According to Judaism, justice is an attribute of God, which is tempered with His attribute of Mercy. God, in creating the world, is depicted in Genesis as exercising both justice and mercy in His role as Creator of the Universe. According to the Rabbinic interpretation, the Bible refers to God by the name of Elohim, which connotes His role as the ultimate Judge, while, on the other hand, it uses the Tetragrammaton, which connotes God’s mercy. Thus, while God commands strict adherence to the laws He has given to humanity, He takes into account human weakness and therefore does not judge merely by the letter of the law, otherwise all individuals would be doomed. The merging of justice and mercy is a constant theme in the Bible and is presented in dramatic form in the dialogues between God and Abraham and between God and Moses. In arguing for the salvation of the inhabitants of the cities of Sodom and Gemarrah, Abraham pleads with God to go beyond the letter of the law and to commute the sentence of death and destruction about to be imposed on all the inhabitants of the cities, for the sake of a handful, purely hypothetical as it turns out, of righteous people. Midrash Rabbah, discussing this encounter, notes that absolute justice cannot be applied to the imperfect human world. Similarly, when God wishes to destroy the Jewish people for the sin of the Golden Calf, Moses prays for Divine mercy and his prayer is answered both explicitly -- in God's expressly stated tone of forgiveness - - and implicitly, in God's declaration of His attributes.

 Jewish liturgy makes frequent references to God's role as ultimate Judge. On weekdays, within the context of the Amidah, which occupies a central position in the prayer book, God is addressed in terms of justice merged with mercy as “the King Who loves charity and justice”. Even on the death of close relatives, Jews bless God as the “true Judge.” During the High Holy Days (Rosh Ha-Shanah, the Day of Atonement, and the intervening Days of Penitence), when, according to Jewish tradition, God sits in judgement over the people of Israel, His role as judge is even further reinforced and the liturgy is filled with references to God as both King and Judge.

The issue of the nature of Divine justice is essential in Jewish the odicy. As in Psalms 92, Judaism has always asked the question, “Why do the innocent suffer and the wicked prosper?” The traditional Jewish response has been to affirm God's wisdom and fairness, even if the human individual is unable to comprehend the infinite depths of that wisdom. When Job is confronted by misery and sorrow, he questions God's judgement. The Bible does not condemn Job for doing so; rather, he is informed that his human power of reasoning is far too limited to comprehend the intricacies of God's plan.

 At various times in Jewish history, specifically during periods of great distress -- such as the destruction of the First and Second Temples, the Inquisition and the expulsion from Spain and Portugal, the massacres in the Ukraine in 1648-49 -- serious questions have been raised about Divine justice. The issue of the odicy has been perhaps most painful in recent Jewish history, occasioned by the Holocaust. For the varied religious responses.

 By virtue of the principle of the Imitation of God, it is axiomatic that mankind in general, and the Jew in particular, is expected to live within a framework of justice - tempered by mercy. Moses commanded the people “Justice, justice shall you pursue” and this directive is a leitmotif of the prophets and of the rabbis in formulating Jewish law. The same Hebrew root is used for “justice” and “Righteousness” and the thought and practices of the Jewish people have been strongly moulded by this concept and the conviction that the world is preserved “by truth, justice, and peace”.