Shalom, I am just becoming familiar with a side of Torah which we did not learn in Sunday School, nor at summer camp. Our tradition so strongly inculcate in us the imperative for Tikkun Olam and social justice as the very basis of being Jewish and fulfilling tradition in our modern world, which I cherish. I have spent many years in Peace and Conflict work and seeking to understand the roots of how we as a civilization in the 21st century can tolerate and perpetuate the violence we yet do. Now, returning after many years to Judiasm and looking into Torah, I find here so much violence, so much -"If other people do not agree or allow my way we can kill them". Now in spite of all our teaching for social justice, our world is reeling from the continuation of this psychology and politic, exactly. How do we cherish the justice and rid ourselves and our world of the echoes of this continual violence, as we continue over and over and over to read and magnify these incidences in our Torah. Many places we read how people changed the Divine's thoughts, added, reformed. I don't know what to do; we know right action, yet our world reiterates the ancient echoes of violence in selfish self-justification, each of our three traditions of the Book, one against the other, and we swim in the blood of our mutual kin. Must we stop reading some parts of the Torah, create new commentary? What do we do; the dynamic is so clear?
Thank you for your patience and wisdom in response.
Hineini said:
Kala asks Must we stop reading some parts of the Torah, create new commentary? You can't build a new world on a lie, and to selectively stop reading the parts of the Torah we no longer like is to live a lie. We must look at the simple meaning of the text against the context of the time when it was written; study how the rabbis have interpreted the text over the millenia; and ponder what message we can extract that is relevant to our new world. To say it in haiku: We inherit texts. We invest in new meanings. We keep Torah live.
Donald Birnbaum said:
All that we must remember are Hillel's words " do not do unto others as we would not wish for them to do to you. All the rest is commentary. Go and study.
No one has a monopoly on Torah understanding.
It is said that there are 70 interpretations.
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Shalom, I am just becoming familiar with a side of Torah which we did not learn in Sunday School, nor at summer camp. Our tradition so strongly inculcate in us the imperative for Tikkun Olam and social justice as the very basis of being Jewish and fulfilling tradition in our modern world, which I cherish. I have spent many years in Peace and Conflict work and seeking to understand the roots of how we as a civilization in the 21st century can tolerate and perpetuate the violence we yet do. Now, returning after many years to Judiasm and looking into Torah, I find here so much violence, so much -"If other people do not agree or allow my way we can kill them". Now in spite of all our teaching for social justice, our world is reeling from the continuation of this psychology and politic, exactly. How do we cherish the justice and rid ourselves and our world of the echoes of this continual violence, as we continue over and over and over to read and magnify these incidences in our Torah. Many places we read how people changed the Divine's thoughts, added, reformed. I don't know what to do; we know right action, yet our world reiterates the ancient echoes of violence in selfish self-justification, each of our three traditions of the Book, one against the other, and we swim in the blood of our mutual kin. Must we stop reading some parts of the Torah, create new commentary? What do we do; the dynamic is so clear?
Thank you for your patience and wisdom in response.