Torah Study Notes 8-26-17

August 26, 2017

Rabbi Paul Golomb

Discussion of Zionism and the maintenance of Israel as a Jewish state.

In Israel, one cannot marry without the cloak of a religious organization. There is no civil marriage. The only form presently recognized is orthodox Judaism. It is unlikely that this will change without violence. It is the only country in the world that has existed without stable and recognized borders – with the possible exception of Kashmir.

Page 1294

16:18 the appointment and standard of conduct for magistrates. What is justice in this context? The standard is no partiality and no bribes. Society must be organized on an impersonal basis. Rhode Island is a good example of a small polity where everyone knows everyone else. Result: frequent corruption. It is recognized that there is a tendency to corruption but how is it to be contained? Jacques Derrida http://www.iep.utm.edu/derrida/

pointed out that most gifts are given in expectation of something in return. Marvin Fox http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/25/us/rabbi-marvin-fox-professor-73-led-school-at-brandeis.html?mcubz=0 – writing about Jewish organizations and fund giving pointed out the importance of peer pressure. The scales of justice balance punishment and mercy in the context of criminal law. Where was justice in Les Miserables? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables

Jean Val Jean and Jabert clearly had different notions of justice. One of the over-arching themes of Deuteronomy is that the people are entering a land that they have no right to other than that G has given it to them. They are displacing another people. Where is the justice? This is saying that there is no natural right to the land without the establishment of a just society. The forensic evidence suggests that the people of Israel actually organized indigenously within Israel itself. The flight out of Egypt is a construct. A group coalesced into a political unit about 1000 BCE around the time of David. Until the Assyrian invasion there were primarily border conflicts with the Edomites, Moabites etc. Deuteronomy is a retelling of “back history.” For example we know virtually nothing about the history of Vassar Temple? We know the names of the founders from the articles of incorporation but not where the Torah scrolls come from. What did the composers of this scripture know about what occurred before the year 1000? Probably very little so they constructed a back story. See Noah Harari and Sapiens as well as Homo Deus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuval_Noah_Harari

This is mixture of retrospective constructs and some traditional “facts.” The notion of the displacement of an indigenous people is a particularly odd construct – but it is what led them to be forced out that is the theme here of Deuteronomy – idolatry. In Leviticus the land is even more important in terms of establishing the identity of the people. The term “Zion” meaning “…a marked place.” does not appear in Deuteronomy. It is a weaker term than a “promised land.” See David Aaron in Cincinnati http://huc.edu/directory/david-h-aaron

who is very skeptical of anything that is pre-exilic. But we have actual evidence of a Davidic monarchy that cannot be ignored. The Redactor was active about the year 500 – after the exile to Babylonia. There is a built-in dialectic in Torah about what makes the people a people – is it the land or is it inherent in the people. It is unresolved. PG: the various forms of Judaism are not “denominated” as they are in Christianity – they are movements. Some are organized and some are not – like JewBu’s. But they are not denominations. They are informal aggregations. We identify by association with the Jewish Federation. Jews for Jesus is not included. BN is shameless when it comes to staying in power – using demagoguery. We may see some riots and violence when the time comes to change administrations in Israel.