Godhead (Judaism)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Godhead is the English-language term which in Judaism is often used to refer to "God-as-He-is-in-Himself."

[edit] Rationalistic Conception of the Godhead

In the philosophy of Maimonides and other Jewish-rationalistic philosophers, there is little which can be predicated about the "Godhead" other than its "existence," and even this can only be asserted equivocally.

	How then can a relation be represented between Him and what is other than He when there is no notion comprising in any respect both of the two, inasmuch as existence is, in our opinion, affirmed of Him, may He be exalted, and of what is other than He merely by way of absolute equivocation. There is, in truth, no relation in any respect between Him and any of His creatures.
—Maimonides, Moreh Nevuchim (Pines 1963)

[edit] Mystical Conception of the Godhead

In Jewish mystical thought (Kabbalah), the term "Godhead" usually refers to the concept of Ein Sof (אין סוף), which is the aspect of God that lies beyond the emanations (sefirot). The "knowability" of the Godhead in Kabbalistic thought is no better that what is conceived by rationalist thinkers. As Jacobs (1973) puts it, "Of God as He is in Himself—En Sof—nothing can be said at all, and no thought can reach there."

	Ein Sof is a place to which forgetting and oblivion pertain. Why? Because concerning all the sefirot, one can search out their reality from the depth of supernal wisdom. From there it is possible to understand one thing from another. 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.
—David ben Judah Hehasid, Matt (1990)

[edit] References

Pines, Shlomo (1963). Moses Maimonides: The Guide of the Perplexed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Matt, Daniel C. (1990). "Ayin: The concept of nothingness in Jewish mysticism". The Problem of Pure Consciousness, 121-159, New York: Oxford University Press.
Jacobs, Louis (1973). A Jewish Theology. West Orange, NJ: Behrman House.