God’s Love for Us: A Jewish Idea?
Post-Kiddush Shiur with Rabbi Ed Elkin

An ancient simplification of the difference between Christianity and Judaism maintains that while God in Christianity is a God of love, God in Judaism is a God of law and judgement. As we prepare for Yom HaDin, our annual day of judgement, and as we engage in the spiritual practice of teshuvah and ask God for forgiveness, let us consider the place of the loving God in Jewish tradition. Does God in fact love us? If so, how is that love manifest in our lives? Is God’s love like human love? How does God’s love intersect with God’s judgement of our sins at this time of year? Join Rabbi Elkin for a pre-Rosh Hashanah conversation about the God to whom we will be praying so intensely over the coming days.

Rabbi Ed Elkin has served as the spiritual leader of the First Narayever Congregation since 2000. Rabbi Elkin received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, and was ordained from the Hebrew Union College in New York in 1990. He served as a rabbi and teacher in Montreal for several years, and as Hillel Director in Chapel Hill, NC, before moving to Toronto. His special interests in the rabbinate include Bible commentaries, and the relationship between religion and state in the contemporary world.