Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, in his essay “A Presentation of Process Theology”, explains how the philosophy of ancient Greece and medieval Europe influenced our thinking with concepts that do not correspond to Judaism. Thinking that God is omnipotent, which means that He has all power, that He is omniscient, that He has and must have all knowledge of what is, was, and will be, and that He is omnibenevolent, that God is absolute goodness, are not concepts of Judaism.

Rabbi Artson explains: Believing that God is omnipotent implies that there is no power outside of God and that everything that happens is by His will. Sometimes we like what happens, sometimes we don’t, but we accept that everything that happens comes from God. When something bad happens and we don’t understand why, such as a baby’s terminal illness, the explanation that this way of thinking gives us is that God must have had a legitimate reason, which we don’t understand, for causing, or at least not preventing, that bad thing from happening. This conclusion leads us to abandon our moral compass and our sense of what is good or bad, and blame ourselves or our loved ones when misfortunes occur. Not only did something terrible happen, but the victim feels guilty as well. Judaism doesn’t agree with this concept of «omnipotence.»

Brad Artson continues: The philosophical presumption that God is omnipotent has been reinforced by many Bible translations that refer to God as «The Almighty,» a mistranslation of «El Shaddai,» which actually means «the God of the Mountain.» The Torah has terms for «great power and unfindable strength,» but it has neither the concept nor the term for omnipotence. Neither the Prophets nor the Talmud have such a term. There is no term in classical Hebrew or Aramaic that implies a being capable of doing absolutely everything.

We have a similar problem with the second “omni,” says Artson. Omniscience assumes that God knows everything, including the future. Nothing is hidden from the all-knowing God. But if God knows the future, there is no longer room for freedom of choice, neither for God nor for his creatures. God knowing his own future decisions takes away from God the freedom to change his mind. But the Torah and the Midrash present us with a different God, a God who gets angry, who loves, who grieves, who gets frustrated, who is surprised, and who repents.

Rabbi Artson concludes: a God who possesses unlimited power and knows everything that will come could have designed a different world. He could have softened Pharaoh’s heart without needing to send 10 plagues. An omnipotent and omniscient God who knowingly creates such an imperfect world is not a good, omnibenevolent God. Therefore, for Judaism, God does not have these «omni» attributes: God does not know the future, for the future has not yet been decided; God does not decide everything, for He leaves nature to its own devices, in addition to giving man the power to choose; and God Himself suffers when He sees the evil in the world that He cannot change. God is not «omni.»

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Bradley Shavit Artson: «A Presentation of Process Theology.»