[On
John 11:35] Cf. God’s weeping in Rabbinic Haggadic Midrash. R. Eliezer b.
Hyrcanus depicts God as sitting roaring like a lion in His pain over the destruction
of the Temple, because He has lost His habitation (T. B. Ber. 3a). T. B. Hag.
5b says God is weeping because the pride or glory of the Kingdom of Heaven is
crushed. Biblical basis for Yahweh’s weeping could be found in Jer. 13:17.
Marmorstein, [The Old Rabbinic Doctrine of God, London, Oxford University
Press, 1927-1937] II. p. 70 states . . . the Rabbis do not mind speaking of God
as being in trouble or pain, thinking of His as sharing His peoples’ distress
and exile. Esth. 6:1, “on that night the king could not sleep”, is in M. Esth.
R. X:1 referred to God whose throne was shaken, for He saw Israel in such
distress. The question is asked how can God sleep in view of Ps. 121:4. Ah, but
it can happen “when Israel is in distress, and other nations are at ease”; that
is why (Ps. 44:24) says: “Awake, why do You sleep My LORD (Adonai)?”
Marmorstein’s comment, ibid., II, p. 70f. is very important: “The
intimate connexion that is supposed to have existed between God and Israel and
which lived in the minds of the Jewish teachers, induced them to preach the
strange anthropopathic doctrine that God weeps or mourns.” Marmorstein (ibid.)
rightly connects this with the teaching of R. Joshua b. Hananiah (Mek. of R.
Simon b. Yohai, p. 1f.) that because of God’s boundless love and gracious protection
towards His people Israel, His Shekinah went down with them to
Egypt, crossed the sea with them, and brought them through the wilderness to
His sanctuary. R. Abika (cf. Mek. P. 17a) further developed this doctrine. The
Exodus was not just the freeing of Hebrew slaves from bondage, but the release
of God Himself. Scriptural basis for this is found in Ps. 91:15, 16. God was in
servitude and bondage during the whole time that His children were enslaved. As
Marmorstein (ibid.) states: “This teaching was further extended by
adding that not only in Egypt, but wherever His people were exiled and
persecuted the Shekinah, the Divine Presence, or God Himself, is
with them.” This was an answer to the doubts of many a Jew after the Temple
fell as to whether YHWH had deserted His people. It sought to emphasize
“that God is and will remain” as Marmorstein, ibid., II, p. 72 puts it “for
ever in the community of Israel”. Sifre Num. 84—the Shekinah
suffers when Israel is distressed. There is little doubt that the writer of the
Fourth Gospel was aware of such developments in Jewish apologetic and answering
them by showing that his Jesus could satisfy all their needs and was with His
own always in their joys and sorrows did they but know it. (John Bowman, The
Fourth Gospel and the Jews: A Study in R. Akiba, Esther and the Gospel of John [Pittsburgh
Theological Monograph Series 8; Eugene, Oreg.: Pickwick Publications, 1975], 366-67
n. 191)
