Jewish protest — voiced by prophets, judges, and rabbis — frequently targeted the rebellious people who had abandoned the straight path that finds favor with God, or who simply stopped advancing along it. But a close reading of the classical Jewish texts reveals that Jewish protest was directed, not only against the people, but also, on a far more profound level, against God. It is not only that throughout Jewish history we find frequent cases of complaints and anger vented against God; it is that Jewish history itself is one long bitter protest against Him. For it is possible to conceive of God in two ways, and in opposition to both these ways, Judaism is a protest movement

The Jewish God was never an abstract entity totally cut off from the world....