Mourning Goliath: An Editorial from the Philistine Times
A recent archeological discovery of a large basalt stone at Tel-es-Safi in Judah, dating from the middle of the 9th century B.C., contains what appears to be an editorial from the Philistine Times. Known as the Moabite Stone II, it has been translated from the Phoenician by Avraham Klein and Nasim Shephelah.
***
Today is a day of mourning. We lament the passing of our hero and champion, Goliath of the holy city of Gath, on the bloody field of Shocoth. He was a man worthy of a great people, admired for his valor, innocence, and willingness to die in the defense of the state. He will be remembered as a glorious martyr for the cause and will serve as an ideal to be emulated by future generations of brave young Philistines.
Standing only six feet nine inches tall, he fearlessly stepped forward, challenging the Israelites to send a warrior against him in single combat. Characteristically, the Israelites wavered for forty days, unable to muster the courage to engage in a fair contest until they could manipulate the situation to their advantage. Need we remind our readers that the Israelitic response, when it finally did come, was entirely disproportionate, sending a vicious killer like David against the gentle and selfless Goliath? Were we not ready to live in peace with the Israelites would they have merely disarmed and trusted our beneficence? We call upon the community of nations to raise a collective voice against the perpetration of such massacres as we saw on the field of Shocoth.
For the purpose of this belligerent and expansionist tribe is evident to all: to attack peace-loving Philistia, crush the conciliatory Moabites, exterminate Amnon and Cush, both renowned for their tranquility and repeated diplomatic initiatives, and ultimately to wipe the temperate kingdom of Assyria off the face of the earth. The agenda of this vile blot upon the visage of humanity is transparent: to establish a Greater Israel extending to the very ends of the known world.
That sounds like the Hussein Obama Manifesto
Ya know when the Israelites first began their journey to Jerusalem and asked if they could pass by the King’s highway and not touch any other’s possessions but were told NO, if only the dummies would of thought TOLL BOOTH! all this might have been avoided. With Israels as far as the eye could see and all that Egyptian gold imagine the wealth their passing would have generated.
Oh well, hind sight.
Interesting exercise, David. True text and real archaeology are more damning.
First there’s the plain Biblical definition of the Arab national character: Yishmael hu pere-adam. (Ishmael is a wild jackass of a man.)
Then there are the archaeological digs in the Middle East that expose the pre-Islamic faith of the Arabs to which they still cling in various ways.
The core religious practice of pre-Muslim Arabs was child sacrifice. At a single altar to Tanit in Lebanon (ancient Carthage), the remains of 20,000 infants were unearthed. The ready sacrifice of their children by modern “Palestinians” is culturally rooted.
Tanit (AKA, Ishtar, Astarius, Esther, Easter) was the consort of Baal, contemptuously elided by the ancient Hebrews to Baal-zevel (Lord of Shit) then to Baal-zevuv (Lord of the Flies). Beelzebub in English transliteration.
In the ancient myth, Baal Hammon, the sun-god, impregnates the virgin star Ishtar (from which the word star is derived). Ishtar falls to earth as a flaming meteor and births Dagon, god of the corn (harvest).
Once a year, the women of the ancient Middle-East would bring their infants for sacrifice to Ishtar to propitiate terrible Baal for the resurrection of the harvest.
In the unmonotheistic contemporary Muslim veneration of the holy meteorite in Mecca called the Kebbah, and in the celebration of the martyring of their own children to holy Jihad, the bloodthirsty worship of Beelzebub survives and thrives.
Correction: The Kabba is the cube in Mecca containing the holy Muslim meteor.
The annual pigrimage to Mecca is an immitation of the ancient annual Hebrew pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The prayerful circling of the Kabbah by the faithful is in imitation of the Hebrew Hossanas around the Ark.
These primitive Pagan Islamic practices hark back to the time before Mohamed introduced the Arabs to his perverted and piratical revision of Judaism and Christianity.
Before Mohamed acquainted them to the teachings of the of Jews, the Arabs worshiped fiery messengers from the night heavens, happily ate pork and neither knew nor cared about someone named Abraham who the Jews claimed the Arabs were descended from.
3. David Levavi: “The core religious practice of pre-Muslim Arabs was child sacrifice. At a single altar to Tanit in Lebanon (ancient Carthage), the remains of 20,000 infants were unearthed. The ready sacrifice of their children by modern “Palestinians” is culturally rooted.”
