Many Christians and Messianic Jews struggle with the traditional teaching of the Christian Church regarding the Tri-unity of God. How can God be both singular and threefold? Does this teaching not violate both commonsense and the absolute monotheism of the Torah, the Prophets, and Jewish tradition?

I do not intend to answer these questions in this short column. Instead, I would like to examine the assumption that the Torah and the Prophets teach an “absolute monotheism.”

The God spoken of in the Torah and the Prophets is ininite in knowledge, power, and presence, invisible and without form. According to Psalm 145:3, the greatness of Hashem is “unsearchable.” As Solomon consecrates the Jerusalem temple, he acknowledges that heaven itself is too small to contain the presence of the Holy One. Hashem’s only limits are those that are self-imposed or intrinsic to Hashem’s character.

Nevertheless, this same God assumes a human form and appears to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and others. The people of Israel hear this God speak in human words at Sinai. They encounter Hashem not as an ininite, hidden, and unknowable power, but as a self-revealing God who speaks, acts, and feels.