I really enjoyed the book Powerful Prayers by Larry King. Larry was raised Jewish but considers himself agnostic. He asks Rabbi Irwin Katsof, “Why can’t God speak English?” Let me quote from the book for a moment. From page 163,
I can accept that God would send us a challenge so that we might learn from the experience, but we shouldn’t need an Orphan Annie decoder ring to figure out the message he’s trying to send.
So I put the question to the rabbi: If a prayer is answered, but we’re not given the tools to decipher it and are not even aware it has been answered because so much mishagoss–Yiddish for “craziness”–has been piled on top of it, then the prayer really hasn’t been answer. Or has it?
Another uncomfortable pause at the other end of the phone. Or maybe the discomfort was on my end? Let’s see, if an uncomfortable pause occurs and there’s nobody there to hear it…
“Larry, if a prayer is answer and your eyes aren’t open, then of course you’re not going to see it or understand it.”
“Why can’t God speak English? Why all the hoops?”
What do you want? You want it delivered every morning like the newspaper? You want room service? You want a Larry Channel on you TV?”
I must admit, I started thinking about the last one and enjoying the idea. With all the TV shows I’ve done, they could program a Larry Channel twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for several years without repeating a show. I had to get my mind off that prospect and back to the heat of the debate.
“I want to understand it, Rabbi, that’s all.”
“You have to work at getting a conversation started, correct?”
“Correct.”
“Can you have a conversation if one participant isn’t listening?”
“No.”
“Larry, God knows what we need. So we don’t pray to God to remind him, we pray to God to remind ourselves. The essence of prayer is choice. Prayers help us refine and affirm what it is we want out of our lives. God desires our growth as human beings. Like any good parent, he doesn’t spoil us by giving us what we want on a silver platter.”
“We are confronted with obstacles, and we struggle when we lose awareness of God. Understanding isn’t given, it is earned. We encounter roadblocks in life because we’ve lost sight of our path to God. Prayer is the map that leads us out of the wilderness and connects us to God.”
“Hmm,” I said, vamping for time and not really understanding.
“The concept of this is called ‘the bread of shame.’ Unless you earn it, you are spoiled. Let me ask you this: Were you an overnight success as a talk show host?”
“Hardly. I worked at it a long time, struggled for years.”
“So that didn’t come easy?”
“No.”
“Don’t you think the struggle makes the success that much sweeter?”
I couldn’t disagree. I looked out my hotel window and started thinking about something Lou Holtz said in our interview.
Faith is nothing more than believing when you have no proof. People say, “Show me proof and I’ll believe.” That’s not faith. That’s fact. There’s a big difference. — Lou Holtz
I think far too many people view prophets as looking into a crystal ball and seeing the future. While that may happen for some prophets some of the time, they too have to walk by faith, not fact. As Paul said in 1 Cor 13:9-12,
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known
So, I bring the question to you: Why can’t God speak English? What do you think of Rabbi Katsof’s answer?
Wheat & Tares 
God DOES speak English. At least, last time I had a prayer answered. It wasn’t in Swahili. 😀
I think the rabbi’s answer was a typical religiously driven answer… Prone to platitudes about suffering through the silence that inevitably comes.
Ive often wondered the same thing and its not like I expect grandiose responses, but an affirmation that he is listening (which has never come for me) shouldnt be that big a deal if the big guy upstairs is as loving as he and others claim him to be.
I am a miserable father, but there is absolutely no way I’d ignore my kids when they sincerely ask for help, no way I’d tell them to look for someone else to answer it and no way I’d leave them guessing as to whether I was there listening to their questions or conversations. Especially when they were truly looking for help.
Im ok with suffering, a total absence or whatever, but to say it’s all about hard work (especially when we’re talking about our God) does a disservice to who God is supposed to be…
I enjoyed Chaim Potok’s The Chosen. While nominally about the culture clash between Judaism and Freud (at least according to Potok in a lecture I was present for), it resonated for me as a metaphor for how God speaks to us, the same as the Rabbi to his son, and the reasons for that.
I don’t ignore my kids when they want something from me, but I certainly don’t try to answer them before they are listening. And sometimes they think they are listening when they aren’t.
In fact, most of the time.
Sometimes they don’t like my answer. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t answer.
Larry needs to marry his wive in the Manhattan Temple.
…wife ….
I think this is one of the most difficult questions to answer, because it seems that some get easy answers, and some do not. Sometimes we do need to struggle to get an answer. I know that when I teach class, the students who struggle to get the answer perform much better than the ones who quickly look in the back of the book to get the answer. Sometimes it is better to let students struggle.
On the other hand, I had a student tell me today that her husband said she was “lazy” because she went to a tutor to help her with her math class. Some struggle is ok, but senseless struggling is not. Deciding when to intervene can be hard.
Glass Ceiling, I don’t know if you heard, but Larry and his mormon wife Shawn got divorced a year or so ago, so they won’t be sealed any time soon.
If God does understand English, it’s Jacobean English.
Shucks.
A better question might be “Why don’t we hear English.”
jeff, great question. do you have an answer ?
Because, we generally do not like the answers? Or, we don’t really want the answers.
SilverRain:
Theres an inherent difference between asking for something tangible and asking for answers. If my kids ask me for a book, or money, or something else comparable I still wont ignore them or treat them as inferior because they arent listening or thinking as I want them to.
If they want help with a question or idea or problem, I sure as heck wont ignore them or let them search aimlessly while I stand by enjoying the view. That doesnt mean that I provide the answer, but it also doesnt mean that I ignore their pleas by saying that they arent listening (at least to my standards).
On the other hand, I think God (if he exists), would be much more interested in providing us opprtunities to experience all of life (not just the Mormon approved version) than answers. The idea that we dont “like” the answers is petrified in Mormon thought to such an extent that we accuse too many people of not being worthy enough, too selfish, or just too inattentive to listen… And I say its pure hogwash.
Water can flow, or it can crash.
“Glass Ceiling, I don’t know if you heard, but Larry and his mormon wife Shawn got divorced a year or so ago, so they won’t be sealed any time soon.”
Actually, they’re still married. The divorce papers were filed, but they mutually decided to stop the proceedings.
I think you missed the point, John.
How do you know that God isn’t trying to provide exactly what you say He isn’t?
Do you really think His commandments are about circumscribing our existence? To the contrary, I have found that when I obey the commandments, my choices are far more open than when I do not.
That goes also for when OTHERS obey or do not obey. We are affected by much more than just our own agency.
Railing against God because he isn’t acting the way we want Him to is just like a teenager getting angry at his parents for not letting him drive the car that he wrecked.
Liked your comments Silverrain.
Silverrain:
You are sidestepping the issue I raised and inserting a strawman in its place…
Importuning and imploring God for answers to questions is hardly the same thing as “railing” on God. To put forth that comparison only shows how much you really dint get what Im saying.
As to commandments, I likely have a fundamentally different take on what commandments are based on your statement… But, again, you are raising issues I never brought into the conversation in an attempt to deflect what I said above.