Thanks so much to everyone who offered their thoughts on the last post, both in comments here and at their own blogs. I’ve really enjoyed reading everybody’s ideas — I hope the conversation will continue from here.
On that note, I want to expand on an exchange I had with Rebecca in the comments on the last post. Rebecca wrote:
I feel like there’s a barrier I can’t push through, of seeing those positive elements having been historically mixed (particularly in Biblical times) with things I want no part of: slavery, subjugation and genocide of one’s enemies, rape, and so on. I realize this is emphatically not the Judaism I was raised in, but I don’t know how to get past my own discomfort with those portions of its roots.
Does that make sense? I very much want to connect to all that you rightly say is wonderful about Judaism, but don’t know how without feeling like I’m also connecting with that which I abhor.
It makes a lot of sense, and she’s asking a really important question. I’m going to elaborate here on my initial reply to her.
As I said in comments: Judaism, at this point, is a non-dogmatic religion. You don’t have to accept any given tenant to be a practicing Jew. This is part of what I love about Judaism, and I think it goes a long way toward addressing this question.
In a religion in which actions, not thoughts, are what’s critical, having a holy text that includes abhorrent stories (as distinguished from abhorrent laws*) isn’t necessarily problematic. We’re obligated to read about rape and other violence, but we’re sure as hell not obligated to condone it — especially when it’s obviously in direct contradiction to most of Jewish tradition and law. In my opinion, being upset and even horrified by such stories is actually more Jewish than being untroubled (or, heaven forbid, pleased) by them. Horror is the reaction that is consistent with the heart of Judaism; as Hillel famously said, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary.” Looking at it through that lens, one might even conclude that being horrified by what is horrifying is actually the point.
I’m aware that many violent Torah stories have been celebrated by Jews over the centuries, but I don’t think that should dictate how we interpret those stories today. Judaism is our birthright and our inheritance — we are entitled to it. Just as every generation has done before us, we must claim it and make it our own. Our interpretations are just as valid as theirs.
The modification and adaptation of Judaism is not weakening or dilution. It is evolution. It is the very thing that allows it to survive.
* This is a stickier problem, but it’s also one that rabbis have been talking their way out of for literally thousands of years. Radically reinterpreting the unjust and untenable commandments, in a way that is grounded in Judaism, is a deeply traditional thing to do.
Tags: religion
June 14, 2009 at 9:00 pm
The problem is that for a large number of stories it’s pretty clear that God is supporting the abhorrence. For instance, when God kills Israelites with quails, for peering into the ark, sends a bear to eat children etc. I think the stories of atrocities where you could read the sentiment not being supported (eg. Jephtah’s sacrifice of his daughter) aren’t that prevalent compared to the first kind of story.
June 14, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Interesting point, Michael. I subscribe to Heschel’s idea that revelation is ongoing — we today have a radically different understanding of justice and God than our ancestors several thousand years ago, and that’s as it should be. I’ll have to give your point some more thought, though.
June 15, 2009 at 4:23 pm
I’m going to link to a series of d’var torahs by Josh Frankel that appeared on Jewschool. I’m linking them not because I endorse every word or because I don’t think they are problematic at all in the way they impose a modern interpretation on the text, but because when I read them, I had a “Wait, I didn’t know you could do that!” reaction.
I don’t get hung up on the nasty bits like Rebecca does. Like Daisy, I see them as the product of a time and a place, and I don’t feel the need to reconcile myself to those texts. I take them for what they are and move on.
But reading these d’var torahs (and I should add here that I come from a very secular background, so it’s only been recently that I’ve come into contact with interpretative works), it made me think I’ve been doing both myself and the texts a disservice by taking them too much at face value.
June 15, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Thanks for sharing that link, chingona! I’m going to read them right now.
June 19, 2009 at 9:00 am
Daisy,
Thanks for taking the time to flesh out your thoughts. I think what you say makes sense:
And, when viewed from that perspective, I agree. I think it is important to hold up examples of atrocities to say, “No.” (Or even simply behavior that is unacceptable – I’d say some of the treatment of women in the Torah isn’t an “atrocity,” but also isn’t particularly respectful or anything I’d want friends/family to emulate.)
At the same time, I keep coming back to what Michael is saying, in that the stories aren’t simply conveyed, but (according to the text) celebrated. I do think your response to this concept in your original post…
…is reasonable, I’m jut having trouble getting there myself.
I’m realizing, as I’ve been participating in these conversations here and on my blog, that I don’t have a problem identifying myself as Jewish if I get to give a disclaimer about what that means to me. Where much of my hesitation to use that label or identity comes from is not wanting others to associate my personal definition of “Jewish” with the things I dislike. That’s part of the reason I’ve been attracted to Humanistic Judaism, as the tenants of the identity are more in line with where I think I am right now.
At the same time, I don’t know how to be comfortable with simply saying “I’m Jewish” without having to add, “…but for me that means this, this, and this.”
July 4, 2009 at 1:13 pm
[...] 4, 2009 by Eric Daisy over at Dear Diaspora attempts to reconcile the abhorrent parts of the Bible with her modern liberal Jewish values. I plan to venture deeper into literature in this post, but [...]