The Movement for Reform Judaism

To my mind, the short answer is ‘yes’. To go back a step : of course Judaism is founded on a belief in God – God is the third word in the Hebrew version of the Bible and is central to Judaism in two distinct roles – first, as the creative power that was responsible for the world; second as a moral force whose notion of ethics has been communicated to humanity through a series of laws (such as the Ten Commandments).

However, Judaism is rather curious in the way that it has been careful not to define God. The Bible tells us lots about humans and expectations about us,  but very little about the nature of God. It is noticeable, for instance, that the 613 laws of Judaism are about what we should and should not do – not about what we should and should not believe. This was partly because once you define God, you limit God. It was also because humans cannot really understand the whole being of God, just get partial glimpses. In addition, Judaism was happy to assume the existence of God, but not go into minute details. It was this gap that eventually led Moses Maimonides to try to define the beliefs of Judaism in his Thirteen Principles of Faith – although it was not until the 13th century that this happened! – and it was still fairly general (it was then written in song form – the Friday night Yigdal).

Still, many people find God a puzzling concept, because they question what sort of God would create a world that is both wonderful and imperfect, or because they have not felt any sense of God in their own lives, or because they do believe in a divine being but doubt what religion says about God. This applies in particular to many Jews, who are unsure about the nature of God but still reckon that Judaism (with its sense of community, morals, family structure, individual responsibility) is worthwhile and beneficial. It can mean that they feel services are irrelevant but still value being part of the synagogue. This is not being heretical or hypocritical - it’s  very Jewish! Ideally, a Jew takes God very seriously – but there are different ways of doing that, which is why I have always liked the saying “To be a god Jew , you don’t have to believe in God – you just have to do what he says’

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