ABSTRACT
God, then, is necessarily perfect; and all the various qualities or attributes that one ascribes to Him are simply so many different expressions of this truth. They merely denote the Divine perfection seen from diverse points of view. But though God pervades the universe, He transcends it. Unlike Pantheism, which identifies Nature with God, Judaism, while making Him the informing spirit of all things, distinguishes Him from them, and sets Him above them. The Divine greatness and gentleness are connected in the Hebrew Bible because they are but different aspects of the Divine omnipotence. Thus the God of Judaism is not a far-off God, outside the universe, remote from the life that fills it. Thus, immeasurably exalted above all human conceptions of His nature, God is yet very near to the souls He has made. The nearness of God to His creatures—to revert to that subject in a few final words—is an implication of His very nature.
