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The moment Solomon lost his faith, he was standing on the D train, swaying back and forth with its movement as if in prayer. But it wasn’t a prayer book that the young law student was reading – he had already been to synagogue, where he had wrapped himself in the leather thongs that bound him to Orthodox Judaism, laying phylacteries and reciting the prayers three times daily."
The tome in his hands now was Alan Dershowitz’s The Genesis of Justice (2000), which used Talmudic and Hasidic interpretations of the Bible to argue that stories in the book of Genesis, from Adam and Eve eating the apple to Noah and his ark, constituted God’s learning curve – a means of establishing a moral code and the rules of justice that prevail today.
What struck him about the book was its depth, and a complexity of thought that he had been raised to believe was the exclusive domain of the rabbis whose authority commanded his community of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The book’s brilliance, coupled with its unabashed heresy, created the first of many cracks in Solomon’s faith. Seeing the scriptures interpreted in methods so compelling and yet entirely inconsistent with the dogmas of his youth caused Solomon to question everything he believed to be true.
7 comments:
In orthodox Jewry the rabbis DO NOT lay down the law. All this young hasid had to do was present these "heretical" ideas to his rabbi and the rabbi would have gladly argued each contested point deep into the night. If, after a thorough examination of disagreements the young hasid still decided to renounce his faith he would not have been expelled, he would have simply been free to go of his own volition. Too bad he sold his own faith short by choosing not to consult with his teacher/rabbi.
The young man is smart enough to figure out that the system of rules that prevails is not the only system of rules that can be justified by the same textual authority.
Good for him.
Judaism, it says somewhere, doesn't require that you believe in God.
This just shows how people are different.
Now ricpic found his belief in God the first time he spied the well rounded tush of that Catholic shiksa in the school jumper. Just sayn'
Hey what do you call of grouping of Hebes that we see in this photo? A gaggle? A coven? A herd?
A Halvah. The correct term is a Halvah of Hebes. Because they're so sweet. ;^)
What drove me nuts as a fifteen year old keg of yeast were the exposed calves, between the tartan skirts and bobby sox, of those school girls. I better stop now...
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