Oh, this is so good: "Law . . . is living argument. Treating it as a frozen manifesto betrays its lifeblood. Even the biblical text records revisions, contradictions, and expansions, showing that revelation invites response, not passive recitation."
It's all a wonderful reflection on the Ten Commandments in the context of Israel's history as well as of our current fetish over it as a rock of absolutism in a sea of relativism. As your post suggests, community in the form of sacred text, tradition, and interpretation is the answer to both absolutism and relativism as well as to the nihilism that follows them both.
Yes on both counts! i’m glad you rediscovered that box of Midrash. Jewish commentary seems more grounded, *more* true, the way true north, determined by the earth‘s axis, seems a better guide than our fluctuating magnetic poles.
Oh, this is so good: "Law . . . is living argument. Treating it as a frozen manifesto betrays its lifeblood. Even the biblical text records revisions, contradictions, and expansions, showing that revelation invites response, not passive recitation."
It's all a wonderful reflection on the Ten Commandments in the context of Israel's history as well as of our current fetish over it as a rock of absolutism in a sea of relativism. As your post suggests, community in the form of sacred text, tradition, and interpretation is the answer to both absolutism and relativism as well as to the nihilism that follows them both.
I'm very glad what I wrote is. . . true! Jewish commentary is so much more helpful than most church-filtered interpretation.
Yes on both counts! i’m glad you rediscovered that box of Midrash. Jewish commentary seems more grounded, *more* true, the way true north, determined by the earth‘s axis, seems a better guide than our fluctuating magnetic poles.