֶת-יָדִי בְּמִצְרָיִם; וְהוֹצֵאתִי אֶת-צִבְאֹתַי אֶת-עַמִּי בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם, בִּשְׁפָטִים, גְּדֹלִים
There, Rashi comments-...
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What is a summary of basic Jewish metaphysics or theology?
Whilst wishing no disrespect to any religion, various "basic concepts" are easily found summarised or explained in introductory texts or online. For example:
Buddhist metaphysics would have to do ...
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Is believing that God, Israel, and Torah are one Avodah Zarah?
The Zohar said that God, Israel, and Torah are one.
I thought Judaism is strictly monotheistic. When Jesus said, "I and the father is one", he was being a heretic. So how come the Zohar includes even ...
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Does God need us?
Does God need us?
In Nitzavim, God says:
This commandment [in the singular], that I command you today, is not hidden from you and is not distant. [Deut. 30:11]
The Midrash explains:
What [single] “...
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Onkelos, Anthropomorphism, and The Exodus
Onkelos the Convert is said by the Talmud to be the author of the official aramaic translation of the Pentateuch. Rashi and Maimonides understand Onkelos as having a tendency to interpret physical ...
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Rambam on the relationship between oneness and incorporeality
One of Rambam's arguments for the existence of only one God is that the existence of multiple gods by definition implies some form of corporeality.
Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 1:7
אלוה זה אחד הוא ואינו ...
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Does the fact that "Elohim" is plural indicate that parts of the Tanakh hearken from a pre-Jewish polytheistic culture?
(disclaimer, I am a gentile and don't know how to type in square script)
My question applies to the whole Tanakh, but I'm specifically curious about Genesis. Translating strictly literally (ie, ...
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Hashem is here and there and everywhere?
Is Hashem really in front of us, behind us, next to us, etc?
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If I knew Him I would be Him
Anyone know the source of the phrase "If I knew Him I would be Him," and its meaning? (heard it a few times though don't recall where. rumors abound that the rambam said this though have never seen a ...
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Why is Sabbath so important?
In Isaiah 58:13-14 we read:
“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
From doing your pleasure on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a delight,
The holy day of the Lord honorable,
And ...
user3178
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