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The Talmud was and remains well ahead of its times
Photo: Shutterstock

The Talmud will save Judaism

Op-ed: The sooner Jewish and rabbinical establishments understand that teaching Talmud is key to Jewish continuity, the more successful are efforts to draw Jews back to Judaism bound to be.

Jewish institutions exert an inordinate amount of effort to draw secular Jews to Judaism. There is no other religious community that subsidizes religious learning on such a massive scale and that offers so many online and offline programs to ensure that it does not succumb – to secularization in Israel and to intermarriage and assimilation abroad.

 

 

Orthodox Jews hope to buck these trends by teaching that the Torah and Talmud encapsulate God's will. Conservative groups believe the Torah is God-given and the Talmud is a historical composition. Reform Jews view the Torah as somehow divinely-inspired, yet consider the Talmud a folkloristic family heirloom.

 

None of these approaches does justice to Judaism's genius.

 

The orthodox approach is undermined by historical, philological and archeological evidence suggesting the Torah was written neither at the time, nor on the place, nor by the people claimed by tradition. Equally damaging is the awareness – present among the intellectually-honest – that the ethics of the Bible are marred by a patriarchal and tribal outlook that denies women, homosexuals and non-Jews rights ensconced in the ethos of modern humanistic societies.

 

The conservative approach is also flawed. If the Talmud is the brainchild of rabbis why should the Torah not be the daughter of scribes? The Reform approach reflects the view prevalent among most contemporary Jews. Yet it is legitimate to question whether a religious community that undermines its spiritual pillars will survive.

 

Talmud study deserves to be restored as the cornerstone of a solid Jewish identity (Photo: Yoav Friedman)
Talmud study deserves to be restored as the cornerstone of a solid Jewish identity (Photo: Yoav Friedman)

 

Given this set of predicaments, is a Jewish renewal possible in the 21st century? We believe it is. The secret to this renewal lies in understanding that the genius of Judaism resides in its Talmudic tradition. The lyricism of the Koran is unsurpassed and the New Testament's teachings on universal love and brotherhood are more progressive than many a passage of Leviticus. Thus, emphasizing the Bible as the starting point to appreciating Judaism is a losing proposition. However, as anyone who has studied in a yeshiva knows well, the Bible is not the cornerstone of traditional Judaism. The Talmud is the key to appreciating Judaism.

 

Secularized Jews must be exposed to the depth and beauty of rabbinical literature in order to be captivated by their faith. For this approach to succeed, rabbis should start to deemphasize the divine origin of the Bible as a principle of faith. It is the Talmud whose quest deserves reverence as divinely inspired.

 

The search for ethical and intellectual truth that animates the Talmud is truly God-given: It demands the utmost exertion of one’s ethical and intellectual gifts; it demands forsaking dogma in order to embrace inquisitiveness in every sphere – foremost in one’s relationship with the Deity; it introduced the revolutionary concept that faith and intellect should not be sundered, but ought to converge and coalesce. Ultimately, it transformed the Jewish people from nomadic shepherds scattered throughout the Fertile Crescent into the global ambassadors of ethical monotheism.

 

The study of the Talmud – traditionally disdained by gentiles and nowadays neglected by Jews – deserves to be restored as the cornerstone of a solid Jewish identity. In order for this restoration to take place, secular Jews should not feel that a conventional religious lifestyle will be pushed upon them once they start to study the Talmud.

 

Learning enriches life more than dieting; yet there are more Jews who eschew seafood than Jews who devote time to acquiring the wisdom of their sages. The Jewish World would be undoubtedly stronger if intellectual curiosity trumped culinary piety as the hallmark of a healthy Jewish identity.

 

The sooner the Jewish and rabbinical establishments understand that teaching the Talmud is the key to Jewish continuity, the more successful are efforts to draw Jews back to Judaism bound to be. The Talmud may no longer shield Jews from assimilation thanks to its social and dietary restrictions. However it can disabuse many young Jews from the prejudice that Judaism is anachronistic. If anything, the Talmud was and remains well ahead of its times.

 


פרסום ראשון: 05.23.15, 14:39
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