The Woman Who Laughed at God: The Untold History of the Jewish People
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bookshelves: criticism, biblical, epistemology-language, jewish, philosophy-theology Words Are Not Divine
Judaism is not a faith. That it is often referred to as such even by Jews is simply a testament to the power of Christianity in its historical attempt to redefine religion as adherence to some form of doctrinal statement. Although Judaism is a ‘religion of the book,’ it has never, unlike Christianity, become a religion in which the meaning of the words of that book have become fixed by authority.
The woman of Kirsch’s title is Sarah, the wife of Abraham, the first person to accept the cult of YHWH. All Jews are descended from this Sarah, who is told by God in person that she will conceive a child at the age of 90. Then, as Kirsch says, “Sarah is so unafraid of the Almighty that she laughs at his words and then lies to his face,” claiming that she did no such thing.
This little story is not just another biblical anecdote; it is an account of the precise moment at which what would become Judaism was established. It is a description of a new relationship created between the human and the divine (look no further for the inspiration of the story of the Annunciation in the Christian Bible).
And yet at the core of this story is a message about the unreliability of words. Sarah dismisses the words she hears as ‘just talk’ and uses more words to hide her embarrassment when she is caught out. Even the Almighty let’s her fib slide as something merely verbal and therefore incidental. In this case, the word is not ‘made flesh’; it is entirely ignored - by both parties.
The story of Sarah is, in the best Jewish tradition, self-referential. The Torah, God’s word, is sacred. Yet the words of the Torah are not God. They were written, edited, consolidated, and re-written many times before they became ‘official.’ And then they were interpreted in many more ways, often contradictory, in the Talmud. A virtual endless stream of commentaries, Midrashim, have followed ever since. The words are there to inspire a response. Sometimes this response is laughter; sometimes it is a falsehood or self-delusion.
Not that some in the history of Judaism haven’t attempted to fix the interpretation of these words. But they haven’t succeeded in making Judaism doctrinal, just possibly because of the inspiration provided by Sarah. Kirsch claims that “diversity rather than orthodoxy is the real core value of Judaism.” For him“the diversity that has always characterized Judaism begins in the Torah itself.” Many Jews might argue even about that. Exactly. Words are what keeps us together, Jewish or not. But they are not divine.
Judaism is not a faith. That it is often referred to as such even by Jews is simply a testament to the power of Christianity in its historical attempt to redefine religion as adherence to some form of doctrinal statement. Although Judaism is a ‘religion of the book,’ it has never, unlike Christianity, become a religion in which the meaning of the words of that book have become fixed by authority.
The woman of Kirsch’s title is Sarah, the wife of Abraham, the first person to accept the cult of YHWH. All Jews are descended from this Sarah, who is told by God in person that she will conceive a child at the age of 90. Then, as Kirsch says, “Sarah is so unafraid of the Almighty that she laughs at his words and then lies to his face,” claiming that she did no such thing.
This little story is not just another biblical anecdote; it is an account of the precise moment at which what would become Judaism was established. It is a description of a new relationship created between the human and the divine (look no further for the inspiration of the story of the Annunciation in the Christian Bible).
And yet at the core of this story is a message about the unreliability of words. Sarah dismisses the words she hears as ‘just talk’ and uses more words to hide her embarrassment when she is caught out. Even the Almighty let’s her fib slide as something merely verbal and therefore incidental. In this case, the word is not ‘made flesh’; it is entirely ignored - by both parties.
The story of Sarah is, in the best Jewish tradition, self-referential. The Torah, God’s word, is sacred. Yet the words of the Torah are not God. They were written, edited, consolidated, and re-written many times before they became ‘official.’ And then they were interpreted in many more ways, often contradictory, in the Talmud. A virtual endless stream of commentaries, Midrashim, have followed ever since. The words are there to inspire a response. Sometimes this response is laughter; sometimes it is a falsehood or self-delusion.
Not that some in the history of Judaism haven’t attempted to fix the interpretation of these words. But they haven’t succeeded in making Judaism doctrinal, just possibly because of the inspiration provided by Sarah. Kirsch claims that “diversity rather than orthodoxy is the real core value of Judaism.” For him“the diversity that has always characterized Judaism begins in the Torah itself.” Many Jews might argue even about that. Exactly. Words are what keeps us together, Jewish or not. But they are not divine.
posted by The Mind of BlackOxford @ September 27, 2020
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