Divine or not Divine, that is the question.

This is a sermon I gave last Saturday (August 11, Parshat Re'eh). As always, I welcome any questions, comments or curses. Peace.

“Do not consider a thing as proof because you find it written in books: for just as a liar will deceive with his tongue, he will not be deterred from doing the same thing with his pen.” What kind of cynic would make this kind of statement? Surely this must come from some kind of revisionist historian, or post-modern elitist. It certainly wouldn’t come from Jewish tradition; a tradition that not only prizes books and literacy but also structures itself based on books. It may come as a surprise then, that not only does this quote come from a Jewish source, but from perhaps the greatest scholar of Jewish history: Moses ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides or Rambam. The Rambam, for all of his traditional Jewish beliefs and practices, was also a philosopher who set reason and rational thinking as one of his highest values. His writings both inspired and angered those around him, so much so that his seminal philosophic work: Guide to the Perplexed was burned by segments of the Jewish communities of medieval Christian Spain. For all of his emphasis on reason, however, Rambam was not always able to apply it to Torah. In fact, this has been a trend amongst scholars for centuries, in that they have not been able to apply rational thinking to traditional Jewish texts.

For example, in our parshah today, we find a brief discussion of the Pesach sacrifice. Now this sacrifice is also mentioned in Exodus, however there are a couple of subtle but interesting differences between the two texts, which are essentially ignored by the sages. In Deuteronomy 16:6, it states that the Pesach offering should be done, “in the evening, at sundown, the time of day when you departed from Egypt,” yet when we look at the Exodus account in chapter 12 verses 29 and 31 we find that it says, “in the middle of the night the LORD struck down all the first-born in the land of Egypt…. He (Pharaoh) summoned Moses and Aaron in the night and said, ‘Up, depart from among my people, you and the Israelites with you!’” So we can see a slight discrepancy in this case, but there is another, more glaring difference between the two texts. In Deuteronomy 16:5-6 it states, “You are not permitted to slaughter the Passover sacrifice in any of the settlements that the LORD your God is giving you; but at the place where the LORD your God will choose to establish His name, there alone shall you slaughter the Passover sacrifice….” This seems pretty straight forward, right? One sacrifice, wherever God says. But when we look at the Exodus passage, we find that in chapter twelve, verse three it says, “Speak to the whole community of Israel and say that on the tenth of this month each of them shall take a lamb to a family, a lamb to a household.” So wait, is it supposed to be one sacrifice per house, or one for everybody?

This is not the only example of an inconsistency in our Torah, in fact there are quite a few. So what are we, as modern, progressive Jews to do with this? Should we accept the divinity of Torah and, as the rabbis have traditionally done, found a way to explain away the various discrepancies? Or should we take the path laid out by modern biblical scholarship, which questions the divine nature of Torah?

If we take the creation of Torah out of the realm of the divine, where does that leave us? Does it simply become a collection of stories compiled and edited to create a sense of narrative? Is it simply a window into a particular time and culture? Do we diminish the special nature of Torah if we view it as a human creation as opposed to divine revelation? There are many who would say yes, that is exactly what happens. They say the holiness of Torah stems from its divine origin and when you remove that divinity, all that’s left is just a book. I would argue, however, that there is another path. I do not accept the Torah’s account of revelation and the more Torah I study, the more I have difficulty even accepting divine inspiration. Yet here I am, having dedicated myself to God, Israel and Torah for my career and my life. How do I reconcile this?

I do not accept the divinity of Torah, however I believe strongly in the holiness of Torah. I believe that Torah is holy because for thousands of years it has served as the foundation of Jewish life, the backbone of Jewish existence. I believe that Torah is holy because my great, great, great, great, great grandparents read the same words that I read today. I believe Torah is holy because so many of the ideas expressed in Torah are intended to inspire holiness in us so that we may inspire holiness in others. To me, this is the beauty of Torah. I do not need to accept God in a cloud on top of a mountain to love and cherish Torah. I love and cherish Torah because of Torah itself, not where it comes from. I urge that all of us here today be able to treasure Torah because of the wisdom it provides and the history it represents, no matter where it may have come from. Kein yehi ratzon.

Reform Judaism and the GLBT community

So I just read in Haaretz on-line http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/893859.html that the Reform movement has put out a...well I'm not sure what to call it, manifesto? Working guide? Mission statement? Anyways, they put out this 500 page thing that discusses the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) community, part of which included blessings for a sex change opperation.

While I am certainly strongly in favor of including the GLBT community in Jewish life in the same ways as anyone else (including marriage!) my initial reaction to the blessings for a sex change' bit was...I guess exasperation is probably the best way to describe it. I have some trouble with this idea of a blessing for a sex change, but I don't know why.

When I think about it rationally it makes perfect sense. If I believe (as I do) that we do not choose who we are attracted to (i.e. I never chose to be heterosexual, I just am) than it is only fair to take that argument the next step (or maybe this is actually the previous step) and say we do not choose our gender. In turn, it is perfectly reasonable that someone could be born with 'the wrong parts' or feel that they are trapped in the wrong body, a body they did not choose and in turn a life that they did not choose and does not fit who they are. If I accept this (and the logical/rational part of my brain does) than it seems appropriate that there be a blessing for a sex change opperation, just like there are blessings for other opperations or health related things.

That being said, there is something about a blessing for a sex change that just seems odd. That is probably an expression of my ignorance as much as anything else. All the same, as a Reform Jew and future Reform rabbi I am a bit uncomfortable with the Reform movement taking this kind of official stance on the matter. Not only because of my personal discomfort with it, but also because I worry that we are going to put ourselves 'outside the fold' if we haven't already.
I know, I know...it is important to take a stand on controversial issues even if it is an unpopular stand, but my fear is that if the Reform movement is not careful we are going to become irrelavent, because no one will take us seriously. I think for a lot of American Reform Jews this is a hard thing to grasp, because we are the dominant stream of Judaism in America. Outside of the U.S, and maybe Canada and England, Reform/Progressive Judaism is a minority stream. It is in those cases where we are the minority that there is the most danger. Aside from the fact that this kind of decision would discourage some people from Reform/Progressive Judaism (it would probably encourage some as well, but my assumption is that outside the US, maybe inside the US too, more would be discouraged than encouraged), it also becomes an issue for cooperation with the other streams. It is hard enough to get an Orthodox rabbi to sit with a Reform rabbi for any kind of meaningful Jewish event (and of course it could only be a male rabbi), would this kind of decision make that even more difficult if not impossible? What about Conservative rabbis? The Conservative movement only recently began to accept GLBT students to their seminaries, is it going to be comfortable working with the Reform/Progressive movement on other Jewish issues, knowing that this is a part of the Reform platform? Will this issue be something that the Orthodox and Conservative point out to people who are searching for their place in the Jewish world as a negative? 'You don't want to be a Reform/Progressive Jew, they have no respect for Jewish law or tradition and will allow anything, for example...'

I have no conclusion, I just read the Haaretz article and wanted to share my thoughts on it. Toodles.