#17. Are the Torah laws old-fashioned? #18. Why are there many separate branches of Judaism?
I
These two questions directly flow from one to the other. The reason why there are 'many' separate branched of Judaism is precisely because many Jews of the modern era have come to regard the Torah's laws as being old-fashioned--conceived purely for the sake of a particular point of time in ancient history for a particular society and culture.
A clear rejection to this approach by our tradition can be supported by the following trenchant observation:
Judaism has NEVER fit seamlessly into any historical period, society or culture. Judaism has been horribly inconvenient and morally/spiritually challenging to its practitioners from its inception.
A quick review of the facts: (These six items below are taken from Rabbi Dovid Gottleib's research)
Here are six examples of singularly unique Jewish beliefs.
1. Monotheism. Polytheistic idolatry is the rule in ancient Middle Eastern religions. The idea that there is only a single deity is unknown. The uncompromising commitment of Judaism to one G-d only as the cause of all the phenomena of the world is without parallel in the ancient world.
2. Universalism/Exclusivity. Each ancient nation had its own pantheon of gods. But each recognized the appropriateness of other nations worshipping their own pantheons. The universalism of Judaism – the recognition that G-d alone governs the whole universe, and the consequent exclusivity of Judaism – its denial of the reality of others’ gods, are absent from ancient religions. For this reason, aside from Antiochus’ attempt to eliminate Judaism, there are no religious wars in the ancient world! When one country conquered another the second was usually required to acknowledge the chief god of the conqueror, and the conquered were usually happy to comply: the very fact that they lost the war proved that the chief god of the conqueror was very powerful. The rest of the religion of the conquered nation was left intact. Only the Jews proclaimed a universal and exclusive concept of deity: the Jewish G-d is the only real G-d.
3. Spirituality. Ancient religions associated gods very closely with physical objects and/or physical phenomena. They abound in nature deities: gods of the sun, moon, sea, fertility, death etc. The gods are given human or animal form. The only ancient religion to declare that G-d has no physical embodiment, form or likeness is Judaism.
4. G-d as absolute. Ancient religions picture the gods as limited in power. Many start with a genealogy of the gods. That means that certain powers predate them and are out of their control. Only Judaism understands G-d as the creator of all that exists and completely unlimited in His power over creation.
5. Morality. The gods of the ancient world are pictured as petty tyrants acting out their all-too-human desires in conflict with men and with one another. No condition of absolute moral perfection applies to those gods. Only the Jewish G-d is defined as meeting that description.
6. Anti-homosexuality. All ancient cultures permitted some forms of homosexuality, and for some it had religious application. The only exception is Judaism, which opposed all forms of homosexuality, whether religious or merely hedonistic.
In addition, here is an example of a unique Jewish practice:
7. The synagogue. The historian Menahem Stern writes: “It has been rightly said that, in establishing the synagogue, Judaism created one of the greatest revolutions in the history of religion and society, for the synagogue was an entirely new environment for divine service, of a type unknown anywhere before, and it did not entail the ceremonial restrictions and financial sacrifices that were required for the maintenance of temples.”
To ancient cultures, these elements of Jewish belief and practice appeared absurd. They contradicted the common experience and convictions of the whole ancient Middle East. Maintaining them branded Jews as quixotic outcasts. The historical problem is to explain how a people originated and preserved so extreme a set of beliefs without being overwhelmed by the unanimous consensus of all the other nations in their environment.
In some cases, aspects of a culture which serve no purpose, or are even detrimental to the functioning of the culture, may be preserved, if the culture is outstandingly successful in other areas. One may imagine the religion of an empire preserved by accompanying the military and economic success of the empire. It was worthwhile to pledge allegiance to Roman gods since that granted Roman citizenship, and to the gods of Greece since that brought association with the philosophy, science and art of Greece. But no such explanation will help for the uniqueness of Jewish belief during the ancient period. The Jewish nation did not enjoy any outstanding secular success that could have served as the means of preserving Judaism. There was no far-flung Jewish empire, nor were there revolutionary innovations in mathematics, medicine, economics, architecture, the arts, philosophy etc. Since these did not exist, we cannot explain the survival of Judaism as a mere accompaniment of an otherwise successful culture.
