This Friday (and, outside of Israel, Saturday) marks the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, or Pentecost, which commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. The tradition is to stay up all night, studying various aspects of Torah.
I recently began studying the "Mishneh Torah" of Maimonides, his attempt to organize Jewish practice and thought in a categorial, rational way. It is an astonishing intellectual achievement and has already inspired me significantly.
One of the first sections is about prophecy. Maimonides spends a lot of time explaining how to recognize a true prophet -- no doubt because Judaism in the Middle Ages found itself under pressure from both Christianity and Islam.
Without, at least in this section, challenging either of those two religions, Maimonides explains the basis for Jews' continued faith in the original Torah, delivered by Moses at Sinai: we were witnesses to it ourselves, with Moses.
"What is the source of our belief in him? The [revelation] at Mount Sinai. Our eyes saw, and not a stranger's. Our ears heard, and not another's. ... Thus, those to whom [Moses] was sent witnessed [his appointment] as a prophet, and it was not necessary to perform another wonder for them. He and they were witnesses, like two witnesses who observed the same event together."
Hence the emphasis, on Shavuot, of reenacting the receiving of the Torah. Through study, we repeat the action of witnessing the revelation -- not just of the Ten Commandments, and of the written law, but also of the Oral Law, which Moses was taught on Sinai and later transmitted to the people.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/904992/jewish/Yesodei-haTorah-Chapter-Eight.htm
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
