Science, Genesis and Religion

Someone just told me that her daughter found out that two of her friends don't believe in evolution because they think that the Bible contradicts evolution and wants to know what we liberal Jews think.
While there are certainly people who think that way within Judaism, there is no reason for the Bible to contradict science. The first 11 chapters of the Book of Genesis were actually intended to be explanations of the origins of many things in the world. They are mythology in the best sense: explanations for how things came to be that teach underlying lessons about our perception of reality.
This was the original intent of these stories, as the modern writing of history just began a few centuries ago. The ancients were writing about such things as:
Genesis 1: the orderliness of creation, culminating in the creation of humanity to rule over creation and the sabbath as holy time;
Genesis 1-2: all humanity, regardless of place of origin, was created in God's image and shares equal status in God's eyes;
Genesis 3: the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Garden of Eden: why we don't live forever, the origins of evil, why the world does not seem to be a perfect place, why women bear children in pain, why the ground must be tilled requiring toil, etc.
Genesis 4: the story of Cain and Abel: the definition of murder. Murder is when you illegally kill your brother. There were other people in the world, as the story has Cain decrying his exile and stating that others will kill him. But murder is when you kill someone within your own kinship group for whom you are responsible. Hence the question asked by Cain, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
Genesis 6-9: the flood story: the origin of eating meat, the aetiology and meaning of the rainbow, and the promise that God will never again destroy humanity.
Genesis 11: the origin or languages.

These are just some of the things taught in these ahistorical biblical chapters that were never meant to be a literal history of the planet or the origin of people, but explain to us the more important lessons of the relationships between people, the authority of human beings, and the place of good and evil in the world.

Justice for All?
Parashat Vayera
October 24, 2015

THIS week's parashah opens with Abraham's hospitality to complete strangers, the promise that Sarah will conceive and bear a son. It then goes immediately to Abraham negotiating with God to protect any innocent people in the wicked city of Sodom. The parashah concludes with Abraham immediately fulfilling God's command to sacrifice his own son, which God does not do when Abraham demonstrates his faithfulness. What's the connection?

The parashah sets the tone with Abraham's complete hospitality to total strangers. The midrash says that Abraham and Sarah's tent sat at a crossroads and was open in four directions, immediately welcoming any passerby to enter, eat and rest.

God shows similar kindness to Sarah and Abraham and gives them a child when they previously could not conceive.

The Torah follows with Abraham's defense of any innocent people in Sodom, that the innocent would not be slain with the guilty. Abraham aggressively importunes God to reverse course and leave all alive if even 10 innocent people are found in Sodom.

A few chapters later, God commands Abraham to slaughter his only son, the gift he received in Chapter 18, as a sacrifice at God's command. Abraham immediately complies. Why does Abraham so defend complete strangers in Sodom when he is so ready and willing to sacrifice to God the most beloved relationship he possesses?

To understand we must compare Abraham to the story of Noah which we read two weeks ago. Noah was commanded to save himself and his family and allow the entire world to die. He complies without uttering a single word of complaint. He never questions whether the innocent will be slain with the guilty, as Abraham does. The name Noah means comfortable or complacent, and indeed, "as is his name so is he."

But the covenant is struck with Abraham, who asks that God comport with God's own laws of justice. What chutzpah to remind the Creator of the rules of Creation: the innocent have a right to life and may not be forced to bear responsibility for the sins of their neighbors.

Abraham's son, on the other hand, is guilty of nothing. But, as Bruria will later explain to Rabbi Meir when their two sons die on the same day, "Someone left us a security for us to keep for him, and now he has come to reclaim it. Shall we return it to him?" In other words, Isaac was a gift that did not belong to them, and could be reclaimed at any time. Abraham demonstrated his faith in God's justice and allowed the return of the gift without question.

The man who argued so arduously for justice when it was not on his own behalf, turned around and demonstrated the willingness to be hurt when the proper owner of his most precious article came to retrieve it. Such is the nature of God's first servant through the covenant.

I cannot understand how the descendants of Abraham can punish the innocent with the guilty, when the progenitor of the Jewish people demonstrated so clearly that God demands justice. We cannot lump everyone in a national or racial group together. Each person has the right to be charged with his/her own actions, and we cannot punish the innocent with the guilty.

