What is the right pronoun to use for God?

Rabbi Elliot Kukla, the first openly transgender rabbi, has argued for the importance of inclusive language in religious practices, suggesting that it reflects a more accurate understanding of the divine and that it also promotes societal acceptance of diverse gender identities.

Changing pronouns for God is also a deliberate de-centering of male dominance in worship. Language carries power: masculine imagery for God subtly reinforces hierarchical social norms. By reimagining God as gender-neutral, Progressive communities challenge these hierarchies and open space for a more inclusive, egalitarian spirituality.

Prayer, in this context, becomes not only an act of devotion but also an ethical statement about the kind of world these communities seek to create – a world in which gendered assumptions do not dictate access to the divine or social power.

The push for inclusive God-language is part of a broader trend in Progressive Jewish thought that embraces plurality and diversity within tradition. Early feminist theologians, such as Judith Plaskow for example, highlighted how male-centered language erases women’s experiences and marginalises their contributions. Plaskow’s work argued that revising God-language is essential not just for equality in worship but for reshaping Jewish historical memory and communal practice.

In much the same way, LGBTQ+ theologians today argue that pronoun shifts are both liturgical and political acts: they reimagine the divine while challenging social hierarchies and affirming marginalised identities.

Importantly, these innovations are not intended to deny traditional Jewish understandings of God but to expand them. Hebrew scripture already contains multiple images for God: King, Mother, Shepherd, Warrior, and the Shechinah – the feminine presence.

Gender-neutral language continues this tradition of diverse divine metaphor, allowing God to be understood in ways that speak to the experiences of all worshippers. It also acknowledges that the divine is ultimately beyond gender, while providing language that affirms inclusivity and social justice in the present.

More recently, these innovations have been taken somewhat further with the deliberate use of “They” to refer to God. The Mishkan Ga’avah, published by the American Reform Movement in 2020, includes affirming liturgy, some of which uses plural references for God. The prayer: “We are embraced by the Eternal, Their love flows through us, Their presence surrounds us”, is one such example.

While it could well be argued that this choice mirrors Hebrew’s occasionally plural divine forms, such as Elohim, which are singular in meaning but grammatically plural, many certainly feel that the reference to God as “They” anthropomorphises the divine in a way that implies multiplicity rather than transcendence.

The siddur has certainly often expanded throughout Jewish history to incorporate liturgical developments that have challenged prevailing trends. In medieval times for instance, women’s piyyutim and techinot, Yiddish or Hebrew prayers written by and for women that reflect their personal and communal needs, were sometimes incorporated, giving voice to Jewish women’s spirituality in an often patriarchal religious system.

In 16th-century Safed, the creation of Kabbalat Shabbat, including the Lecha Dodi prayer welcoming the “Shabbat Bride”, introduced feminine imagery of the divine into the heart of public worship. This allowed for more complex gendered understandings of God, even though the mainstream liturgy remained patriarchal.

The recent step however, of including the pronoun “They” with reference to the Almighty in some Progressive siddurim, could well lead to theological confusion and perhaps be a step too far.

Biblical and liturgical Hebrew consistently refers to God with singular pronouns and even when the Torah uses grammatically plural forms for majesty or power, Jewish tradition universally interprets them as singular when referring to the one God. A shift to “They” would thus break from thousands of years of linguistic precedent and liturgical continuity.

The evolution of God-language of course reflects a deep tension between tradition and innovation. While neutral or varied pronouns can certainly create space for inclusion and enable the affirmation of diverse identities, we must be wary that the adoption of the plural “They” does raise the question of Jewish continuity itself.

As communities continue to wrestle with these shifts, the conversation itself embodies a core truth: language about the divine is never static but an ongoing dialogue and one that seeks to honour both fidelity to the past and the ethical imperatives of our time.

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Simon Eder hosts the Jewish Quest podcast for the Louis Jacobs Foundation

Image: a Selichot service at New York’s Temple Emanu El, one of the oldest Reform synagogues in the USA