GEN126 ETHICS OF MONOTHEISM. It must be borne in mind that Jews worship no abstract “First Cause”.  To the Jew God is a reality, with whom there is personal relationship which inspires righteous and holy conduct. The insistence with which His Unity, as well as His Incorporeality and Holiness are stressed, is due to the protest made by Judaism against the immoral practices which early contemporary religions associated with their local deities. What is now, more or less, accepted as theological doctrine was revolutionary when Judaism first proclaimed that there is only one God who is always approachable and nigh until those who call upon Him in truth, who is at all times “a gracious and merciful God” desiring nothing more than their happiness.  To provide a further link between man and his Maker, man is described in the story of Creation as formed in the divine likeness. [this verse]  Accordingly, our earthly life must be modeled on the heavenly pattern set out in the Bible. The Jew is asked to do what the Rabbis daringly, if poetically, picture God as doing in His ethereal abode. There He is pictured as wearing Tephillin, Berachot 6a; as donning the Tallit, Rosh Hashana 17b, as studying the Torah for three hours daily, besides praying for the welfare of all on earth. Avodah Zara 3b. God weeps over the short-sightedness of his children in eschewing the good and choosing the evil. Haggigah 5b. He was present at the marriage ceremony of Adam and Eve; Berachot 61a; He visits the sick, consoles the mourner and assists at the burial of the dead. Genesis Rabbah 8:13. In short, each good deed that man is asked to do is to ascend another rung on the ladder of perfection he is asked to scale if he is to reach heavenly heights.  LEHRMAN 146-7