Justifying the Just -- An Introduction

I have rediscovered of late (I say "rediscovered" because it is no new discovery) that there is a trend out there among certain people, even among the supposedly Torah-observant, to lay calumny upon our great forebearers based upon certain superficial observations of Biblical text. It cannot be stressed enough what a devastating error this is, although a very tempting and in fact instinctive one to make based on the predispositions with which we usually approach the text. These predispositions are based in turn on our experiences and personalities which have taken form under the influence of a society that is completely divorced in its nature from the world in which these texts were composed and in which lived those great men whose craft was their study and to whom were entrusted their transmission together with their genuine meaning. For this reason I feel it is more than a necessity to address this topic and attempt to enlighten both myself and others who may have fallen under this erroneous spell.

The first issue that must be introduced is that of text-study. One must always consider when one approaches any text, especially an ancient one, the context in which it was written, the intent for which it was written, and the readership for which it was written. One cannot approach an ancient text with the same eyes with which one approaches a contemporary journal article, novel, or newspaper item. Contemporary items are written by contemporary authors in a contemporary world for a contemporary readership. Therefore behind the writer's words are all the same assumed axioms of human living and understanding with which the reader approaches those words. Many more things are not written than are written that are relevant to the understanding of the work, but they are all presupposed and understood by the reader and therefore the writer need not write them.

The same is true for the writer of an ancient text at the time of the writing regarding his contemporaries. So much is left unsaid that a reader from another time or place reading the same words will be missing so much of the writer's underlying meaning. In order for those who understand the text to transmit the meaning thereof accurately to another generation, such transmission requires much unwritten explanation that must be maintained by the next generation for accurate transmission to the generation thereafter. For that latter generation to ignore the commentary of the preceding one in favor of interpreting the same words with their more modern connotations is dishonest and unfaithful to the original intent and such interpretation can only be unreliable. How much more so when dealing with a text that is thousands of years old! The only hope of reading such a text properly is through reliance on an accurate commentary that reaches back to the time and circumstances of the original author.

For example, if we go back just two centuries to the writing of the Declaration of Independence, we find the statement that "all men are created equal." How do we understand this statement versus the way its writers intended? The contemporary mindset is that this statement applies to all human beings of all races and genders. However, it is certain that in the mind of the writers the intent was toward males of the white race. Witness to this is the fact that Bill of Rights, composed be the very same men, allows for the treatment of blacks as property and severely limits the rights of women compared to men. We cannot impose upon the authors of this document current standards of equality -- it is dishonest, incorrect and makes for lousy scholarship.

Therefore, when our tradition regards certain Biblical figures as great men, even though elements of the text may imply otherwise to our contemporary ears, we must never put this so-called "literal" reading of the text before an established tradition. Rather, we must approach the text in the context of these traditions.

Judaism has a deep and rich tradition that has been transmitted to us through our sages from one generation to the next. These traditions cannot be ignored simply because the text seems to imply otherwise! Quite the contrary! We must reinterpret the text based on these traditions! Indeed, it may be said that our traditional teachings are the core of Judaism and the text merely a framework (albeit an indispensible one) upon which to lay these traditions in their proper place.

Put differently, the Jewish People has been studying the Torah since time immemorial. There was never a time in which these teachings were "new." Even the writing of the texts was generally the recording of known information. But at the very least it can certainly be said that since the recording of these texts there has never been a cessation of their study among our people. They were always learned and taught from master to disciple from generation to generation, ours no exception to that tradition. We are not greater scholars than our ancestors. We are not more familiar with these texts than they were. In a time when the Jewish people is more removed from its traditions than ever, we cannot be so conceited as to believe that we are more connected to the accurate meaning of these texts or are privy to the full gamut of insights into them than those who came before us. To attempt to "rediscover" the correct meaning of the text without deference to the understanding of our ancestors, to think we know better than they did, to think they were in error while we are not, is lunacy.

It is illegitemate to argue that we are more sophisticated than prior generations, for if we believe that the Torah is a divinely communicated document, and its contents the wisdom of a Divine Creator and Master of all things, its study must certainly enlighten those who study it, and again, our study thereof is not a more serious undertaking than the study thereof of prior generations, and the sincerity and gravity of that undertaking increases the further back in time one goes, as does the limitation of influence from without. With more serious study of the Torah comes forth sophistication, comes forth illumination, therefore our forebearers were certainly more sophisticated in all ways significant, especially Torah-study, and especially considering the degree to which our generation is bombarded with all sorts of influence foreign to our Torah and its wisdom.

A text is a very flexible thing. Different people will read it differently and draw different conclusions therefrom. The most reliable method of determining the meaning of a text is through a tradition of what that text meant to its author. No other method should be adopted in examining the Torah or any Biblical writings than the aforementioned approach.

This is what distinguishes Jewish scholarship from those of any other religion or belief system that relies on the Bible as its central text. While each one of these systems adopts its own unique and novel approach to the text, our tradition rejects those approaches in favor of its own. Only the people who have carried these books from the time they came into being can be trusted in their interpretation thereof against the countless counterfeits that have reared their head in the course of history and continue to do so in our own times.

I intend, with G-d's help, to use this forum to demonstrate some of the stark differences that arise through this approach to Torah-study in contradistinction to those of the falsifiers. Our tools are the text coupled with the timeless and indispensible traditions of our fathers before us. May the light of the Torah, written and oral, continue to enlighten us as it has done for our people since time immemorial.

Stay tuned for more.