Pensamiento judío sobre Jeremías 10:6

The Midrash quoted at the beginning has this idea in mind. Once G-d chose the world, He determined the dates of new moons, and new years. The new years were indicative of the natural law that was to govern the universe, i.e. the system based on the month of Tishrey. Once G-d saw that the universe could not function successfully on this basis of midat hadin, attribute of justice, He chose Jacob and his descendants, i.e. tzaddikim. Because of the latter's good deeds, G-d was prepared to flood the world with midat hachessed, harachamim, mercy, Personal Intervention. He set aside the beginning of the month of Nissan for commencement of this method of guiding history towards His objectives. "The work of the Lord is great, and consists of the day the Jews took the lamb" (yom hashem hagadol- Compare Tossaphot Shabbat 87). The word hagadol, the great, is used on another day when ideologies of idol-worshippers are upset. This is on the Day of Atonement when the scapegoat is thrown down the abyss to demonstrate how we feel about people who sacrifice to such creatures, and how such an action by us helps our own kapparah, atonement, forgiveness (Yalkut Shimoni Yael, item 2). The word hagadol, the great, may also be a reference to G-d Himself, rather than an adjective describing the importance of that day and date in the calendar. The grammatical construction then would be yom hashem hagadol, the day of the Lord who is great. We find in Jeremiah 10,6, "Great are You O Lord, and great is Your name. This points out the difference between the Lord G-d from mortal kings. The latter are praised, exalted, only to reveal weaknesses after all. Not so with G-d, who lives up to all His advance billing. On the contrary, it is impossible for mere mortals to express all the praise due Him (compare Chronicles I 29,11 "Yours, O G-d is the greatness, the Power etc.")! G-d’s characteristics are unlike those of human kings. As long as the latter enjoy physical power, they are hardly concerned with real justice, rely on might rather than right. Not so with G-d. He always has power at His disposal, but He employs justice nonetheless (Psalms 99,4).

All the implications of absolute Unity we have mentioned befit Him alone. All the matters of plurality, incidental properties, change, motion, comparison, or any qualities which is not consistent with true Unity cannot be ascribed to Him, as David said: "Many, O L-ord my G-d, are Your wonderful works and Your thoughts towards us, there is no comparison to You" (Ps. 40:6), and "To whom then will you liken G-d? Or what likeness will you compare unto Him?" (Isaiah 40:18), and "Among the gods (angels) there is none like unto You, O L-rd; neither are there any works like unto Your works" (Ps. 86:8).

WE have already, on several occasions, shown in this treatise that everything that implies corporeality or passiveness, is to be negatived in reference to God, for all passiveness implies change: and the agent producing that state is undoubtedly different from the object affected by it; and if God could be affected in any way whatever, another being beside Him would act on Him and cause change in Him. All kinds of non-existence must likewise be negatived in reference to Him: no perfection whatever can therefore be imagined to be at one time absent from Him, and at another present in Him: for if this were the case, He would [at a certain time] only be potentially perfect. Potentiality always implies non-existence, and when anything has to pass from potentiality into reality, another thing that exists in reality is required to effect that transition. Hence it follows that all perfections must really exist in God, and none of them must in any way be a mere potentiality. Another thing likewise to be denied in reference to God, is similarity to any existing being. This has been generally accepted, and is also mentioned in the books of the Prophets: e.g., “To whom, then, will you liken me?” (Isa. 40:25); “To whom, then, will you liken God?” (ib. 18); “There is none like unto Thee” (Jer. 10:6). Instances of this kind are frequent.