Judaism was a sufficiently simple religion that nomadic Jews practiced it in the Sinai desert. Abraham and later Joshua were instructed to circumcise before entering Canaan – just like the locals did, so that the Jews, while remaining different, could share an important trait with the other tribes there. Judaism greatly simplified an ancient world permeated with superstitions and demonic impurities: Jews who followed simple rules and easily cleansed the impurities merely with washing and offerings had no need not to fear demonic influences. Judaism was centralized in the Temple so that the Jews stopped praying and worshipping on every hilltop. The Torah’s miracle is its simplicity: basic, commonsense rules created a morally pure society. Beyond the Temple, Jews needed to observe very few rules.
If the Jews received the Oral Law of the Talmud at the Mount Sinai, then the Temple priests and sectarians alike didn’t know that. The Sadducees – the Temple elite – observed four or five books of the Torah, not even the entire Bible. The Essenes – the Dead Sea sectarians – lived by their own rules widely divergent from the Talmudic law. Were the Essenes insignificant? Jewish historian Josephus describes the Pharisees (modern rabbis) in a single paragraph and devotes twelve paragraphs to the Essenes. Pliny and other pagan authors praised the Essenes beyond measure. It is a matter of my faith that the commandments were given on Sinai; the Pharisees debated and developed the Oral law a millennium later.
It is my belief that Judaism can be summed up in two rules: love God and do not harm your neighbors; the rest is interpretation.
Your neighbor, raeha, is a person united with you by evil, ra. Neighbors are communally dangerous to others, and united by the common fear of others. Fear and hatred determine the xenophobic boundaries of groups. Thinking positively, neighbors are the people likely to do you good – at others’ expense.
The Torah is practical; it doesn’t attempt to change human mentality. It would be wrong to do otherwise. Mentality is a trait just like hands or legs; it is a product of evolution, proved efficient by trial and error. People cannot and need not treat their neighbors and others similarly; we do still go to restaurants while even though some Blacks in Africa are die dying from starvation. A philanthropic society won’t exist for longer than it takes to but exhaust its limited resources helping the others.
The Ten Commandments treat neighbors and others differently. Others should not be robbed or arbitrarily killed – people and animals alike. Neighbors enjoy more safeguards, including through a prohibition of against jealousy. Communal bonds depend on mutual trust, and you cannot trust a person who envies your house, wife, or an ox. Evil actions are prohibited toward everyone; evil thoughts – toward the neighbors only.
Judaic society was ultra-liberal before the West knew the word “liberal.” “Do not harm,” means “live and let live.” But there is more. The Torah opposes spending your life helping others, but formulates a doctrine of disproportionate effect: Jews must act when small actions bring large results. The Torah mandates to helping your enemy when his donkey fell falls under its burden; a half-hour of help could end the old enmity. Another example of small but highly beneficial effort is the ten percent charity.
The Torah envisages a practically pure society. Jews can have extramarital sex, but not to the extent of committing adultery; sort of drinking rather than becoming drunk. Jews do not murder people, pigs, monkeys, horses, or other animals – but because they have to eat meat, are allowed to kill cows, sheep, and goats. God doesn’t need offerings or prayers, but the inherently superstitious people need to get in touch with the divine; Judaism severely limited permissible worship to only the Temple.
The Torah’s rites center on the sanctity of life. Everything related to loss of life, exemplified in semen and blood, is ritually impure. Quite everything else is pure and enjoyable. Ritual purifications are not burdensome. Generally consisting of washing, cleansing from ritual impurities is very simple; it merely attracts the person’s attention to the value of life.
Nothing in the Torah is outdated. Modern societies ban slavery, though very recently. The ban, however, doesn’t contradict the Jewish law. The Torah doesn’t mandate the Jews to have slaves, but limits the ownership rights over slaves. The absence of slaves doesn’t violate the Torah but clearly vindicates the purpose of biblical restrictions on slavery.
A very different Judaism took hold since the advent of Pharisaic teaching. As one reformer has said, they held the keys to the heaven, not entering themselves and keeping the others from entering. Superstitious rites of kosher cooking succeeded the commonsense prohibition of murdering animals. Synagogues in every city violated the fundamental prohibition of out-of-the-Temple worship. Sputtered obligatory prayers – long, for minute occasions, mumbled unthinkingly – profaned the God’s name and transgressed a major commandment of not referring to God in vain. Judaism was meant as freedom from superstitions; Pharisaic rabbis introduced more superstitious prohibitions than any pagans.
Who could find fault with the commandments? They are as sensible today as three thousand years ago. In practical terms, the commandments create a perfectly balanced liberal society whose members respect each other and tolerate enemies, value life and rush to help when needed, and don’t trespass the boundaries of morality. A legal system so perfectly thought-out is not a product of nomads or cavemen.
Who could find it difficult to observe the commandments? Do not imagine that gods live on Mount Olympus. Do not rob or murder. Limit the killing and eating of animals. Adhere to sensible sexual morality. Do not perform exhausting work on Shabbat.
It’s time to return to the fundamentals. To rescue the divinely given, infallible, beautiful, and simple commandments from the heap of man-made rules.