How The Wars of God Defends Bowing to Glory and Guards the Firmament

The Wars of God gathers two replies to philosophical opponents who pressed on Israelite worship and on the architecture of heaven. The first defends the Israelites who prostrated themselves before the visible glory at Sinai, arguing that the bow was directed through the sign toward the One who placed His presence within it. The second, leaning on Rashi and the Talmud in Sanhedrin, answers a philosopher who tried to split the ten creative utterances of Genesis into a council of gods seated beyond the firmament. The two passages map a careful boundary between honor and worship, and between the heavens that can be seen and the Creator who cannot.

The Question Behind the First Reply

The first passage opens with a question from a correspondent. If the Creator is the source of all light, how could the Israelites step out of their tents and prostrate themselves before the visible glory resting on the Tabernacle and on Sinai. The answer refuses the implied collapse. The Israelites worshiped the One who placed His glory upon them, and the radiance functioned as a sign of His presence, the way later generations would face toward Zion without confusing the city with its Owner.

The reply draws on the Rambam in Sefer HaMitzvot, where the term kavod carries two senses. In one sense it names a created light that rests on a chosen place, as in the verse that says the glory of the Lord settled on Sinai and the cloud covered it. In a second sense it names the very essence of the Creator, as in the request Show me, please, Your glory, met with the warning that no mortal can see that essence and live. The sages add that the divine name is shared with judges and angels, while Shekhinah covers both the resting radiance and the presence behind it.

Bowing Without Worship in the Tradition

The reply walks through a catalog of biblical bows that were never counted as idolatry. Abraham prostrated himself before the sons of Heth when they granted him a burial plot for Sarah. Joshua prostrated himself before the angel who appeared as a man with a drawn sword. Nathan and Bathsheba prostrated themselves before David. Each bow expressed gratitude, deference, or recognition of office, and none crossed into worship. The author of The Wars of God uses this catalog to show that prostration is morally neutral on its own, taking its meaning from the intention behind it.

The argument then turns to Sanhedrin 61b, where Abaye and Rava debate the case of one who serves an idol out of love or fear without accepting it as a deity. Rava rules that a bow without acceptance carries no idolatry charge, since the binding act is the inner declaration You are my god. The braita reads the verse You shall not bow down to them as a prohibition on bowing to idols, while permitting a bow to a person like oneself. The only limit is the case of Haman, who turned himself into an object of worship by demanding cultic prostration, which Mordecai refused.

Rashi and the Council Above the Firmament

The second passage turns from worship to cosmology. A philosopher in the same dispute tried to read the plural verbs in Genesis as evidence that several gods sat above the firmament and divided the ten creative utterances among themselves. The reply treats this reading as the very heresy the sages warned against. The Mishnah in Sanhedrin teaches that Adam was created as a single individual so that no one could claim many authorities in heaven each crafted a separate person, and Rashi develops the same lesson, ruling out any council of co-creators behind the curtain of the sky.

The passage cites Rav Yehuda in the name of Rav, who narrates the consultation in which the Creator addressed a group of ministering angels before the making of Adam. The angels asked what the deeds of this new creature would be, and they questioned whether a being so flawed deserved to be made. The first delegation was burned by an extended little finger, and the second met the same fate, until a third group answered with surrender, saying that the whole world belongs to the Creator and that He may do as He wishes. The plural verbs that the philosopher tried to weaponize against monotheism, on this reading, record a consultation between the Creator and His messengers, not a parliament of rivals.

How the Anthology Preserves These Replies

The anthology preserves these two replies because both protect the unity of the Creator while honoring the visible scaffolding of the tradition. The first protects the worshiper who bows toward the Sanctuary or toward the resting cloud at Sinai by showing that the bow moves through the sign to the One it represents. The second protects the reader of Genesis who meets plural verbs and council scenes by anchoring them in the language of consultation, with angels as questioners rather than co-creators. The same author who guards external worship from collapsing into idolatry also guards the inner architecture of heaven from collapsing into a pantheon.

What the Two Passages Teach Together

Read as a pair, the two passages mark the same boundary from two sides. The first draws the line between honor and worship in human action, ruling that a bow toward a sign of divine presence remains a bow toward the Creator as long as the heart does not accept the sign as a deity. The second draws the line in divine action, ruling that the angels who heard the words Let us make man were addressed as listeners rather than co-authors. Both return the reader to the same Creator, who placed His glory on Sinai and alone stands above the firmament.