Comments on: God, Consciousness and the Problem of Anthropopathism: Theological Musings of the Late R. Shmully Moskowitz z”l – by Rabbi Zev Farber http://morethodoxy.org/2012/07/27/god-consciousness-and-the-problem-of-anthropopathism-theological-musings-of-the-late-r-shmully-moskowitz-zl-by-rabbi-zev-farber-2/ Mon, 13 May 2013 19:57:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Eli leiter http://morethodoxy.org/2012/07/27/god-consciousness-and-the-problem-of-anthropopathism-theological-musings-of-the-late-r-shmully-moskowitz-zl-by-rabbi-zev-farber-2/#comment-4562 Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:35:16 +0000 http://morethodoxy.org/2012/07/27/god-consciousness-and-the-problem-of-anthropopathism-theological-musings-of-the-late-r-shmully-moskowitz-zl-by-rabbi-zev-farber/#comment-4562 Hi
sorry for responding so late but I havent been keeping up.Anyway in my own opinion Maimonides is the wrong way to go.In an age of rampant superstition I guess it make sense to fight againt anthromorphism but in our own age I think the problem is the opposite .We can abstract God out of exisrence.We head to Sp-inoza or Kaplan.I think we need to focus on the living presence and caring god not the G-d of philosophers .One can’t unless one is maimonides relate to an abstraction

eli Leiter

]]> By: JM http://morethodoxy.org/2012/07/27/god-consciousness-and-the-problem-of-anthropopathism-theological-musings-of-the-late-r-shmully-moskowitz-zl-by-rabbi-zev-farber-2/#comment-4477 Tue, 07 Aug 2012 16:47:32 +0000 http://morethodoxy.org/2012/07/27/god-consciousness-and-the-problem-of-anthropopathism-theological-musings-of-the-late-r-shmully-moskowitz-zl-by-rabbi-zev-farber/#comment-4477 It seems to me that the theological non-position that you are describing is not fruitful for an Orthodox Judaism that is filled with passion. As an academic, I too enjoy discussing these matters, and I can see why you miss your friend. But don’t you have to put this firmly aside while davenning and engaging in rituals?

]]> By: Turila http://morethodoxy.org/2012/07/27/god-consciousness-and-the-problem-of-anthropopathism-theological-musings-of-the-late-r-shmully-moskowitz-zl-by-rabbi-zev-farber-2/#comment-4450 Sun, 29 Jul 2012 06:50:10 +0000 http://morethodoxy.org/2012/07/27/god-consciousness-and-the-problem-of-anthropopathism-theological-musings-of-the-late-r-shmully-moskowitz-zl-by-rabbi-zev-farber/#comment-4450 I wonder if Maimonides was /totally/ against anthropomorphism, or just against teaching it in an non-careful way (eg, without clarification and disclaimers.)

Saying that God “wants” something is tricky, as you suggest. Even saying that a /person/ wants something can be tricky. Imagine a mom giving a potch to her son after he went into the street. Did she “want” to potch him?

Baruch Dayan Emes.

]]> By: GS http://morethodoxy.org/2012/07/27/god-consciousness-and-the-problem-of-anthropopathism-theological-musings-of-the-late-r-shmully-moskowitz-zl-by-rabbi-zev-farber-2/#comment-4434 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 22:16:14 +0000 http://morethodoxy.org/2012/07/27/god-consciousness-and-the-problem-of-anthropopathism-theological-musings-of-the-late-r-shmully-moskowitz-zl-by-rabbi-zev-farber/#comment-4434 Not to take away from your unfortunate now deceased friend, but this all fairly obvious. At the Maimonidean extreme, the most you can say is that an incomprehensible (non) entity ’causes’ the world to be, a position which is practically speaking not that far removed from science (or even atheism), at least as far as creation is concerned. Then again, incomprehensible non entities don’t inspire much love, or much of anything for that matter, which is why extreme Maimonideans are about as helpful to religion as atheists.

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