At the outset of first-time author Toba Spitzer’s divine new book, God Is Here, she alludes to organized religion being a restaurant where someone hungry will sit down to eat, first checking the menu. In looking at the menu, though, many people may find that nothing winds up looking all that appetizing and will ultimately decide to leave the restaurant. Spitzer — who is an openly lesbian Jewish rabbi — concludes that the problem is that we have too many outdated “metaphors” for whom God is. What she means by that is that we have ideas embedded into language that we use interchangeably. So, when we say, “time is money,” this is a non-literary metaphor for saying that time is a precious commodity, and we should use it wisely. Likewise, “time flows like a river” is a metaphor for how time stretches out endlessly. Thus, one metaphor that we use for God — “God Is a Big Person,” someone who rewards and punishes — might be the sort of thing that will turn some Jewish people (and Christians, to whom this book is also aimed) into atheists who cannot believe that someone has had something terrible happen to them because they offended “God as Punisher” in some way.

I may or may not be doing justice to the conceit of this book, but it is really an extraordinary look at reframing how we view the Divine or Something Else that is out there. By using stories from her personal life as well as from the Hebrew Bible, Spitzer uses imagery such as “God as Water,” “God as a Rock,” “God as a Cloud” and — more recently and scientifically — “God as Electricity,” to confront readers of thinking about new ways and new metaphors for experiencing God (which she refers to as It seemingly to avoid assigning gender, male or female, to God). This is a truly remarkable book that will make readers think about engaging with God in new and less offensive ways. While I’m not sure if this book will turn an atheist into a Jewish follower or Christian, if you are already from a Jewish or Christian background and are struggling with your faith, this might be the sort of thing that you will need to read to reset and recharge you. It should be noted, too, that this is the type of book that might not be best consumed by reading it only once. This is a resource that someone can come back to again and again, to try some of Spitzer’s prompts to turn these metaphors into something physical and concrete. One suggestion I might consider trying is writing my own obituary — it’s a good way to set goals for what you want to achieve while living on Earth, a particular place (and “God as Place” is a new metaphor that Spitzer uses).

There’s probably not a lot more that needs to be said about this book, aside from “go read this now.” However, I should mention that it came into my life at a rather remarkable moment in Canadian history (and I am a Canadian). I’ve been grappling a little bit with my spirituality lately because I live in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. I don’t know if American or international readers of my work realize what’s going on in this location, but a group of hundreds of truckers has convened in this location, occupying it for the past two weeks now to, in my mind, pressure for a change in government undemocratically. These “truckers” or “protesters” (if you want to call them that) have defecated in people’s backyards, stolen food meant for the homeless, honked their truck horns collectively for 24 hours straight with no respect for the 6,000 or so residents who live in the area, and have also flown Nazi and Confederate flags. This is a deeply troubling time for me. I’m trying to work and generally live my life in this chaos, and I have to admit, for the first time in my life, I had to call on another individual to walk me to the grocery store and back yesterday because these Fascists are harassing people in the street and in stores for wearing masks to protect people against COVID. Meanwhile, the police and various civic leaders are doing next to nothing, either because the city has been overrun and the police are outnumbered or because the police have been corrupted and compromised. Ottawa has never seen anything like this before.

That’s what makes a book such as God Is Here so crushingly important to me. It reminds me that there is a God, and It is near, even in the middle of the mess I’m in. The book gave me new ideas for recasting and looking at God’s spirit in new ways. The suggestions are usually quite clear and do-able, and, again, this is probably a book that I’ll have to come back to at some point when I’m not as busy to really engage further with it. It’s kind of too bad that I only have a Kindle Advance Reader Copy of the book, as this is the sort of thing that would probably be best reading as a physical volume, making it easier to bookmark certain passages and be more accessible to revisiting some of the activity prompts that Spitzer has come up with. In any event, I feel that God Is Here is a tremendous, powerful book that reminds me of Barbara Brown Taylor’s best writing, simply from a Jewish perspective. I can’t recommend reading this book more, especially if you’re grappling with the ways God has Being. If you are in a moment of crisis or despair, as I currently am, this book will lift you up on an eagle’s wings (there’s a metaphor for you) and make you feel good about being religious all over again. God Is Here is ground-breaking, and I can’t wait to revisit again.

God Is Here fell into my lap just at just the right time. Spitzer uses just enough Hebrew to open up a passage so that it makes more sense.

Her metaphors didn’t blow my mind, but did give me contemporary examples of how these concepts are timeless. Her personal stories were an inspiration and the applications that she provided were a helpful way to slowdown and reflect in such a busy world.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Essentials for an ARC of this book.

I loved the challenging and inspiring wisdom found in Toba Spitzer's "God is Here". You will never look at the Divine the same way again. I highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Essentials for this advanced reader's copy. In exchange, I am providing an honest review.

Rabbi Spitzer introduces the reader to the metaphors of God and walks us through how to engage with the Divine through the various descriptions of God, familiar or new. "Spitzer argues that whether we believe in God or fervently disbelieve, what we are actually disagreeing about is not God at all, but a metaphor of a Big Powerful Person that limits our understanding and our spiritual lives." (quote from publisher summary)

In fact, Chapter 2 (The God Metaphor), was my favorite of all the chapters because the Rabbi does a really wonderful job of discussing metaphors as they pertain to God and unpacking how we use them in our lives. Her breakdown really resonated with me and my spiritual experiences to this point.

Throughout the rest of the book, I appreciated the insights Spitzer shared about each of the very familiar metaphors of God. What I especially liked about each metaphor breakdown were the practical applications the Rabbi offered at the end of each chapter. I was reminded throughout the book of the gentleness of Judaism, specifically when it is approached as a wisdom tradition and not a fundamentalism way of life, and it made me appreciate the broader worldview that exists outside of fundamentalism.

