Honestly sometimes what strikes me as the biggest difference between Jewish and Christian approaches to texts we each consider sacred is just how deadly *serious* the Christian relationship to it seems to be

Like, I've read a lot of Christian commentary on the Torah, and a lot of it is poignant, insightful, profound--even if I disagree with it.

But I've yet to come across commentary (at least non-modern commentary, and even *then*) that's *playful.*

Like, when Christian commentaries look for patterns in the text it seems to be because they want it to have some greater meaning and not because, I dunno, it's fun? Storytelling can have a serious meaning and also engage in aesthetics for their own sake?

Beauty is good?

And, I dunno, it's just constantly jarring to me how so much Christian commentary approaches the text in this incredibly goal-focused way, to extract the *moral* from everything.

At its worst, it feels like it's strip-mining it.

And I just want to be like, "it's okay to spend some time here and just... chill. Sit down and just *be* here, in this place, with these people, before demanding that they give you What They Can Teach You."

(I mean, this is basically the same discomfort I have with how I hear parables discussed--that the moral of the story seems to be out there BEFORE the story itself.) https://twitter.com/Delafina777/status/1199560321528033281

And I dunno, it's just there's reams and reams of commentary out there about what it all *means* and a lot less just about what it *says.*