This article was referenced in the article entitled:
Why are Conservative Jews undermining the Bible?
New Torah For Modern Minds
Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, probably never
existed. Nor did Moses. The entire Exodus story as recounted in the Bible
probably never occurred. The same is true of the tumbling of the walls of
Jericho. And David, far from being the fearless king who built Jerusalem
into a mighty capital, was more likely a provincial leader whose reputation
was later magnified to provide a rallying point for a fledgling nation.
Such startling propositions -- the product of findings by archaeologists
digging in Israel and its environs over the last 25 years -- have gained
wide acceptance among non-Orthodox rabbis. But there has been no attempt to
disseminate these ideas or to discuss them with the laity -- until now.
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which represents the 1.5
million Conservative Jews in the United States, has just issued a new Torah
and commentary, the first for Conservatives in more than 60 years. Called ''Etz
Hayim'' (''Tree of Life'' in Hebrew), it offers an interpretation that
incorporates the latest findings from archaeology, philology, anthropology
and the study of ancient cultures. To the editors who worked on the book, it
represents one of the boldest efforts ever to introduce into the religious
mainstream a view of the Bible as a human rather than divine document.
''When I grew up in Brooklyn, congregants were not sophisticated about
anything,'' said Rabbi Harold Kushner, the author of ''When Bad Things
Happen to Good People'' and a co-editor of the new book. ''Today, they are
very sophisticated and well read about psychology, literature and history,
but they are locked in a childish version of the Bible.''
''Etz Hayim,'' compiled by David Lieber of the University of Judaism in Los
Angeles, seeks to change that. It offers the standard Hebrew text, a
parallel English translation (edited by Chaim Potok, best known as the
author of ''The Chosen''), a page-by-page exegesis, periodic commentaries on
Jewish practice and, at the end, 41 essays by prominent rabbis and scholars
on topics ranging from the Torah scroll and dietary laws to ecology and
eschatology.
These essays, perused during uninspired sermons or Torah readings at Sabbath
services, will no doubt surprise many congregants. For instance, an essay on
Ancient Near Eastern Mythology,'' by Robert Wexler, president of the
University of Judaism in Los Angeles, states that on the basis of modern
scholarship, it seems unlikely that the story of Genesis originated in
Palestine. More likely, Mr. Wexler says, it arose in Mesopotamia, the
influence of which is most apparent in the story of the Flood, which
probably grew out of the periodic overflowing of the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers. The story of Noah, Mr. Wexler adds, was probably borrowed from the
Mesopotamian epic Gilgamesh.
Equally striking for many readers will be the essay ''Biblical
Archaeology,'' by Lee I. Levine, a professor at the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem. ''There is no reference in Egyptian sources to Israel's sojourn
in that country,'' he writes, ''and the evidence that does exist is
negligible and indirect.'' The few indirect pieces of evidence, like the use
of Egyptian names, he adds, ''are far from adequate to corroborate the
historicity of the biblical account.''
Similarly ambiguous, Mr. Levine writes, is the evidence of the conquest and
settlement of Canaan, the ancient name for the area including Israel.
Excavations showing that Jericho was unwalled and uninhabited, he says,
''clearly seem to contradict the violent and complete conquest portrayed in
the Book of Joshua.'' What's more, he says, there is an ''almost total
absence of archaeological evidence'' backing up the Bible's grand
descriptions of the Jerusalem of David and Solomon.
The notion that the Bible is not literally true ''is more or less settled
and understood among most Conservative rabbis,'' observed David Wolpe, a
rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and a contributor to ''Etz Hayim.'' But
some congregants, he said, ''may not like the stark airing of it.'' Last
Passover, in a sermon to 2,200 congregants at his synagogue, Rabbi Wolpe
frankly said that ''virtually every modern archaeologist'' agrees ''that the
way the Bible describes the Exodus is not the way that it happened, if it
happened at all.'' The rabbi offered what he called a ''litany of
disillusion'' about the narrative, including contradictions,
improbabilities, chronological lapses and the absence of corroborating
evidence. In fact, he said, archaeologists digging in the Sinai have ''found
no trace of the tribes of Israel -- not one shard of pottery.''
The reaction to the rabbi's talk ranged from admiration at his courage to
dismay at his timing to anger at his audacity. Reported in Jewish
publications around the world, the sermon brought him a flood of letters
accusing him of undermining the most fundamental teachings of Judaism. But
he also received many messages of support. ''I can't tell you how many
rabbis called me, e-mailed me and wrote me, saying, 'God bless you for
saying what we all believe,' '' Rabbi Wolpe said. He attributes the
''explosion'' set off by his sermon to ''the reluctance of rabbis to say
what they really believe.''
