Modern tools of interpretation can enhance our understanding of sacred texts without compromising our tenacity in maintaining Jewish practice
Rabbi Avi Finegold
FOUNDER, THE JEWISH LEARNING LIBRARY, MONTREAL
Rabbi Philip Scheim
BETH DAVID B’NAI ISRAEL BETH AM CONGREGATION, TORONTO
Rabbi Finegold: Recently, several of my Orthodox colleagues have come under scrutiny for discussing the idea that the events of the Bible may not have occurred exactly as described in the text.
Critical Bible scholars also assert that they actually have a better understanding of how the text of the Bible came to be. While this is nothing new in liberal denominations, only recently have these ideas begun to be explored in Orthodoxy.
I want to reflect on this as we approach Shavuot, the holiday that celebrates the revelation at Sinai. Does one have to take a traditional approach to revelation in order to fully appreciate the Torah in the 21st century?
How can more liberal thinkers experience Shavuot and the daily practice of Torah? How should Jewish Bible critics relate to their traditional co-religionists?
Rabbi Scheim: In my student years, I lived out the conflict between the literalist approach of revelation – that all of Torah, written and oral, emanated from Sinai – and the critical approach – that Torah, while still sacred, had human involvement, over time, in its transmission.
My rabbinic studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary reflected the critical/scientific approach, while the time that I chose to spend in an Orthodox yeshiva offered the literalist approach. I found myself caught somewhere in-between.
I don’t believe that Shavuot and Matan Torah (the Sinai revelation) is necessarily less relevant to one who holds the critical approach, given that the Judaism we practise is in many instances far removed from the Torah text and dependent upon the interpretation and creativity of the rabbinic sages. But it is incumbent upon “critics” to be fully respectful of their more literalist co-religionists, because it is their traditionalist passion, which is often lacking in more liberal quarters, that sustains Jewish practice and Jewish learning.
Rabbi Finegold: My experience seems to be woven into a similar tapestry. I grew up hearing a very literalist approach to the text, and eventually was exposed to the scholarship of Bible critics in university.
Thus my dilemma was how to reconcile the truth of my religious experience with the literary truth of the Bible. In other words, how could I retain the tradition I was taught with the multiplicity of voices in the text?
My approach, which was far from novel, was to recognize that, at a minimum, God could write in a multiplicity of voices for any number of reasons, exegetical or otherwise. While that may not be where I stand at the moment, it was a critical first step in embracing both sides of the equation.
As you put it so eloquently, I am not ready to lose the passion in favour of a Judaism that takes its cues from a God that only exists in the remains of an archeological dig or a literary analysis. Shavuot, then, is a time to celebrate the interpretation of the Torah, not just the receiving of a text.
Rabbi Scheim: “Saw you at Sinai,” a popular web-dating site aimed at traditional Jews, reflects the understanding that every Jew ever to live was present at Sinai, when the Torah was revealed to the people of Israel.
I love the connection between Internet dating and Torah, which brings together cutting-edge technology and eternal Torah-based values. Rather than undermining Jewish tradition, “Saw you at Sinai” reinforces the link between 21st-century life and our ancestral faith.
Similarly, modern tools of interpretation have the power to enhance our understanding of Torah, of biblical and rabbinic texts, without needing to compromise our tenacity in maintaining Jewish practice. As long as we recognize the voice – or voices – of God in the texts we study, our faith will be enhanced by continuing to grapple with every word lovingly handed down to us from generation to generation.