You know, the evidence that the Philistines were a product of greece is substantial, rendering the “Palastinian” historical claims a ridiculous fiction… but with the above in mind, I wonder, would it be more productive to let the “Palastinian” arabs have this fiction?
What’s hilarious is how hard this fails.
You know what David did after? HE JOINED THE PHILLISTINES. Yup, that’s right, after Saul sought his life, he actually fled to them and was protected by their king, Achish, who had such a high regard for him that he would have made him his personal bodyguard for life.
Meanwhile david was punking him by raiding his neighbors instead of judah. And the moment saul died, he went back to be king of isreal.and he wound up conquering the same guy who gave him his trust and sheltered him.
But even before, yeah they’d have a right to be worried, considering Isreal after coming to there after the exodus often killed every man, woman, and child in the places they conquered by divine order.
I see what you did there, but past is no way like present to make the parody sting if you actually read the text.
The Philistines were a Greek sea peoples. They were invading from the north when the Israelites were invading from the south. The two clashed and the Philistines lost. And that was the last heard of the Philistines in history.
When the Romans conquered Judea and exiled its population, the Romans renamed the territory Syria Palaestina to obliterate any memory of Jewish soverignty. The geographical equivalent of plowing Judean soil with salt to make it barren. Christian hostility toward Jews insured that Palestine remained the name until the founding of the Jewish State.
Until 1967, the term Palestinian was an imperialist insult to southern Syrian Arabs. They considered themselves proud Arabs. Part of the greater Arab “nation.”
Only after 1967 did the southern Syrians begin to recognize that geographical identification as Palestinians trumped ethnic identification as Arabs.
The former imperial powers who were brokering Middle East peace and ever ready to draw lines on maps preferred the name Palestine. Nationality to the Europeans and Americans was geographical. Modern identity as Palestinians had political advantages for the southern Syrians with whom the British French and American foreign policy establishments were sympathetic.
The French academy, august body, hastened to recognize the Palestinians as a distinct ethnicity. And so was born the Palestinian Nation. The proud Palestinian People were now worthy adversaries on equal footing with the five-thousand year old Jews.
If ever, Lord forbid, the Arabs conquered Israel, neither the territory of the Jewish State nor the West Bank nor Gaza would be called Palestine. Dumping that Christian, Western, Imperialist name would be the first act of the new Muslim government.
David D:
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Your post offers proof.
#3,
Bael/Molock worship is still going on, except at a faster pace. It is called abortion. Lucifer loves it.
I enjoyed the read. It reminded me of Hamas, Hizboallah, Iran, and all others who go ape with dozers, planes, and SUV’s.
But even before, yeah they’d have a right to be worried, considering Isreal after coming to there after the exodus often killed every man, woman, and child in the places they conquered by divine order.
The archaeological (and biblical) record indicates that rather than a sudden shift from Canaanite culture to Israelite culture, the change took place over centuries, with Canannite culture persisting for some times. The biblical prophets constantly complained about the Israelites pursuing Canaanite and other religious practices. It seems that the Israelites were not very good at genocide.
levavi-i just read more or less verbatim what is in the bible. Deuteronomy 2:32-34 is reflecting on them killing every man, woman, and child of hesbon-translator’s note means offering like a burnt offering. In other words, completely. They did that with King Og’s people too.
Deut 7 has the lord tell them to destroy them utterly, to the point of erasing their king’s name from the earth.
phillistines again? Josuha 13:6 has god saying he will drive them out to give their lands to the isrealites.
Just saying that back then, it was not a case of a peace-loving nation being beset upon by irrational terrorists, but something entirely different, so the satire fails hard.
ronnie@
well, the bible tends to ascribe it as the lord raising up the nations against israel for not following him. But i don’t think because they were bad at genocide means they were suddenly enlightened, humane combatants. They were pretty much the same as the nations they fought. Sometimes worse, sometimes better. And there always is the troubling aspect of the whole “promised land” thing-the whole religious aspect to retaking the land and driving out the inhabitants.
I mean, now Isreal for the most part, even with its excess, is nowhere near as something to justifiably worry about for the palestinians, and its right to assume they are paranoid.
You forgot that God, and thereby the Israelites, had the audacity to criticize the Philistines for their pro-choice stance of post-natal abortion – passing their children through the fire.
