Judaic Narcissism: Contextualizing “Is God an Antisemite?”

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has had a career that defies categorizations, from being some sort of spiritual guide to the late pop star Michael Jackson to pioneering “kosher lubricants” as an Israel-based family business revolving around positive sexuality.

A few days ago, he accentuated his already eccentric persona by delivering an op-ed for The Jerusalem Post which left a great many utterly perplexed. Even just the title of this bizarre piece will leave you scratching your head in confusion: “Is God an Antisemite?”

Qualitatively, it is an unacademic piece of worthless drivel not deserving a detailed or comprehensive analysis since it lacks any sort of thorough theological treatment of the question. Essentially, it is nothing more than an emotional rant devoid of any merit whatsoever. Furthermore, it makes no attempt at all to salvage itself from a purely intellectual perspective.

I’ll quote a few passages here so you can see for yourself what I’m talking about:

Might we say, God forbid, that the Creator is none too fond of Jews as well? After all, isn’t He the one who allowed Jews to be murdered for two millennia?

 

Let me be clear. I do not believe in God. Rather, I am certain there is a God. I am certain that God is the Creator of heaven and earth, Master of the Universe, and Controller of all history. Maimonides said there is no commandment to believe in God but to know that God exists.

 

[…]

 

My job is to protest God’s seeming inaction, demand that He show himself in history – as He did on the day that four hostages were rescued and when the demonic president of Iran was roasted in a helicopter crash – and finally protect his people.

 

Is God an antisemite? My role is not to answer that question but to pray to him defiantly that He ceases giving any party even a hint that this may be so.

 

I don’t understand why the world hates Jews. But my job is not to understand but to fight, to explain, to debate, and to win. My job is to be an Israelite, “he who wrestles with God.” My role is to keep the Sabbath whenever God seemingly allows it to be violated, as on October 7. My job is to honor my wife and respect women even when God seemingly allows monsters to violate women. My six daughters’ mission is to light the Sabbath candles and dispel the darkness even when God seemingly extinguishes hope as He did on October 7. And my job is to fight for Israel and support the IDF even when God seemingly allows their lives to slip through His fingers.

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Most people would find all of this to be quite shocking and absurd. After all, how on earth can a rabbi, a supposed “man of the cloth,” speak of God in such a vile and blasphemous manner?

However, it wouldn’t really come as such a surprise for those who possess a little more awareness regarding modern Jewish philosophy. For instance, you might have heard of the “death of God” Jewish theologians, who, from Emil Fackenheim to Richard Rubenstein, struggled with the notion of an “omnipotent and all-merciful God” since, as they see it, He didn’t do much to stop the Holocaust.

But this narcissistic attitude, which we could consider to be metaphysical arrogance, predates the Shoah by many centuries. In fact, it has been preserved, though “distilled,” in the most authoritative set of Jewish scriptures, namely the Talmud, with its influential rabbinical figures.

Jewish academic Dov Weiss has carried out a thorough documentation of this within his 2016 book, Pious Irreverence: Confronting God in Rabbinic Judaism.

As my goal here is not to provide an extensive book review, I shall suffice with just a single quote that I found to be quite representative of the wider thesis at hand, seeing as it’s all about how rabbis have traditionally held an anthropomorphic conception of God (something that would be toned down gradually over time to some extent due to the influence of Islam).

Weiss writes on p.16:

Assuming a humanlike body and emotions, the rabbinic God was not understood to be an unapproachable being, but a relational character who participates as a member in society, albeit a privileged one. Indeed, the divine is not reflected upon in isolation as in medieval Jewish philosophy or mysticism, but rather characterized as an entity yearning to be in direct relation to others. Going beyond the moderate anthropomorphism of the Hebrew Bible, the rabbinic God suffers, laughs, cries, kisses people, studies Torah in a yeshiva, follows the commandments (mitzvot), and even spends His time matchmaking and sporting with Leviathan, the monster of the sea. In short, this study proposes that the late rabbinic valorization of theological protest is animated by a distinctive rabbinic theology that reflects the heightened humanity and personality assumed by the rabbinic God.

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A famous episode of “rabbinical triumph” over God in Judaism is found in the “Oven of Akhnai” narrative. Without delving too deep into the technicalities, it revolves around a certain legal argument concerning ritual impurity and how rabbis can “adapt” to their times, even if it means defying the divine orders of God. According to this story, God ended up admitting defeat and laughed. (In recent centuries, this would provide liberal-reformists within the Jewish tradition with a theological basis on which to argue for “acclimating” themselves to the ever-changing conditions of the time.)

We thus read in the Talmud, Bava Metzia 59b:1:

R. Eliezer then said to the Sages, “If the Halakhah [Jewish law] agrees with me, let it be proved from heaven.” Sure enough, a divine voice cried out, “Why do you dispute with R. Eliezer, with whom the Halakhah always agrees?” R. Joshua stood up and protested: “The Torah is not in heaven!” (Deut. 30:12). We pay no attention to a divine voice because long ago at Mount Sinai You wrote in your Torah at Mount Sinai, `After the majority must one incline’. (Ex. 23:2)” R. Nathan met [the prophet] Elijah and asked him, “What did the Holy One do at that moment?” Elijah: “He laughed [with joy], saying, ‘My children have defeated Me, My children have defeated Me.'”

And Allah’s refuge is sought from such blasphemous drivel. He is Exalted far beyond what they ascribe unto Him!

Then, in relation to God supposedly “crying,” there were major rabbinical debates regarding “where” He cries, as we read in Chagigah 5b:10:

The verse states: “But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret [bemistarim] for your pride” (Jeremiah 13:17). Rav Shmuel bar Inya said in the name of Rav: The Holy One, Blessed be He, has a place where He cries, and its name is Mistarim. What is the meaning of “for your pride”? Rav Shmuel bar Yitzḥak said: God cries due to the pride of the Jewish people, which was taken from them and given to the gentile nations. Rav Shmuel bar Naḥmani said: He cries due to the pride of the kingdom of Heaven, which was removed from the world.

 

The Gemara asks: But is there crying before the Holy One, Blessed be He? Didn’t Rav Pappa say: There is no sadness before the Holy One, Blessed be He, as it is stated: “Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and gladness are in His place” (I Chronicles 16:27)? The Gemara responds: This is not difficult. This statement, that God cries, is referring to the innermost chambers, where He can cry in secret, whereas this statement, that He does not cry, is referring to the outer chambers.

So they believe that, when God is not laughing due to having been defeated by a rabbi, He is crying for the sake of the tribulations being faced by Jews.

And Allah’s refuge is sought from such blasphemous drivel. He is Exalted far beyond what they ascribe unto Him!

In fact, this idea of “fighting God” is found even in their perception of the name “Israel” itself, as has also been emphasized by the infamous Shmuley Boteach. He wrote the following in a blog post in January, 2024, for The Times of Israel, named “Where Was God on October 7th?“:

Judaism gave rise to the defiant man of faith, the man or woman who, like our patriarch Jacob, spars with angels and celestial beings and defeats them. In fact, that is the exact definition of the world Israel: he who fights God and wins!

For those misguided interfaith enthusiasts and the ignorant unsuspecting Muslims who might still be so oblivious as to think of Judaism as being “monotheistic” and an “Abrahamic faith,” this is what your “fellow Abrahamic religion” teaches.

Such blasphemous anthropomorphic drivel should offend every Muslim to their very core.

No thing is as His likeness. (Qur’an, 42:11)

Any and all similarity between Allah and His creation is negated by this verse.

Allah is totally unlike His creation.

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