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My parents sent me to Hebrew school where I was educated about Judaism and learned a bit of Hebrew.
We had a copy of the bible (okay, just the Old Testament) with Hebrew on one side and English on the facing page. The people in Hebrew school were always telling me “God is one” and they seemed pretty obsessive about that. After all, Judaism was and is a religion focused on monotheism.
This singular God seemed (to me) to be in contrast to Christianity which had three Gods but insisted they were one. I was young, but I didn’t think the idea that 3 equals 1 made much sense.
Anyhow, when I looked at Genesis, I noticed that the English translation didn’t match the Hebrew original. The English version said that God created man in His image. But the Hebrew said “We created man in Our image.”
Holy crap! The Hebrew God was PLURAL! I mean, what the heck?! How can that be?
After class, because I wanted to be discrete, I asked someone — perhaps it was the rabbi — what was going on. He didn’t have an answer right away and seemed annoyed, but I was sincere and he showed patience. Ultimately, he told me that the Hebrew used essentially a “Royal We” but was only referring to the singular God.
From that point on, for me, God and Judaism was on probation.