David D:
What makes the Hebrew Bible great literature is that it’s portraiture includes all the warts. Abraham isn’t nice to Hagar. Isaac is a dummy. Jacob is a crook. And that’s just the Patriarchs who fathered the Israelites.
Moses is a mushmouth. His brother Aaron is an opportunist and an idolator. Ehud is an assassin. David is a usurper, whoremonger, murderer and tyrant. His son Solomon is worse. And yes, Joshua fought a war of annihilation against the Canaanites. By Divine order, no less. Something to make any decent person queasy.
I would still insist that the Jews were morally superior–far superior–to their Canaanite enemies. Sodom, and Gamorrah were not Pleasantville and Happydale. Nor were the other Cities of the Plain.
I would challenge you to show me an historical account of a people as irreverent of its greatest heroes and as clear eyed and honest about their behavior as the Torah. Bible-based criticism of the Jews based the behavior of their ancestors always begs two questions:
Where the ancestral book of your people for comparison? Why are you so obsessed with the ancestral book of my people?
There is a reason why modern law and court systems in the United States and throughout the Anglosphere are rooted in Old Testament law. It aint because the ancient Jews were characteristically brutish and immoral.
A final note, David: I suspect that part of your difficulty stems from your reading the King James. Its a wonderful work in its own right but the tone is entirely different from the Hebrew Bible it’s translating. The Hebrew Bible is entirely absent pomp. Its plain as day and dry as dust.
The king James reads like a high church service. Reading it, you can practically hear the choir and see the sun streaming through stained glass windows. When the characters and events described are less than heroic, it clashes with the high and holy tone.
The Torah means everything to the Jews. But Jewish reverence for it isn’t idolatrous.
Og was a giant, so was Goliath and his brothers. One of the main reason for Noah’s flood was the corruption of human DNA into giants.
How some giants came about after the flood is an arguement for later. However, this appears to be the main reason for G-d’s order to kill every man, women, child, and animals in the land given to the Jews.
As posted above, the Jews failed to follow this order, as well as other orders from G-d whom they made a deal with. They have paid a price for failure. Now, the Jews are back inside some of the land G-d gave them, but not for their sake. It is because G-d keeps his deals, and his honor will be shown to the world soon enough.
Repent while there is still time.
There is a question as to whether David killed Goliath–if indeed such a thing happened at all–or whether twas Elhanan. One authority says Elhanan did in the brother of Goliath, another Goliath himself.
How child sacrafice differs from killing all the men, women and children in a city, and the cattle too, only a wizard would know.
bob,
I have read that about Elhanan too.
From what I have read bob, before the flood Lucifer and other fallen Angels with him corrupted human DNA so the Word could not enter a human body. Those creatures with the non human DNA were called giants in the KJ Bible. In the Torah I think they are called Nephlim. Offspring of the fallen ones.
Some of the fallen Angels are chained for their sins, some others including Lucifer asked, and were given respite until Judgement day. The spirits of the Nephlim wander the earth as evil spirits.
After the flood giants were again in the land G-d was going to give to the Jews. G-d gave the Jews orders to kill all those they came up against in said land.
The Jews did not follow that order very well, as well as other orders G-d gave them to follow.
Now, we have have seen, and still see Jews returning to their land. It is written in the Bible this will happen. It is also written in the Bible the end times will be as it was in the time of Noah.
Leatherneck and bob,
The way I understood it was that there were five giants in the land at the time of David. When David met Goliath, David selected five smooth stones from the dry riverbed. I heard it posited that David used each stone to slay one giant.
If you want to read about the fallen angles and their offspring, search the web for The Book of Enoch. There are a couple of different translations. Unfortunately, there no longer exists an original manuscript in Hebrew. The copies that exist are a translation of a translation. From what I understand, this book was part of the original Jewish canon and was also part of early Christian teachings before The Council of Nicea.
The first thing Noah, the water man, rider of waves, did, when he got to dry land, was plant a vineyard–and get drunk.
I take it this is some realistic Jewish humour.
If you look closely at the ages of the patriarchs given in the Bible, and compare them to the old Mesopotamian king lists, you will see a concealed harmony in the numbers, the Biblical writers having smuggled a more developed philosophy, that of the celestial round dance of the stars, into a popular narrative. These numbers are found as well far north in the symbolism of Valhalla, and to the east in Hinduland. Joseph Campbell talks of this in his books.
