Berachoth, fol. 6, col. 1.

According to Rabbinic law, it takes at least ten men to constitute a legally convened congregation.  Nearly a thousand pounds were expended every year by the synagogues of the metropolis to hire (minyan) men to make up the congregational number, and thus ensure the due observance of this regulation.

When the Holy One—­blessed be He!—­enters the synagogue, and does not find ten men present, His anger is immediately stirred; as it is said (Isa. i. 2), “Wherefore, when I came, was there no man?  When I called, there was none to answer?”

Ibid., fol. 6, col. 2.

The passion of anger here ascribed to God is by not a few regarded as an attribute wholly alien to the proper nature of the Deity.  Such, however, is evidently not the judgment of the Talmudists.  Nor is this surprising when we see elsewhere how boldly they conceive and how freely they speak of the Divine Majesty.  The Rabbis are not in general a shamefaced generation, and are all too prone to deal familiarly with the most sacred realities.  The excerpts which follow amply justify this judgment.

God is represented as roaring like a lion, etc., etc.

Berachoth, fol. 3, col. 1.  See chap. iii.

God is said to wear phylacteries.

Berachoth, fol. 6, col. 1.

This is referred to in the morning service for Yom Kippur, where it is said He showed “the knot of the phylacteries to the meek one” (i.e., Moses).

He is said to pray; for it is written (Isa. lvi. 7), “Them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in the house of my prayer.”  It is thus He prays:  “May it please me that my mercy may overcome my anger, that all my attributes may be invested with compassion, and that I may deal with my children in the attribute of kindness, and that out of regard to them I may pass by judgment.”

Ibid., fol. 7, col. 1.

He is a respecter of persons; as it is written (Num. vi. 26), “The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee.”

Ibid., fol. 20, col. 2.

When accused by Elijah of having turned Israel’s heart back again (1
Kings xviii. 37), He confesseth the evil He had done (Micah iv. 6).

Ibid., fol. 31, col. 2.

God, when charged by Moses as being the cause of Israel’s idolatry, confesseth the justice of that accusation by saying (Num. xiv. 20), “I have pardoned according to thy word.”

Ibid., fol. 32, col. 1.

He drops two tears into the ocean, and this causes the earth to quake.

Ibid., fol. 59, col. 1.

He is represented as a hairdresser; for it is said He plaited Eve’s hair (and some have actually enumerated the braids as 700).

Eiruvin, fol. 18, col. 1.

In a Hagada (see Sanhedrin, fol. 95, col. 2), God is conceived as acting the barber to Sennacherib, a sort of parody on Isaiah vii. 20.