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 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.
Oh, Ovadiah, how wise words can we intermixed with nosense? How you make this? Sometimes you amaze me, somethimes you frighten me with your gross errors. Just in this article, let me correct you about some points:
1-"Abraham and later Joshua were instructed to circumcise before entering Canaan – just like the locals did, so that the Jews, while remaining different, share an important trait with others."
WRONG: Circumsition was not used by Caananitish people, just read Philistees mockering at Hebrews because they were circumsiced. This irritated David, thus slain Goliath. Moses did not circumcised they sons, due to the habits in to Jethro tribe, where he spent 50 to 60 years.
If you want to know why G-d orders Abraham to circumsise himself and his tribe, I'll explain to you later.
2-"Sadducees – the Temple elite – observed four or five books of the Torah, not even the entire Bible."
Wrong: The Saducees Do ovserve all the Books. Who ordered the jewish books as we know them now? Ezrah the writer, and later other prophets books were added, up to form the Tanach as we know it now.Saducees were know for extrict adherence to the written books, denaying oral law.They lives were around the temple, so when the temple fell, Saducees too. Several centuries later, Karaites recovered the Saducees name for themselves.
3-"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."
Decide yourself: Citing the talmud or not..
4-"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."
?? What can I say? Where it allows adultery? Can you define adultery as Torah and oriental customs define it?
5-"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."
Let's begin with something: Maybe you understand why G-d order to sacrifice? Need an explanation?
6- All the rest of your article is nice in deed.. Ovadiah, you are one of the mysteries of Creation..
It's obvious from the written Torah that there is an Oral Torah as well, containing at least details that are alluded but not included in the written Torah.
One of the simple, practical and obvious mitzvot in the Torah is to listen and do what the rabbis say.
Many of the 'innovations' that the rabbis made and Ovadiah is upset about them where vital for the survival of the Jewish people in exile, and until the final Redemption, they still are.
TO Benjamin:
Keep listen to the rabbis, we are like this thanks to them..
To Chaim:
Historically the situation of the Jewish people is much better than it has been for a long, long, time. 60 years ago, a living in Jerusalem (and everywhere else in the world) was much more dangerous than living today in the most isolated yishuv.
While there are good reasons to worry about the future of Israel, 50, 100, 200, 400 years ago when we were all dispersed among violent hateful goyim, there were many more.
We have to look in our history to get some sense of perspective.
TO Benjamin:
What is security? Do you read the papers?Sderot? Is security that fellow jews will expell you from Gush Kating instead goyim?
What are you talking about? Perspective? FOr jews, we are today more unsecure than 40 years ago
To Chaim:
I know very well the awful situation we are in today. It's still far better than the last 2000 years. I spoke with old persons living in Jerusalem from before the establishment of the state and they told me about regular pogroms the arabs were making in the Jewish neighborhoods.
I read in old magazines from eastern europe from the beginning of 20th century about random murders of Jews.
Throughout the whole europe, in every Jewish community the goyim would organize pogroms every passover and xmass.
Through the guidance of the rabbis the Jewish people kept from assimilating. Like you said, we are like this thanks to them. Without them we would certainly be much worse (that is, we wouldn't be).
To Chaim: Exodus 12:48: Abraham was circumcised to be "like a native of the land."
Sadducees, it seems, understood and valued Tanakh as saga, not observed it as law.
Adultery: Judah and Tamar, for example.
Regarding the offerings, the point is that ancient Judaism severely limited religious ceremonies. Jews only had to come to the Temple thrice annually. In contrast, rabbis demanded daily prayers (something that the prophets rooted out when they fought hilltop sanctuaries) and at least Shabbat attendance of synagogue (thus 52 times a year plus other holidays, compared to three times a year to the Temple).
TO Danny: I'll soon begin with my own log about rescuing the lost knowledge and uses of hebrews.
this is total distortion of the torah. you need to really study and get your history and your torah straight. this kind of misinformation in the name of oversimplification is harmful
What exactly fact is distorted, please?
Danny, what exactly did Ovadiah mean when he said Jews can have extramarital sex?
Judah and Tamar? The forefathers' concubines? The Torah prohibits Jewish women to engage in prostitution, but there's no parallel prohibition for Jewish men to use the services of prostitutes. There's no obligation to engage in extramarital sex, of course.