Why are Jews (and their source-book, the Bible) so insistent about there being only one G-d? Would it be so bad if their were two or three?
Think about some of the other basics: G-d is all-powerful. He can do anything and there’s nothing in the world that can stop him.
That is why we trust and fear G-d, and G-d alone. He is eternal He has no beginning and no end. He is all-knowing there is no barrier to His knowledge of anything in the world.
If we could imagine a G-d who is powerful, but… part of a team, then none of the above traits could be true.
We couldn’t say He’s all-powerful, because there would be another G-d – an equal – who also enjoys G-dly power at the expense of “our G-d.”
We could no longer say He is eternal, because only a being that is infinite could be eternal, but one of a group of two or three could never be infinite. He couldn’t be all-knowing, because His partner might keep secrets.
The concept of more than one G-d, therefore, isn’t really a concept of G-d at all, but of a group of competing supermen. The G-d who said “I am the L-rd your G-d…” (Exodus, 20:2) and “Hear, oh Israel, the L-rd G-d, the L-rd is one” (Deut, 6:4) is much more than a superman – he is eternal, infinite and all-knowing.
Going a step further, we can say that imagining a G-d who isn’t infinite, eternal and all-knowing is illogical. It just isn’t G-d that you’re imagining.
Copyright © 2000 by Rabbi Boruch Clinton and Project Genesis, Inc.