revelation

My teacher and my rabbi, Neil Gillman, preferred to start any God-talk with the question of revelation - how did we get our Scriptures? To his thinking, all other pieces of theology flowed out of each person's understanding of Divine revelation. This is where I disagree with him. Although I agree that most parts of theology can be unraveled from your beliefs about revelation, I think that there is something else to consider first: theodicy. The problem of God and evil is too thorny not to make a stab at solving it ("Theodicy", July 13, '08, and "Evil", January 18, '08). I admit, no system of theodicy works completely; still, I think that it is important enough to begin there.

That said, I don't want a world that God is actively changing. Miracles and other interruptions of physics create more problems than they solve. If God can intervene in human life to reveal the Qur’an, to bear a son, and to cause hemorrhoids, then why doesn't God interfere in Darfur, childhood Leukemia or the global financial crisis? I'd rather have a God who doesn't act in our lives than One who does so without a moral yard-stick, randomly, or even cruelly.

When I think about a higher purpose, I can only say that it is subtle. When asked for miracles, Muhammad pointed to the sunset and listened to the birds’ song. I do not imagine a presence that moves mountains, sets the course of rivers, and orders human fate. I prefer a presence that began the comings and goings of the universe, but doesn't micromanage daily life. The divine presence does not mold or shape us like clay, but is always there to share our joy and pain.

In that case, my view of Scripture is not of revelation, but aspiration. Human beings, throughout generations and ages, felt the small still touch of God in their lives, in the same way that we still do in some rare, humbling moments. They tried to describe the experience of God first in oral forms, which were later organized and written. Through law, saga, poetry, story cycles, debates, aphorisms, and precedents, Jews (until recently, almost all men) try to put words to the unnameable.

Sometimes, their words became accepted as community standards and the core of religious identity. At other times, earlier community rituals were written down, edited and made into a system. Whether it started in writing or in action, the result was a sacred tradition of Scripture, the living and growing testimony of a community’s striving toward and with the Divine.

So, it is completely human and totally holy at the same time. Because it is the product of men in their historical setting, the tradition can be judged - even changed occasionally. Because the men hopefully aspired to something much more important than stroking their own egos, it deserves our reverence. Jewish tradition is the legacy of Jews striving beyond themselves, aspiring to know God, and Jews should pledge allegiance to that legacy. Otherwise, we spurn our own birthright.