Saturday, September 10, 2011

Reading the Torah

Writing in Haaretz, Rabbi Shai Held divides the world "between those who acknowledge that they read selectively, and those who do not - or who, given their assumptions, simply cannot." He believes the Torah can be just as well read advocating "universal humanism" as "radically particularistic chauvinism." Given that we "have to decide" the manner in which we read, the most "urgent religious question" is: "How do we build religious lives in which our care for others is intensified rather than attenuated?"

Rabbi Held's philosophy undermines his intention. Religion which acknowledges it reads selectively subverts itself. The statement "The Torah can justly be understood advocating chauvinistic nationalism, but I prefer to read it humanistically," simply does not carry the power of "Those who read the Torah as advocating chauvinistic nationalism pervert it's teaching." As Rabbi Held does acknowledge that "no religious thinker could embrace" a view which puts "human beings rather than God at the center of the universe," it is hard to see how he understands otherwise his view that the fundamental teaching of the Torah -- Revelation -- is whatever a human being decides it is.

Better is the traditional teaching, amplified by Strauss, that we have to choose between Reason and Revelation.

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