#14. David Levavi:
“What makes the Hebrew Bible great literature is that it’s portraiture includes all the warts. Abraham isn’t nice to Hagar. Isaac is a dummy. Jacob is a crook. And that’s just the Patriarchs who fathered the Israelites.”
“Abraham isn’t nice to Hagar.”
My reading of the story is that Abraham was nice to Hagar, but it was Hagar that was not nice to Sarah. In fact, didn’t he mourn the choosing of Isaac for the Covenant rather than Ishmael?
I have also heard two versions of Hagar’s final banishment from the household: One Sarah caught Ishmael “mocking” her son Isaac, and two, Sarah caught Ishmael “playing” with Isaac. Two very different stories, the first implying that contention between Sarah and Hagar continued and spilled over into Ishmael’s dislike of Isaac, and the second making Sarah appear unreasonable because Ishmael was reaching out to his baby brother.
“Isaac is a dummy.” I’ll have to ponder that statement.
The ready sacrifice of their children by modern “Palestinians” is culturally rooted.
They’re delighted that so many of their children are excited about blowing themselves to bits in service to Allah. Imagine growing up in a culture where that is prized as the noblest objective. One Palestinian woman has already blissfully donated 3 of her 10 sons to the cause. She stated she would give hundreds, if she had them.
In the Middle East, what happened before happens again.
And speaking of plus ça change, this should make the hair stand up on the back of your neck…
Pakistani region where the brutal Taleban have taken control
The Philistines were Indo-European Peoples of the Sea. Most scolars now consider that they started north of the Black Sea, migrated to Asia Minor and then spread across the Mediteranean littoral getting as far as Sardinia. The Philistines originally invaded Egypt in concert with the Shardana, were crushed and then were relocated to Palestine by the Egyptians to protect the northern frontier.
Leatherneck: Regarding abortion, I feel handicapped in discussion because it isn’t an issue as close to my heart as it is to yours. Jewish law was developed at a time when infant mortality was an everyday event. Read pained and consoling American children’s poetry written by housewives and mothers all over the country for pin-money during the nineteenth century and you will see that high infant mortality was normal until recently.
In Jewish law an infant does not achieve full legal status before thirty days of life. In civil cases settling accidental injury, just compensation is redeemable for the killing of the unborn infant of a pregnant woman. But otherwise an infant isn’t real until it has survived a month.
(A disclaimer: I’m not a rabbi and hardly learned and shouldn’t be taken for an authority. I’m merely recalling the little Talmudic law I yawned through in adolescence. There are Jews who would violently disagree with me.)
This is not to say I don’t have huge sympathy for your case, Jarhead. In an increasingly populated and mechanized world, when human life is weighed in mass numbers and socialist political fashion prevails, setting up trip lines to snuffing life by legislative and medical fiat is urgent. Reports of female fetus abortion in response to government population engineering in China are chilling. Halting the development of human life should be a last resort.
The position of the Catholic Church and the Christian Evangelicals on abortion is laudable. But it is a modern position and I’m inclined to a more traditional, less draconian take. I am also the father of three very well educated and capable daughters and I will not have their lives dictated by religious councils overwhelmingly male.
Of Lucifer I know nothing. This entity is extra Biblical and I never learned or read about it. Nephilim translates to fallen in Hebrew and the Bible mentions giants. But that these references are to fallen “angels” and King Kong or even Hulk size monsters I’m less than certain. Suffice it that Christianity parts company with Judaism in its insistence on an evil opposite divinity to the good Lord.
Penance , of course, is core Jewish practice and was, long before it took its place in the Church as Lent or in the Mosque as Ramadan. We sincerely and soberly repent our sins during the Yomei Noraim, the Terrible Days, preceeding Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Try to remember, buddy, that Christianity is based on Judaism, not the other way round. But thanks for the heads-up.
Lynn S: I apologize but I’ll have to reread the Hagar narrative to properly answer your question. As for Isaac, seems to me he gets led around quite a bit, first by his father then by his wife and son. All without protest. Makes him a dummy a my book.
David Levavi,
Then who tempted Eve? Lucifer’s pride got in the way, now he is fallen.
Leatherneck:
My daughter is a bible scholar but spare me the call and forgive my ignorance. What text are you reading?
Genesis chapter 3.
Leatherneck:
Which translation of the Hebrew Bible?