When the Zionists first debated a Jewish State, they debated what the nature of the State would be. Will Jews be able to govern others better than they were governed? Can Jews rise to the responsibilities, challenges and inconveniences of sovereignty?

Israel claims to be a Jewish State. But it cannot ignore Jewish ethics as they apply to the stranger and claim to be Jewish. It's one or the other. Either we act as Jewish ethics demand, or there is no truly Jewish State. That means that everyone who lives within the State must be treated with justice for all, and judged according to their own actions.

Genesis teaches us how the Founder of Judaism treated the stranger. Modern Jews can do no less.

Simchat Torah 5776

On Simchat Torah, Sunday night and Monday, we read the final parashah of the Torah, in which we find:"Moses commanded us the Torah; an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob." (Deuteronomy 33:4)

Most famously this becomes the text for the universally recognized 613 Torah commandments, 365 negative and 248 positive, stated by Rabbi Simlai in Babylonian Talmud, Makkot, 23b.

This occasions talmudic summaries of the lessons of Torah, starting with King David reducing them to 11 in Psalm 15. Interestingly, Ps. 15 lists exclusively moral traits for us to follow, without mentioning a single ritual. The Talmud can clearly be interpretated as teaching that the entirety of Torah is reducible to morality, a principle restated by Reform Judaism's emphasis on the prophets.

One interpretation of this verse is to begin teaching children the forms of letters and the simple blessings of enjoyment: viz. ha-motzi for bread, p'ri ha-etz for fruit, etc., from the time they begin to speak. It begins with teaching the letters and the sounds, so that every child gets the basics from an early age.

The Torah Temimah goes on to explain this beautifully, "We see that this education process is to implant and to root in the child's soft heart the greatness of the holiness of our Torah in general, in order that this idea will be a seal on his heart later when he goes out among people. There's no reason to elaborate further to a child whose brain is not yet prepared to absorb exalted ideas. Therefore try hard to teach him the basics in simple words that he can understand."

The Talmud says that Rav Hamnuna copied our verse on parchment 400 times, and gifted it to children in particular to remember the inheritance we are given. In other words, it's the responsibility of adults, particularly parents and grandparents, to teach correct conduct to children, and connect that with the holiness of Torah that teaches us the principles for living.

Torah Temima cites here the talmudic story in Shabbat 31a of the heathen who approaches Hillel and asks to learn the Torah while Hillel stands on one foot. Hillel says, "What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor. All the rest is commentary. Go and learn."

Too frequently that last part is omitted, as though the Golden Rule would suffice. But it does not, because the world is a very complex place, and even if we have the motivation to live ethical lives the actual practice might be difficult to determine. Therefore Jews study Torah throughout our lives, lifelong learners,to appreciate the complexity of applying our ethical ideals in the real world in which we live.

Chag sameach.

The Pope is a Marxist
Oct. 4, 2015

I love listening to Rush Limbaugh lecture the Pope about Catholicism, and call the Pope a Marxist, as if that were his motivation after decades of living consistently according to his theology. This Pope is so profoundly theologically consistent, way beyond his predecessors, a phenomenon Limbaugh can't even begin to recognize. Even more impressive is when people actually believe Limbaugh. How much ignorance does it take to choose Limbaugh on Catholic theology over the head of the Catholic Church, The Bishop of Rome? Wow! "Is the Pope Catholic" has a whole new meaning.

There's a lack of respect for learning in modern culture that would be hysterical if it weren't so devastating. Climate deniers lecturing Ph.D.s when they have no idea what they are talking about, as if reading an article in a magazine is the same as decades of constant study and research. The gall to psychologize about the "true motivations" of highly trained people, to accuse them of hypocrisy when the person knows nothing at all except for their own biases and prejudices. Mouthing inanities without paying social penalties, and even being esteemed for their ignorance. Shows how profoundly gullible and stupid many Americans are when defending their ideologies. This country is truly ripe for a demagogue like Donald Trump, someone the people will follow over a cliff like lemmings to the sea.