it by
Christian theologians,(415) of reducing the Deity to an empty
transcendental abstraction and loosening the bond which ties the soul to
its Maker. On the contrary, it maintains these very relations with a
firmness which betokens its soundness and its profound psychological
truth. In this spirit a Talmudic master interprets the Deuteronomic verse:
"For what great nation is there that hath God so nigh unto them, as the
Lord our God is whensoever we call upon Him?"(416) saying that "each will
realize the nearness of God according to his own intellectual and
emotional disposition, and thus enter into communion with Him." According
to another Haggadist the verse of the Psalm, "The voice of the Lord
resoundeth with power,"(417) teaches how God reveals Himself, not with His
own overwhelming might, but according to each man's individual power and
capacity. The rabbis even make bold to assert that whenever Israel
suffers, God suffers with him; as it is written, "I will be with him in
trouble."(418)

4. As a matter of fact, all the names which we apply to God in speech or
in prayer, even the most sublime and holy ones, are derived from our own
sensory experience and cannot be taken literally. They are used only as
vehicles to bring home to us the idea that God's nearness is our highest
good. Even the material world, which is perceptible to our senses, must
undergo a certain inner transformation before it can be termed science or
philosophy, and becomes the possession of the mind. It requires still
further exertions of the imagination to bring within our grasp the world
of the spirit, and above all the loftiest of all conceptions, the very
being of God. Yet it is just this Being of all Beings who draws us
irresistibly toward Himself, whose nearness we perceive in the very depths
of our intellectual and emotional life. Our "soul thirsteth after God, the
living God," and behold, He is nigh, He takes possession of us, and we
call Him _our_ God.

5. The Haggadists expressed this intimate relation of God to man, and
specifically to Israel, by bold and often naive metaphors. They ascribe to
God special moments for wrath and for prayer, a secret chamber where he
weeps over the distress of Israel, a prayer-mantle (tallith) and
phylacteries which He wears like any of the leaders of the community, and
even lustrations which He practices exactly like mortals.(419) But such
fanciful and extravagant conceptions were never taken seriousl