Sorry, I had to go do some work David L.
The Hebrew Bible in English 1917 Edition according to the JPS.
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/et/eto.htm
Let me know what you think.
Sorry David L. I had to go do some work.
The Hebrew Bible in English 1917 Edition.
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/et/eto.htm
My daughter says the 1917 JPS is a modified King James. This version is picked up in the Soncino Chumash which, as it happens, I most frequently use. So we should be on the same page> But I don’t see the word Lucifer.
She tells me that Lucifer is Latin for morning star and the reference stems from Isaiah addressing the king of Babylon, if I remember correctly. She points out that Christians look upon the serpent in the garden mentioned in the book of Genesis as something called the Devil, a considerable stretch from plain Hebrew text from where this Hebrew reader sits.
This entity called the ‘Devil,’ or ‘Lucifer’ is extra-Biblical. Monotheism does not allow power sharing between the singular divinity and another divinity-either as evil competitor or friendly companion, female consort what have you.
This is not about power sharing David L. The Dr. level reports show this entity in the Bible as Lucifer. If you do not want to believe that, that is your right.
From what I have read, the serpent/Lucifer/Satan/the Devil was created as the most beautiful, and smartest of all Angels. The morning star. From what I have read, Lucifer was not happy with G-d’s idea to make man from the soil in G-d’s image, and give him control of the earth. Plus, G-d gave Satan an order to go show respect to Adam.
Satan is listed as god,(a false god), of this world system, because Eve was tempted to eat of the tree of knowledge, and Adam ate also. Lucifer’s pride caused him to lie to Eve.
Adam did not want to lose Eve, so he sinned, ate the fruit, and died in Spirit, but not a physical death at that time. G-d needs a perfect sin offering, but gave Adam and Eve grace for Adam’s dying for his fellow human.
Satan became the defacto ruler through lies, and hate, and was cursed. Later, we see the sons of G-d, (fallen Angels), changing the DNA of mankind,(giants), so the Word can not come into the world.
Then Noah.
Then back to the Golith,(giant), story above.
As you know, within Christianty Christ won the title of this world back from Satan, by his sinless blood on the cross. For us, Christ rose from the dead, and sits on the right hand of G-d the Father.
Jews await the coming of Christ with power to rule the world. Christians await the second coming of Christ to rule with power, as he has earned the title of this world back from the Serpent.
I realize you already understand what I have written, and I am not writting anything you do not already know.
Good luck to you, and have a great evening. I have enjoyed reading your posts.
Try to remember, buddy, that Christianity is based on Judaism, not the other way round. But thanks for the heads-up.
It is highly probable however that Christianity influenced Judaism. An example is poligamy who FAIAK wasn’t officially banned in Judaism until somewhere between 800 and 1200 AD (don’t remember). From some statements from Jewish leaders to Christian authorities it looks like part of the reason was an attempt to better integrate in christian societies/defuse christain hostility to it.
#14 David Levavi
Isaac is a dummy. Because he was fooled by Rebekah and Jacob? He was old by that time with dim eyes, and he trusted. To me that is not dumb.
Jacob is a crook. Do you say that because of his brother? Esau did not find value in his blessing to come and gave it to Jacob as a price for food. Did you mean ‘deceitful’ because of he and Rebekah with his father and her husband?
Perhaps you daughter can better answer my questions about Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac, and Jacob.
I would also like to say that it might be more accurate to say that the ROOT of Christianity is Judaism implying something still living. This would of course be a good thing for Judaism since a healthy branch would be indicative of a healthy root system. That would be a good thing for both faiths.
Leatherneck:
You’re right. I was playing dumb and it is insulting. Apologies.
I have no intention of attacking your faith, but there is an ur document. The Hebrew text the Jews revere as the Torah.
There is a limit to which an exegete can stretch the plain text of this ur document. A nakhash is a serpent and the serpent beguiles Eve. You are insisting that the serpent is a fallen angel called Lucifer or morning star and is part of a great roiling struggle in heaven.
Imagine someone reading Moby Dick and insisting this white whale is really an alien from a planet of giant swimmers once beloved now cast out by the council of behemoths. A legitimate reading of Melville’s text?
JFM: There are many Christian influences, subtle and overt, in modern Judaism. Some are purely religious fashion. Others are genuinely worthwhile worthwhile and merit of grateful emulation. Others are less so. But their sum is negligible by comparison to Judaism’s contributions to Christianity.
