{"id":81941,"date":"2020-10-24T23:09:03","date_gmt":"2020-10-24T20:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=81941"},"modified":"2020-10-24T23:09:03","modified_gmt":"2020-10-24T20:09:03","slug":"gods-presence-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/gods-presence-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"God\u2019s Presence In The World\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jewish tradition understands Psalm 29 as the emblematic poem about theophany \u2013 God\u2019s appearance on our earthly plane of existence. For the Tannaim (70 CE \u2013 200 CE) it is a description of God giving the Torah to Israel. The <\/span>oz <\/span><\/em>\u201cstrength\u201d in the final verse \u201cthe Lord gives strength to his people,\u201d for example, is explicitly interpreted as Torah (Sifre Deut. 343).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the Amoraic rabbis (200 CE \u2013 600 CE), the psalm became central in another moment of connection with the sublime: the Amidah, the great conversation between an individual worshiper and God. The 18 blessings of the weekday Amidah are correlated with 18 times the name of God appears in the psalm (Y. Ber. 2:3 4d-5a), and the seven blessings of the Shabbat Amidah correlate with the seven times the word <\/span>qol<\/em> <\/span>\u201cvoice\u201d appears in the psalm (Y. Ber. 4:3 8a).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even the <\/span>siddur<\/em> <\/span>situates Psalm 29 at dramatic moments of divine revelation. The poem is in the Kabbalat Shabbat liturgy right before the prayer <\/span>Ana Bekoach<\/span><\/em>, <\/span><\/i>which is an expanded acrostic of God\u2019s 42 letter name. The poem prepares the reader for invoking God\u2019s name and greeting the Shabbat Queen \u2013 the <\/span>shekhinah<\/span><\/em>, the lowest manifestation of God, for the Kabbalists who composed the Kabbalat Shabbat liturgy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The psalm also appears in full and in part during the Torah reading ceremony. The metaphor of <\/span>oz <\/span><\/em>\u201cstrength\u201d as Torah becomes concrete with its citation at the climax of <\/span>ein kemokha<\/span><\/em>, the opening section of the Torah reading liturgy. The psalm then appears in full when the Torah is escorted back to the Ark. The Torah scroll acts as a symbol of God\u2019s earthly presence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading Psalm 29 as a poem about God\u2019s earthly manifestation traces back to the biblical text itself. The world\u2019s scariest force is chaos \u2013 uncontrollable and unpredictable. Ancient denizens of the Mediterranean equated chaos with the sea, with mighty water: <\/span>mayyim rabbim<\/em> <\/span>\u201cgreat water\u201d (v3) and <\/span>mabul<\/em> <\/span>\u201cthe flood\u201d (v10). It is no surprise, therefore, that the chief deity of these societies was a god who could attempt to tame chaos: a thunder God. Call him Zeus, Juno or Ba\u2019al.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The God of the Jews, too, was associated with thunder. <\/span>Qol<\/span><\/em> in Biblical Hebrew, translated as \u201cvoice\u201d can also mean \u201cboom\u201d \u2013 the sound of crashing thunder. The poem begins (vv. 1-2) in heaven, with the <\/span>bnei elim<\/span><\/em>, <\/span><\/i>lower deities or perhaps angels, praising God. It then moves to earth as God thunders his way down the Mediterranean coast and across the wilderness (vv. 3-9). It concludes by comforting the reader: the raucous of thunder is not scary. It is merely God establishing his mastery and control over an unpredictable world: \u201cThe Lord sat enthroned during the Flood,\u201d he controls chaos; and thus \u201cThe Lord sits as king of the world, forever\u201d (v10). And, since God is the only constant amidst a life of chaos, \u201cThe Lord gives strength to his nation, the Lord blesses his people with peace\u201d (v11).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":81942,"id":81942,"title":"ps29-chaox","filename":"ps29-chaox.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps29-chaox.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/gods-presence-in-the-world\/ps29-chaox\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps29-chaox","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":81941,"date":"2020-10-24 20:07:39","modified":"2020-10-24 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