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Recently, I’ve started reading the book, To Mend the World by Emil Fackenheim. I’ve only gotten through the introduction (roughly thirty pages), but it’s already got me thinking about several things. One of them is the mutability of the Torah, oral Torah, and word of the Rabbis over time.
I already view Torah as a living document, that grows with the Jewish people, but I haven’t given much thought to our ability to change what has already been said. I whole-heartedly believe that G-d wrote Torah with knowledge of the future, so that its precepts could be applied to all things past present and future. The question for me is, did G-d also write/dictate Torah in such a way that it could, in fact, be re-interpreted in each age? That is, does Torah contain an eternal truth waiting to be discovered, or does Torah contain an evolving truth that changes with the children of Israel?
This is something that I, personally, cannot possibly know for sure. I am not a Rabbinical authority, nor do I have access to Divine knowledge. Despite this, I can still digest the information presented, and decide what I believe.
After contemplating this question for several days and nights, I have finally arrived at my answer; Torah is an evolving creature. As we Jews complete our tasks, and bring our collective nearer to G-d – or further from G-d, as it might be – the truth of Torah changes to reflect our situation. Torah is still eternal, Divine, truth, but that truth is capable of change.
As the world is perfected, as Tikkun Olam is completed, the world changes. With the changes of the world come changes in the people of Judaism. We are not entities outside the flow of time or reality; that existence is held only by Hashem. We change, and the book of our truths changes, to reflect our new reality. Were this not true, one might conceive (though this would only be a perception of the mind) that a time might come when something in Torah was shown to be false.
G-d, the Creator of the Universe, the Knower of All; it would not be beyond His Divine power to craft a book so eternal in its truth that, despite changes in the reality of its readers, its writing continues to hold true. It would not be beyond His power to craft words so beautifully that, no matter the epoch, no matter the reality, they are true. Judaism is a living, breathing, religion. Israel is a living, breathing, culture. Does it not stand to reason that Torah must also be a living, breathing, book?
I already view Torah as a living document, that grows with the Jewish people, but I haven’t given much thought to our ability to change what has already been said. I whole-heartedly believe that G-d wrote Torah with knowledge of the future, so that its precepts could be applied to all things past present and future. The question for me is, did G-d also write/dictate Torah in such a way that it could, in fact, be re-interpreted in each age? That is, does Torah contain an eternal truth waiting to be discovered, or does Torah contain an evolving truth that changes with the children of Israel?
This is something that I, personally, cannot possibly know for sure. I am not a Rabbinical authority, nor do I have access to Divine knowledge. Despite this, I can still digest the information presented, and decide what I believe.
After contemplating this question for several days and nights, I have finally arrived at my answer; Torah is an evolving creature. As we Jews complete our tasks, and bring our collective nearer to G-d – or further from G-d, as it might be – the truth of Torah changes to reflect our situation. Torah is still eternal, Divine, truth, but that truth is capable of change.
As the world is perfected, as Tikkun Olam is completed, the world changes. With the changes of the world come changes in the people of Judaism. We are not entities outside the flow of time or reality; that existence is held only by Hashem. We change, and the book of our truths changes, to reflect our new reality. Were this not true, one might conceive (though this would only be a perception of the mind) that a time might come when something in Torah was shown to be false.
G-d, the Creator of the Universe, the Knower of All; it would not be beyond His Divine power to craft a book so eternal in its truth that, despite changes in the reality of its readers, its writing continues to hold true. It would not be beyond His power to craft words so beautifully that, no matter the epoch, no matter the reality, they are true. Judaism is a living, breathing, religion. Israel is a living, breathing, culture. Does it not stand to reason that Torah must also be a living, breathing, book?
