advocating biblical-style judaisM?
Your question:
Moshe, are you advocating biblical-style Judaism?
My answer:
I am not advocating biblical-style Judaism for
today or the near future. My getting back to the basics, as they
are laid out in the Five Books of Moses, means a GRADUAL, VERY CAREFUL
return to the fundamental ideas and maybe practices, with each
generation taking a few steps.
You might be concerned with the apparently harsh
justice of the bible. Perhaps it is a religiously-guided government
that troubles you, a government that is not very tolerant of moral or
spiritual practices judged to be subtle or not-so-subtle threats to
society. Maybe you are wondering if I want the temple offerings
restarted this year.
There are many areas to examine: morality,
justice, government and religious institutions, cohesive faith systems,
and so on. In each of these areas progress can be made in the slow
return, in spirit if not in action, to the society that was recommended
long time ago. It took many centuries to get this far away from
biblical Judaism and so we cannot expect to return in a very short
time. We are in a whole different world right now. We are not socially
or psychologically suited for rapid changes. It would be very harmful
for us to so radically alter our lives.
We can start by studying biblical morality and
then decide how much our generation can move in that direction. Should
morality be completely subjective? Should society repress some
destructive practices? For example, is adultery a crime, a crime against
individuals and/or society? Let’s think about it.
We can do similarly with the biblical concepts of
justice. Do they have something to teach us? I do believe that in many
ways they are superior to current practices (see future articles).
Is twenty-first century leniency the highest form of justice?
What exactly were the temple offerings? Let’s try
to understand their actual nature and purpose? Many people imagine
these “offerings” (a better translation than “sacrifices”) were the
wanton, total waste of animals. That is not what we had in Judaism. They
were gifts from an agrarian people for the maintenance of the Temple
and its staff. (see future article). The donations were no more a
“sacrifice” than your charity dollars are today. We just need to see
what aspects of the offerings can be put into practice today.
Again, the important thing is to be guided by the
Five Books and to make societal progress by wisely implementing as much
of the recommendations as is reasonable in our lifetime.
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