What if God was not one thing, but many things, able to appear in whatever form we need in whatever time we most need? One of my favorite midrashim of all time from the Pesikta de-Rav Kahana describes this possibility in the following way: “Because the Holy One appeared to Israel at the Red Sea as a mighty man waging war, and appeared to them at Sinai as a teacher who teaches the day’s lesson and then again and again goes over with his pupils what they have been taught, and appeared to them in the days of Daniel as an elder teaching Torah, and in the days of Solomon appeared to them as a young man, the Holy One said to Israel: Come to no false conclusions because you see Me in many guises, for I am God who was with you at the Red Sea and I am God who is with you at Sinai: I am Adonai your God.”
According to the rabbis here, God is flexible, coming to us in whatever way we need in that moment. How radical! How revolutionary! Begging the question, what type of God do we need today? Would God be a social influencer, a movie star, a college professor, a politician? Perhaps God would have no form at all but just be lines of code on a computer. Would God scroll across our social media feed, or would God abdicate technology altogether? Perhaps more important than the question of how God would choose to appear to us today is whether we would bother to notice God at all? As a scientific friend of mine recently reminded me the wonders of life abound around us if we only choose to pay attention to them. To this end, every morning when I walk my dogs, rain, sun or shine, I try to pay attention to the beauty of the sky and in that way find God.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex