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Thank you, random Presbyterian, for trying to tell me how "every Jew" reads Torah. Should we do this thing? OK. Mini-thread. https://twitter.com/TheRaDR/status/903648810416705539
Here's how Jews read Torah.It's a Mikraot Gedolot (great scriptures, maybe).The big font on the left? That's Lev 18:22. Just that one verse.
Here it is, crudely marked to show who's saying stuff. Different guys across centuries. You can Wikipedia them.
There are other voices also in the Mikraot Gedolot, who just happen not to be on this page. Orech HaChayim, the Tur, Kli Yakar, etc etc.
They're each offering their interpretation of the verse. Different takes--Rashi uses a lot of midrash, Ramban goes Kabbalistic. etc.
It's an amazing conversation across centuries. And often they disagree. One person will say something, & someone else's comment will be +
A direct refutation. "So and so says X, but he's wrong because Y."
They say there are 70 faces to Torah. And you see that when you study a Mikraot Gedolot.
This is of course also the way of Talmud. Valuing a multiplicity of voices.
We Jews sacralize the art of disagreement, of multiple viewpoints. Our HOLY BOOKS are pretty much about ppl sharing different ideas.
"Arguments/disagreements for the sake of Heaven," we call it. (Not every disagreement is, obviously. But that's what we strive for.)
There are 5000 disagreements in the Talmud. Only about 50 are resolved definitively on the page.
Many end in Teiku, which is an acronym for Tishbi (aka Elijah the prophet) will answer challenges and problems." AKA +
"We don't know the right answer to this. When the Messianic age is ushered in, Elijah will tell us who won this one." AKA shrugemoji.gif
When people say, "What does Judaism say about..?" I always laugh. Which Judaism? Which Jew? Which great sage and teacher?
So Random Dude, and everybody else, there is no "every Jew says about" pretty much anything. Way more complicated than that. Come and learn.
And yes I meant “the big font on the right” in one of those first tweets and there’s no edit button and here we are.
