Please could you explain to me Leviticus 26:12, “And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people.”  I thought that anyone who sees G_d will not live; yet he walks among us? “Walking” also creates an earthly image of legs.

The fact that G-d walks amoung us, certainly doesn’t mean that we see Him. Maimonidies in Laws of Yesodai HaTorah 1:7-12 explains that there is no physical aspect to G-d at all. He explains that all the many times that the Torah does use any physical description of G-d, it is an analogy that makes it easier for us to relate to. For example, when it says in the Torah that He is angry, it means that He acts in a way that a human who is angry would act; when it says that He is happy, it means that what was done was fulfilling His will.

The same would of course apply to any description of walking. It would simply mean that His presence is there, as when a human would walk with someone else. The verse that you are refering to is a promise to the Jewish people that if they observe the commandments, G-d will be close to them and “walk” amoung them – i.e. be close as someone who is walking with someone.

Rabbi Moshe Travitsky
Bensalem Kollel and Outreach Center