Masculine God?
Question
Rabbi Moshe Newman
Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link and will create a new password via email.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.Morbi adipiscing gravdio, sit amet suscipit risus ultrices eu.Fusce viverra neque at purus laoreet consequa.Vivamus vulputate posuere nisl quis consequat.
Answers
It is clear that neither the term male or female can apply to Hashem. We just use them because they are convenient terms that we as humans can relate to. Part of the reason is because there is no “it” in Hebrew. There is either “he” or “she”. Therefore, the Torah has to choose one or the other.
Generally, Hashem is referred to in the masculine. There are two principal reasons for this:
1. Biologically in the act of procreation the male is the “giver” and the female is the “receiver.” In the same way, Hashem as the Creator and the Sustainer of the world is the ultimate Giver, and hence He is referred to as “male.”
2. Hashem also is the source of all power and strengths in the world. Since the male of the species (in the vast majority of cases) is the stronger, we refer to Hashem as male.
Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team