familiar saying of R. Johanan is(410): "Wherever Scripture speaks of the
greatness of God, there mention is made also of His condescension. So when
the prophet begins, 'Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth
eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place,' he adds
the words, 'With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.'(411)
Or when the Deuteronomist says: 'For the Lord your God, the great God, the
mighty and the awful,' he concludes, 'He doth execute justice for the
fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger.'(412) And again the
Psalmist: 'Extol Him that rideth upon the skies, whose name is the Lord, a
Father of the fatherless and a Judge of the widows.' "(413) "Do you deem
it unworthy of God that He should care for the smallest and most
insignificant person or thing in the world's household?" asks Mendelssohn
in his _Morgenstunden_. "It certainly does not detract from the dignity of
a king to be seen fondling his child as a loving father," and he quotes
the verse of the Psalm, "Who is like unto the Lord our God, that is
enthroned on high, that looketh down low upon heaven and upon the
earth."(414)

2. This truth has a religious depth which no philosophy can set forth.
Only the God of Revelation is near to man in his frailty and need, ready
to hear his sighs, answer his supplication, count his tears, and relieve
his wants when his own power fails. The philosopher must reject as futile
every attempt to bring the incomprehensible essence of the Deity within
the compass of the human understanding. The religious consciousness,
however, demands that we accentuate precisely those attributes of God
which bring Him nearest to us. If reason alone would have the decisive
voice in this problem, every manifestation of God to man and every
reaching out of the soul to Him in prayer would be idle fancy and
self-deceit. It is true that the Biblical conception was simple and
child-like enough, representing God as descending from the heavens to the
earth. Still Judaism does not accept the cold and distant attitude of the
philosopher; it teaches that God as a spiritual power does condescend to
man, in order that man may realize his kinship with the Most High and rise
ever nearer to his Creator. The earth whereon man dwells and the human
heart with its longing for heaven, are not bereft of God. Wherever man
seeks Him, there He is.

3. Rabbinical Judaism is very far from the attitude assigned to