As for hostility, it wasn’t intended. I write assertively and I’m plain arrogant at times, but anybody who genuinely cares about Biblical text, Christian or Jew, has my affection.
Lynn: Your defense of Biblical heroes and heroines is touching. Believe me, I love them and I love text. I’m being flip and blasphemous, but they were real people living primitive lives in primitive times. True blasphemy, indeed heresy, is to iconicise them. The Bible doesn’t glow nor do they.
All good stories! Really! Can we at least agree that they don’t matter? No..? Thought not.
David L.,
It is not I who state what the serpent is, but Dr. level reports on the subject. What does your reading, and understanding of same inform yourself of this subject?
Have a good evening.
The people used by God (Leatherneck, why not write the whole word?) in the Bible were included in the text, not to show us what kind of people they were (good, bad, too trusting, dumb) – the purpose of God’s word is to tell us about God, not to emulate or evaluate the people in the stories. They were “tools,” so to speak, and the point is to see how God worked in their lives, not so much how they conducted themselves.
More importantly, God uses the OT and the Torah to point us toward the coming Messiah through the use of His prophets.
By the way, I find it interesting that this is article was written by a man named David, about a Biblical figure named David, and that the first few comments (three of them) were contributed by guys named David.
#35 David Levavi
“The Bible doesn’t glow nor do they.”
I don’t have any religious icons, although I will admit that I don’t set a drink on the Good Book or use it as a door stop. I didn’t take your comments as flippant, or blasphemous, only oddly curious. I think you pointed out the very thing that is fascinating about these ancient peoples, that they managed to seek and find grace and a path to redemption in the primitive world where human sacrifice to gods was expected, and cruelty to others was common.
I sense our conversation will go no further, so I will end by saying I wish you well.
Talmud interpretation aside, it remains a fact that God considers child sacrifice murder, as is noted by the specific demand to execute anyone who engages in it (separate and distinct from the command to execute idolaters). How was David a usurper? Saul died on the battlefield, along with his sons (and not by David’s hand, nor by anyone acting on his behalf). David, being Saul’s son-in-law, was the rightful heir, despite the fact that Saul’s relatives didn’t take too kindly to this fact.
Leatherneck:
Sorry, I’m honestly not familiar with Dr Level. Googled it up and got a general idea but that’s it.
The notion that the serpent is anything but a serpent is insulting to the text and its authorship. It ascribes facts, characters and elaborate subtext nowhere discernible in the source text.
I have read the major sermons of Jonathan Edwards and I have read Dante’s inferno along with Bugakov’s Master and Margarita. Hell and the Devil are core Christian belief and they’re a part of our culture.
We Jews believe in neither. Neither appears in the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible. Nor do we believe in heaven.
Heaven appears in Genesis, of course. The word is “sh’maim,” a composite word meaning, “of water.” The word “Maim’ or “water” is itself the composite ‘M’Yam’ or “of the sea.”
Yam is the name of a pre-Abrahamic “Pagan” sea-god. How does this stack up to your notion of “heaven,” I can’t help but wonder?
You can see the obvious sexual imagery in the narrative of Eve and the Serpent just as artists always have.
The snake is phallic and beguiling, the fruit he offers Eve contains sexual knowledge that shared with Adam will mean the loss of innocence and the assumption of mortality and mortal burdens.
But soap operas in heaven with fallen angels bent upon evil is extra-textual and foreign.
I don’t want to hit this too hard, Leatherneck, it’s your faith not mine. But St. Paul’s mouth would drop at some of your ideas.
Moogie:
I respectfully disagree. The dvinity in the Torah is a moral divinity and his divine commandments are a guide for human conduct.
The Bible is a history of a people and the conduct of this people’s ancestors, good and bad. Studying their conduct enlightens and improves us and informs our quest for righteousness toward our fellow man. The Almighty barely enters into it.
Such is traditional Jewish belief. I suspect most Christians would be amazed how rarely the Creator is mentioned in rabbis’ sermons or in freewheeling discussion by Jews at Bible study. The focus is on man and man’s conduct.
Theology, or the study of God’s nature, so central to Christian scholarship, is virtually unknown among Jews save for some obscurantist scribbling by a few rabbis during the Middle Ages. To the Jews, the Creator isn’t triune and his nature doesn’t require elaborate definition.