THE JEWS AND GOD

The relationship of the Jews to God is a very special one. In theory it is a relationship of mutual love, and a mutual commitment formally embodied in a binding legal agreement, known as ‘the covenant’. In other words, it is very much like a human marriage, and in fact the language of marriage pervades the biblical passages which touch on the relationship.

The most vivid of these, and the only one where the sexual urge comes openly to the fore, is the short book known as the Song of Songs, which is understood as a dialogue of love between God and the people of Israel. ‘Oh, that he would kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: your love is better than wine …’ Small wonder that in congregations under kabbalistic influence the Song is sung on Friday night, when the male and female principles are united in the Sabbath, bringing a foretaste of the future reconciliation. The mood of longing and expectation that infuses this poetic work helps to account for its appeal even at times in history when the relationship might seem to have broken down. After falling from favour in the rationalism of the nineteenth century, this interpretation of the Song has come to the fore again in the twentieth, more open at once to mystical allegory and to physicality, and seeking language to express the relationship between God and humanity.