What does ethical monotheism claim, over and above there being only one God?

That the single God who made everything is also the source of moral obligation, so belief and conduct cannot be pulled apart. For Jews, worshipping God and dealing justly with other people are two sides of one commitment, and a Judaism of ritual without righteousness would be self-contradictory.

How do Jews describe God's relationship to the world as creator and sustainer?

God is held to have brought everything into being from nothing, and to hold it in being continuously. Creation is not treated as a finished event God has walked away from: the daily morning liturgy speaks of God renewing the work of creation every day.

Why do Jews refuse any physical likeness of God?

Because God is held to have no body, no shape and no location, so any image would misrepresent rather than represent him. This is the reasoning behind the ban on graven images, and Maimonides made the denial of divine corporeality one of his fundamental principles. Where the Tenakh speaks of God's arm or God's anger, most Jewish thinkers treat the language as a concession to human understanding rather than a description.

What follows practically from the belief that God alone may be worshipped?

Worship directed anywhere else, whether to images, to other gods or to a human being, counts as idolatry, which Jewish teaching treats as the gravest category of wrongdoing. It also shapes prayer: Jews address God directly, without going through any intermediary figure.

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Ethical Monotheism

3 things to know
Paper 4

Overview

Recall questions on ethical monotheism, God as creator and sustainer, God's Oneness and the ban on likenesses, reward and punishment, duties to God and to others, Yom Kippur, and Cohn-Sherbok and Robinson on Jewish belief about God.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Explain what Jews mean when they speak of God's Oneness.

Key term

How does Jewish teaching handle reward and punishment?

Key term

Do all Jewish traditions understand ethical monotheism in the same way?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What does ethical monotheism claim, over and above there being only one God?
Model answer
That the single God who made everything is also the source of moral obligation, so belief and conduct cannot be pulled apart. For Jews, worshipping God and dealing justly with other people are two sides of one commitment, and a Judaism of ritual without righteousness would be self-contradictory.
2
How do Jews describe God's relationship to the world as creator and sustainer?
Model answer
God is held to have brought everything into being from nothing, and to hold it in being continuously. Creation is not treated as a finished event God has walked away from: the daily morning liturgy speaks of God renewing the work of creation every day.
3
Explain what Jews mean when they speak of God's Oneness.
Model answer
Not simply that there is one God rather than several, but that God is wholly unified and indivisible, with no parts, no rivals and nothing alongside him. The Shema, said morning and evening, is the classic declaration of it, and tradition places it on the lips of a dying Jew.
4
Why do Jews refuse any physical likeness of God?
Model answer
Because God is held to have no body, no shape and no location, so any image would misrepresent rather than represent him. This is the reasoning behind the ban on graven images, and Maimonides made the denial of divine corporeality one of his fundamental principles. Where the Tenakh speaks of God's arm or God's anger, most Jewish thinkers treat the language as a concession to human understanding rather than a description.
5
What follows practically from the belief that God alone may be worshipped?
Model answer
Worship directed anywhere else, whether to images, to other gods or to a human being, counts as idolatry, which Jewish teaching treats as the gravest category of wrongdoing. It also shapes prayer: Jews address God directly, without going through any intermediary figure.
6
How does Jewish teaching handle reward and punishment?
Model answer
God is understood as a just judge who holds people to account, and the High Holy Days frame the year as a season of judgment and repentance. Beyond that, views differ: some Jews locate reward and punishment in this life, some in the world to come, and many frankly acknowledge that visible fortune does not track desert.

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ASikhs say they do not worship the book itself.

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CSikh teaching is emphatic against image worship.

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