From: starr-daniel@yale.edu (Daniel Starr)
Newsgroups: alt.atheism
Subject: Re:      Re: God Is Unfair
Date: 19 Nov 92 06:00:10 GMT
Organization: Yale University Science & Engineering UNIX(tm), New Haven, CT 06520-2158
NNTP-Posting-Host: minerva.cis.yale.edu

As a Jew myself, I think it's my turn to jump in in defense of both
the Torah 
AND
the Greeks.

Let's start off by noting that while the Iliad and the Odyssey make great
literature -- and as literature (as opposed to moral text) they far outdo
the Torah (and the New Testament, for those who are interested in that) --
Plato condemned nearly all literature (see his _Republic_) 
as providing bad role models and overly emotional influences on youth.

So... if I were going to teach morality via the Greeks, I should use
what the Greeks used, namely the works of Plato and Aristotle!  (and 
Socrates, as Plato records him... and if I were really keen on this,
I could bring in some of the other philosophers...)  

You certainly can teach a complete moral system -- several such
systems, in fact -- from the Greek philosophers.  Moreover, because
they were directly intended as such, you can teach them with much less
effort and need for interpretation than is required by the use of the Torah.

Now, as for the Torah:  I think most Gentiles don't know how the Torah
is employed among us.  It is taken to be the word of God, but that doesn't
mean it is simply to be read literally and memorized, or worse yet to be
treated as a unified declaration of purpose on the part of God that admits
of immediate interpretation and application -- any such attempt, as any
casual reader can observe, is doomed to confusion.  

Rather, the Torah serves as a looking-glass for us, or a sieve for ourselves. 
We take each portion of the Torah in turn and strive to draw not some single
doctrinal meaning, but the maximal number of meanings.  It is a compact 
vehicle through which we unfold God's word to us.  If you refer to the
Talmud (a collection of commentaries) on any few verses in the Torah, you
will find a staggering amount of commentary, an amazing diversity of 
interpretations and derived meanings.  

The problem in understanding this 
is that most people are used to the Christian approach to their Bible.
They seek to find a single, well-defined meaning.  If they disagree, it
is a cause for secession, inquisition or crusade.  (Look at the
unbelievably vicious fights fought in the middle of the first millenium C.E.
by Christian sects differing over unbelievably minor points.)  

By contrast, I can really think of only two commandments in the entire Torah
(there are 613 mitzvot in all) that every observant Jew would agree upon
without there being any variance in interpretations -- the First of the
Ten Commandments, namely "I am the Lord Your God; you shall have no other
gods before me"; and the commandment to circumcise one's male children.
And even those have all kinds of subsidiary applications.

The point is that the Torah is not a static book out of which we rotely
read things; it is like a vine from whose grapes one can prepare many wines;
it is the Tree of Life that is always bearing new fruit.

I apologize to those out there who may find my reverential attitudes a bit
cloying; but in any case I hope I have somewhat loosened any preconceptions
about how we Jews employ the Torah.  Frankly, by far the best way really
to understand it -- and I do recommend this, because I assure you, 
regardless of your opinions on God you will find it fascinating! -- is to
find a Talmud study group and sit in on one of their sessions (preferably,
of course, one that does a fair amount of speaking in English), or
similarly to talk to a Rabbi about Torah interpretation; or to find one of
the occasional books on the subject.  

-- 
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|Daniel Starr                | "Wait! Wait! Maybe THIS will work!" |
|dstarr@minerva.cis.yale.edu |                                     |
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Newsgroups: alt.atheism,talk.religion.misc