Before the introduction of ''Etz Hayim,'' the Conservative movement relied
on the Torah commentary of Joseph Hertz, the chief rabbi of the British
Commonwealth. By 1936, when it was issued, the Hebrew Bible had come under
intense scrutiny from scholars like Julius Wellhausen of Germany, who raised
many questions about the text's authorship and accuracy. Hertz, working in
an era of rampant anti-Semitism and of Christian efforts to demonstrate the
inferiority of the ''Old'' Testament to the ''New,'' dismissed all doubts
about the integrity of the text.
Maintaining that no people would have invented for themselves so
''disgraceful'' a past as that of being slaves in a foreign land, he wrote
that ''of all Oriental chronicles, it is only the Biblical annals that
deserve the name of history.''
The Hertz approach had little competition until 1981, when the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations, the official arm of Reform Judaism, published
its own Torah commentary. Edited by Rabbi Gunther Plaut, it took note of the
growing body of archaeological and textual evidence that called the accuracy
of the biblical account into question. The ''tales'' of Genesis, it flatly
stated, were a mix of ''myth, legend, distant memory and search for origins,
bound together by the strands of a central theological concept.'' But
Exodus, it insisted, belonged in ''the realm of history.'' While there are
scholars who consider the Exodus story to be ''folk tales,'' the commentary
observed, ''this is a minority view.''
Twenty years later, the weight of scholarly evidence questioning the Exodus
narrative had become so great that the minority view had become the majority
one.
Not among Orthodox Jews, however. They continue to regard the Torah as the
divine and immutable word of God. Their most widely used Torah commentary,
known as the Stone Edition (1993), declares in its introduction ''that every
letter and word of the Torah was given to Moses by God.''
Lawrence Schiffman, a professor at New York University and an Orthodox Jew,
said that ''Etz Hayim'' goes so far in accepting modern scholarship that,
without realizing it, it ends up being in ''nihilistic opposition'' to what
Conservative Jews stand for. He noted, however, that most of the questions
about the Bible's accuracy had been tucked away discreetly in the back.
''The average synagogue-goer is never going to look there,'' he said.
Even some Conservative rabbis feel uncomfortable with the depth of the
doubting. ''I think the basic historicity of the text is valid and
verifiable,'' said Susan Grossman, the rabbi of Beth Shalom Congregation in
Columbia, Md., and a co-editor of ''Etz Hayim.'' As for the mounting
archaeological evidence suggesting the contrary, Rabbi Grossman said:
''There's no evidence that it didn't happen. Most of the 'evidence' is
evidence from silence.''
''The real issue for me is the eternal truths that are in the text,'' she
added. ''How do we apply this hallowed text to the 21st century?'' One way,
she said, is to make it more relevant to women. Rabbi Grossman is one of
many women who worked on ''Etz Hayim,'' in an effort to temper the Bible's
heavily patriarchal orientation and make the text more palatable to modern
readers. For example, the passage in Genesis that describes how the aged
Sarah laughed upon hearing God say that she would bear a son is
traditionally interpreted as a laugh of incredulity. In its commentary,
however, ''Etz Hayim'' suggests that her laughter ''may not be a response to
the far-fetched notion of pregnancy at an advanced age, but the laughter of
delight at the prospect of two elderly people resuming marital intimacy.''
In a project of such complexity, there were inevitably many points of
disagreement. But Rabbi Kushner says the only one that eluded resolution
concerned Leviticus 18:22: ''Do not lie with a male as one lies with a
woman; it is an abhorrence.'' ''We couldn't come to a formulation that we
could all be comfortable with,'' the rabbi said. ''Some people felt that
homosexuality is wrong. We weren't prepared to embrace that as the
Conservative position. But at the same time we couldn't say this is a
mentality that has been disproved by contemporary biology, for not everyone
was prepared to go along with that.'' Ultimately, the editors settled on an
anodyne compromise, noting that the Torah's prohibitions on homosexual
relations ''have engendered considerable debate'' and that Conservative
synagogues should ''welcome gay and lesbian congregants in all
congregational activities.''
Since the fall, when ''Etz Hayim'' was issued, more than 100,000 copies have
been sold. Eventually, it is expected to become the standard Bible in the
nation's 760 Conservative synagogues.
Mark S. Smith, a professor of Bible and Near Eastern Studies at New York
University, noted that the Hertz commentary had lasted 65 years. ''That's
incredible,'' he said. ''If 'Etz Hayim' isn't around for 50 years or more,
I'd be surprised.''
Its longevity, however, may depend on the pace of archaeological discovery.
New York Times
ARTS & IDEAS/CULTURAL DESK |
March 9,
2002
New Torah For
Modern Minds
By MICHAEL MASSING (NYT) 1775 words
origin:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20E1EFE35540C7A8CDDAA0894DA404482
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