One final characteristic of ancient Judaism must be noted. Throughout the ancient period substantial numbers of Jews experimented with other forms of religious belief and practice. The prophets testify to Jewish idol worship. During the Babylonian exile a significant percentage of Jews intermarried and adapted their beliefs to the Babylonian milieu. When Greek culture became dominant in the Middle East, many Jews became Hellenized. During the end of the second Temple, the Sadducees rejected the traditional Oral Law and substituted their own adaptations of Jewish practice. Needless to say, all these efforts eventually failed. The survival of (unmodified) Judaism contrasts with those competing Jewish cultural forms that expired.
SUMMARY
Judaism in the ancient period is unique in monotheism, universality and exclusivity, spirituality, G-d’s absolute power, moral perfection, the total rejection of homosexuality, and the invention of the synagogue for divine service. No secular success of Jewish culture was the cause of the maintenance of these unique aspects of Judaism. Substantial numbers of Jews adopted other forms of religious practice – these have disappeared.
So we can easily conclude that Judaism was never a popular religion which was designed to conform to the prevailing beliefs and practices or cultures of ancient civilization. We extend this fact to claim that Judaism by definition can never really be a popular religion. This is not to say that Judaism doesn’t have any meaningful or even enjoyable elements to it. It just means that it will not conform to any human-based value system or conception of natural religion.
Therefore all non-Orthodox branches of Judaism lose their claim to validity when they say Judaism needs to be updated to reflect modern values and sensibilities. One could define the essence of Judaism as formulated in Pirkei Avos: “Fashion your will to conform to His will.” And the Talmud in Brachos identifies the two forces which prevent us from doing this: The evil inclination and the influence of the Non-Jewish nations.
The hallmark of a heretic from our point of view is an unwillingness to submit to the Torah’s authority in any area of life—from private behavior to societal norms to abstract belief. Judaism has always demanded the willingness to make extreme sacrifices—socially, physically, emotionally and intellectually--from the very first Jew (Avrohom Avinu) onward.
II
The truth of this bold assertion starts to get obscured by the Rambam's controversial statements in this matter. In Book III of the Moreh Chapters 26-49 he takes a broad survey of most of the mitzvos of the Torah and discusses many specific ones category by category. In chapter 29-32 he says that a certain number of prohibitions in the Torah were designed specifically to counter certain widespread erroneous beliefs in the ancient pagan world and a certain number of positive commandments were given as concessions to ease the ancient Israelites out of their pagan culture and into pure monotheistic worship.
There is an explicit comment by Chazal to this effect regarding the prohibition against the consumption of blood. This is cited by the Rambam in his intro to Pirkei Avos.
How do we respond to this approach?
The response is that pagan culture and other ancient practices that the Torah indeed came to counter reflect a certain basic spiritual orientation that is a part of the human personality. The Torah is addressing a universal component of the human personality and is negating it, or refining it, or educating it. Without the Torah’s addressing of this issue for all future history, we would revert to that human mode of thinking naturally and adopt some parallel form of practice to reflect it today.
An example can be taken from the history of homosexuality in the western world. For centuries before and after the Torah was given, homosexuality was a part of all human culture. But ever since the western world came under heavy influence of the Torah’s novel approach to religion and sexual orientation, (via the non-Jewish adaptations of it) homosexuality ultimately became taboo. The western world became educated by the Torah to be sensitive to this particular abomination. But when the world became secularized and religion got demoted to the private sphere of life, and the concept of “two consenting adults” became dominant, the sense of abomination regarding homosexuality eroded and was gradually eliminated from public social conversation.
There is no reason that the same thing couldn’t happen to any of the pagan beliefs or rituals addressed by the Torah. The burden of proof is on the other side to show that certain commandments have become truly obsolete via the historical development of the human personality.
In fact, the Torah has concealed the rationale behind many rituals because they are not intended to be pinned down to any specific objective. Jews have consistently found new meaning in them in every generation and culture and they all may very well have been intended by the Creator --Who saw all its possible effects on the human being throughout the various historical periods in advance.
So, in conclusion, we assert the Torah is not old-fashioned.
It is timeless.