As a Jewish American who feels deeply connected to my heritage & culture but struggles with the religious aspect — specifically belief in God — I found this book invaluable. The way is positions God as outside our standard, boxed-in means of thinking made God seems more accessible to me, less like some absurd man in the sky & more like the universe around me, the breath within me. I’d recommend this book to anyone who identifies as agnostic or who believes in *something* but who doesn’t connect with standard portrayals & depictions of God.

Religion has prepared people for prepare people for ceremonies and teachings. In God is Here, the author takes on a journey of identifying how God's presence is ever present like water in our lives. This is how we learn to be in the world, like the flowing stream.

Have you ever read a book and found yourself thinking as you wrapped it up "This is not the book that I expected it to be?"

This was my experience with Toba Spitzer's "God Is Here: Reimagining the Divine," a book of obvious intelligence and insight that never quite fully satisfies when viewed through the lens put forth as its actual purpose.

In the marketing copy for "God Is Here," we're told that "Most of us are hungry for a system of meaning to make sense of our lives, yet traditional religion too often leaves those seeking spiritual sustenance unsatisfied. Rabbi Toba Spitzer understands this problem firsthand, and knows that too often it is traditional ideas of the deity—he's too big, too impersonal, and too unbelievable—that get in the way."

Thus, "God Is Here" is put forth as a reimagining of the divine primarily through the lens of metaphors that we often use to describe the divine, for example as a "rock," and Spitzer builds personal, exegetical, and practical lenses through which we can approach the use of metaphor to develop a sense of belief in God.

I struggled mightily with "God Is Here" while also appreciating it. I appreciated it, primarily, because I don't believe for a single moment that it's actually about what Spitzer thinks it's about and what it's actually being marketed as in terms of focus.

I expected "God Is Here" to journey into those areas that cause traditional religion to leave so many unsatisfied. I looked for, and really longed for, Spitzer to examine the ways in which the church has fallen short and the various ways in which people have experienced a disconnect from God because of theological beliefs, conflicts, structures, and organizations because, ultimately, I believe it's largely the church that is driving people away in droves and, ultimately, providing something that it's awfully hard to even want to believe in. As a known writer in the area of social justice, I expected that Spitzer would delve deeply into social justice as a theological issue and how the church's failure to embrace the scriptural call to social justice has left our desire for spiritual sustenance unsatisfied.

In other words, I expected something revelatory from "God Is Here." I expected a reimagining of who God is and how we can reimagine God even when the church fails us or hurts us.

Now then, this could be my own fault. Spitzer certainly can't be expected to live up to my own expectations - after all, it is her book and not mine. However, I would argue that the book's description is much closer to what I expected than what Spitzer actually produces here.

I would argue that a book entirely dependent on the very structures that leave us unsatisfied is not what's being put forth here and that you're not really "reimagining" anything different when you're using the same structures, beliefs, teachings, and organizations. Essentially, all you're doing is taking a different path to the same dry well. While the metaphors here aren't necessarily too big or too unbelievable, they're just as impersonal and detached as traditional theology.

This doesn't mean I completely disliked "God Is Here." I didn't. I simply don't believe it accomplishes what I expected it to accomplish. Approaching God through the metaphors is certainly a legit path toward understanding the fullness of God. While it's not a way of creating belief where there is none, another premise put forth, it is a way of creating, perhaps, tangible construction where the idea of God can so easily seem intangible. Yet, the use of metaphors in understanding God is far from a "reimagining." It's a rather common approach, certainly among seminarians, in connecting God to our daily lives. It's an approach most effective for those who already have some understanding of basic theological concepts, scriptures, and basic church teachings as this is all true here as Spitzer repeatedly refers to scripture and repeatedly immerses us in her Judaic background.

In short, I expected a book that would more approach the brokenness in the church and that would provide concrete ideas and tools for those who either don't believe or who've had their beliefs harmed either by dysfunctional theology or unhealthy church organizations. Instead, "God Is Here" is really most suited to those who already believe yet struggle to make those beliefs feel personal and relational. Using metaphors like Water, Fire, Rock, Voice, and Cloud, Spitzer explores how these metaphors create opportunities to better understand how God flows through our daily lives and calls us into better and healthier relationships.

Yet, even here at times I found myself unsatisfied. Spitzer, the first openly lesbian or gay person to head a rabbinical association, could have so deeply explored this idea of reimagining to be a God who includes many like herself whom many would say are not included. "God Is Here" could have simply gone so much more deeper even as Spitzer does spend an awful lot of time dwelling within her own experiences.

An at times frustrating read that I still found informative and beneficial, my sense is that "God Is Here" will likely resonate more deeply for those familiar with Spitzer's teachings and for those with a stronger background in Judaism in order to appreciate some of the terminology utilized. While "God Is Here" may never have become the book I expected it to be and hoped it would be, it's still a reading experience I appreciated and that allowed me to more personally examine the metaphors in my own life and how they shape my relationship with God.

I received an ARC of God Is Here, by Toba Spitzer. This was a good book, it had a lot of information on God, and Judaism. Embracing God, and learning to be like him.

This book starts out as a fascinating study on God as metaphor. The author explains an understanding of God as a variety of helpful, insightful metaphors but unfortunately, meanders too deeply into side stories, personal experiences, and anecdotes that seem too tangentially related to the idea of God as a metaphor to fit within this book. Perhaps a second book to explore the author's own experience would have been better. In any case, it was an interesting read but not as tight and concise as I would have hoped.