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April 2011/Nisan 5771
A JOURNAL OF JEWISH RESPONSIBILITY
Metaphor
Danya Ruttenberg
Messy Complexity: On God,
Language, & Metaphor . . 1
Ariella Radwin
The Golden Calf: Turning
Away From God . . . . . . . 2
Jane Kanarek
The Warrior God
as Midwife. . . . . . . . . . . 3
Lori Hope Lefkovitz
Miracles of Birth & Water:
Jewish Metaphors through
a Feminist Lens . . . . . . . 4
Reuven Firestone
Metaphor in the Qur’an . 5
Aryeh Cohen
Binding Metaphors
A Meditation. . . . . . . . . 7
Atar Hadari
Maimonides, Herzl,
andCompany ........ 8
Dalia Marx
The Temple: Strong
Metaphors Don’t Die . . . 9
Irit Koren
Cherubs and Gender
Harmony. . . . . . . . . . . 10
Andrea Hodos, David
Wander, Joe Brenman,
Silvio Wolf, Jill Nathanson
NiSh’ma ........... 12
Howard Wettstein
Literary Theology. . . . . 14
Camille Shira Angel,
Edward Feld, Elyse
Frishman, Richard Hirsh
The Siddur Is the Tool,
We Are the Voice:
A Roundtable. . . . . . . . 15
Discussion Guide . . . . . 18
Bryan Cheyette
‘The Jew’ as Metaphor:
Embracing the
Dissimilar. . . . . . . . . . . 19
Admiel Kosman
Fire as Symbol:
A Brief Overview of
a Burning Topic . . . . . . 20
Channa Pinchasi
Modern Love:
A 12th-Century
Liturgical Poem . . . . . . 21
Jonathan D. Klein
Sh’maEthics . . . . . . . . 24
etaphors are ubiquitous but slippery. In Judaism, resonant images such as those of the
Golden Calf, ladders to heaven, angels and demons, Jacob’s wrestling, and a warrior
God — or a nurturing mother God — surface throughout our literature, liturgy, and
conversations. We know that much lies beneath these powerful images; some are harsh, confusing,
and difficult. Metaphoric language and imagery are not simple, but they enrich our relationship with
text; they invite us to dig more deeply, to ask sharper questions, and to imagine a fuller range of
meanings. I invite you, our readers, to linger a bit longer with this expanded issue. Read it more slowly;
read it alongside a Tanakh or siddur. Ask questions of friends, a rabbi, or a teacher. The following
essays touch on metaphoric meaning not only in Jewish texts, but also in the Qur’an and the hotly
contested poetry of T.S. Eliot. Several essays remind us of the ways in which seemingly mundane
metaphoric imagery can evoke rich, interesting, and surprisingly complex responses. —S.B.
M
Messy Complexity:
On God, Language, and Metaphor
DANYA RUTTENBERG
Over the last 30 or 40 years, feminists have said much about the androcentric terms in which Judaism traditionally describes
God. In many cases, they have suggested alternative language. This was a necessary process
that enabled all who cared about feminism to
reclaim Judaism on their own terms; it allowed
many to see the divine in a new way and
brought people into Jewish life who had previously been shunted onto the margins.
The time has come to stop thinking about
language and God. Much necessary detoxification has happened over the last 40 years, and
it’s time to stop worrying about our
metaphors for God, lest we become so
tangled up in them that they become
our experience of God entirely.
Rabbinic texts tell us that “the
Torah speaks in the language of humans”
(Sifrei Bamidbar, Parshat Shelach, Piska 6, and
elsewhere); in other words, language is a tool
and only a tool to help us access the One who
defies human description.
When, during the High Holiday prayers, we
beseech “Avinu Malkeinu,” “Our Father, our
King,” to whom are we calling? Do we believe
God is our parent (stern, loving, or both)? Do
we truly relate to God as a king (benevolent,
exacting, or both)? The phrase can evoke the
patriarchal domination that understandably
sends many feminists reeling. But it can also
evoke the feeling of a small child looking to a
parent for comfort. It can represent the libera-
tion from self-importance that comes from sub-
mission or a yearning for justice in the world.
These symbols and myths manage to be so en-
during because they name something when
language eludes us, while also being porous
enough to suggest several things at once.
Maimonides is adamant in his assestion
that anyone who takes literally either the emo-
tional or physical description of God in the
We have to learn to become less attached to
our metaphors so we can meet the God who
dwells outside of them.
liturgy is guilty of idolatry. The words of the
liturgy are meant to name something just outside the grasp of articulation — the perfect
unity, the transcendent power, the infinite ex-pansiveness — that reflects our own feelings of
smallness in comparison.
Of course, some may ask why we would accept God as father and king and not also (or, instead) mother and queen. If language doesn’t
matter, why use the old tropes rather than new
ones that feel more relevant and contemporary?
