God in Judaism

[3] God is conceived as unique and perfect, free from all faults, deficiencies, and defects, and further held to be omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and completely infinite in all of his attributes, who has no partner or equal, being the sole creator of everything in existence.

[3][8] Other names of God in traditional Judaism include Adonai, El-Elyon, El Shaddai, and Shekhinah.

[6] Traditional interpretations of Judaism generally emphasize that God is personal yet also transcendent and able to intervene in the world,[8] while some modern interpretations of Judaism emphasize that God is an impersonal force or ideal rather than a supernatural being concerned with the universe.

[5] Current scholarly consensus generally reconstructs the name's original pronunciation as "Yahweh".

However, concerning Ein Sof, there is no aspect anywhere to search or probe; nothing can be known of it, for it is hidden and concealed in the mystery of absolute nothingness.In modern articulations of traditional Judaism, God has been speculated to be the eternal, omnipotent, and omniscient creator of the universe, as well as the source for one's standards of morality, guiding humanity through ethical principles.

[16] Abraham ibn Daud believed that God was not omniscient or omnipotent with respect to human action.

[15] Some modern Jewish theologians have argued that God is not omnipotent, however, and have found many biblical and classical sources to support this view.

Kabbalistic tradition holds that emanations from the divine consist of ten aspects, called sefirot.

Judaism is aniconic, meaning it lacks material, physical representations of both the natural and supernatural worlds.

As such, attempting to describe God's "appearance" in practical terms is considered disrespectful, and possibly heretical.

Rabbi Samuel S. Cohon wrote that "God as conceived by Judaism is not only the First Cause, the Creative Power, and the World Reason, but also the living and loving Father of Men.

"[22] Edward Kessler writes that Hebrew Bible "portrays an encounter with a God who cares passionately and who addresses humanity in the quiet moments of its existence.

"[23] British chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks suggests that God "is not distant in time or detached, but passionately engaged and present".

[23] The "predicate "personal" as applied to God" does not necessarily mean that God is corporeal or anthropomorphic, views that Jewish sages sometimes rejected; rather, "personality" refers not to physicality, but to "inner essence, psychical, rational, and moral".

[22] However, other traditional Jewish texts, for example, the Shi'ur Qomah of the Heichalot literature, describe the measurements of limbs and body parts of God.

[23] According to some speculations in traditional Judaism, people's actions do not have the ability to affect God positively or negatively.

[citation needed] The Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible states: "Gaze at the heavens and see, and view the skies, which are higher than you.

This accessibility leads to a God who is present, involved, near, intimate, and concerned for and vulnerable to what happens in this world.

[30] God is the sum of all natural processes that allow people to be self-fulfilling, the power that makes for salvation.

[32] Likewise, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the founder of the Jewish Renewal movement, views God as a process.