Is Judaism Really beyond Words?

A number of modern Jewish thinkers, beginning with Martin Buber, have tried to create a theology based on the belief that Judaism's core truths lie beyond the limits of language. Their approach, writes Samuel Fleischacker, generally boils down to the following propositions: “Words are human, God is beyond words, and the Torah is a human attempt to grasp what an encounter with God might be like.” Rooted in certain strands of kabbalistic thought, this theological position has come to permeate Jewish religious thought from Reform through the more liberal wing of Modern Orthodoxy. But is it really a suitable way to understand a religion that privileges books, texts, and speech? Fleischaker writes: