rblack@shemtaia.weeg.uiowa.edu (Roger Black) (12/19/90)
In article <Dec.6.03.38.42.1990.23495@athos.rutgers.edu>, YZKCU@cunyvm.bitnet (Yaakov Kayman) writes: > Ah! An accusation of misinterpretation from one to whom the Torah was > never given and for whom it was never intended. How amusing! The Torah > and its interpretation (the Oral Law) were given only to the Jews. See > Deut. 33:4 and Ps. 147:19,20. This is putting a heavy burden of interpretation on these passages, which I suspect a more objective exegesis might not support. Consider Isaiah 49:6: I will also make you a light of nations, that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth. or Isaiah 51:4: Hearken to Me, My people, and give ear to Me, O My nation, for teaching shall go forth from Me, my way for the light of peoples. or Zechariah 8:22-23: The many peoples and the multitude of nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. Thus said the Lord of Hosts: In those days, ten men from nations of every tongue will take hold--they will take hold of every Jew by a corner of his cloak and say, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.' (All quotations are from the New Jewish Publication Society version, 1988.) As with many other theological controversies, there is no single "Jewish" position. The eminent Jewish scholar Jacob Neusner, dealing with precisely this issue in the December 1990 issue of Bible Review, stated that Judaism should see itself "as the sages of the oral Torah saw it--as the statement of God's Torah for all humanity". ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roger Black rblack@shemtaia.weeg.uiowa.edu Disclaimer: My employer doesn't even know I have any opinions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------