![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
May. 29th, 2009
Shavuot eve
May. 29th, 2009 11:04 amI am still tired. I tried to sleep but instead I want to write.
Last night was exhilarating. You have to understand that I was nervously perched on my chair in an orthodox shul. I sat next to friends who welcomed me, but I was again walking into a situation where I was sure that some people were turning around and thinking what? who? I didn’t know the minhag. I know that the Rabbi is welcoming, but the people? Nevertheless, I wanted to attend a real all night shavuot session. This one was well advertised in the Jewish News. I was determined to hold my tongue if necessary.
There was once when I was tempted to speak (other than ask questions). The subject was “Who Wrote the Bible?” A person raised their hands and prefaced his remarks with the comment that Reform Judaism does not regard the Bible as written by God or even inspired by God. And I sat there biting my tongue; Reform Judaism is not that monolithic. The Rabbi speaker did gently correct him. Without using the usual Reform phrase, “a vote, but not a veto”, he said that Reform does put Torah squarely in the center. Thanks! The question in some peoples’ minds was how to resolve these differences in viewpoint.
I wanted to explain my (Reform) viewpoint by jumping to a different metaphor altogether.
Fresh Air did a story on a scientist who had a stoke who could describe what happened to her in detail. Suddenly, she became aware how both halves of her brain operated. There was the right brain that lived in the eternal now and there was the left brain who told the narrative, who lived by the clock. The stroke took the left brain out of the equation briefly. She was like the driver who looks up and sees a rainbow --right brain-- oh how lovely! Blessed be... Then the left brain has to slam on the brakes before she hits the car in front of her.
How does that correlate? I don’t have a problem with the Documentary Hypothesis. I am perfectly happy with J, E, P, R. Being in Kalamu’s workshop has made me more comfortable with tearing a piece of literature apart. That’s left brain. But my right brain is still there and I can still enjoy the finished product. At times, a poem is so perfect that I can’t do a reasonable job of tearing it apart. Knowing that the Torah is an amalgam of voices doesn’t destroy the finished product for me. Every human being is an amalgam of voices. And isn’t it marvelous that that same human being can (a) study humanity in a microscopic way and (b) enjoy the macroscopic result! I can say that the redactor (R) did a good job, or I can say that God guided his hand--just as the scribe helped me write a letter in the WRJ Torah. For that matter, I can say that the redactor did an occasionally sloppy job.
The 23rd Psalm is still pretty good. (smile) My writing workshop would claim that the writer has changed metaphors mid-stream: “what? you started with a shepherd and suddenly we are talking about a set table?”
Last night was exhilarating. You have to understand that I was nervously perched on my chair in an orthodox shul. I sat next to friends who welcomed me, but I was again walking into a situation where I was sure that some people were turning around and thinking what? who? I didn’t know the minhag. I know that the Rabbi is welcoming, but the people? Nevertheless, I wanted to attend a real all night shavuot session. This one was well advertised in the Jewish News. I was determined to hold my tongue if necessary.
There was once when I was tempted to speak (other than ask questions). The subject was “Who Wrote the Bible?” A person raised their hands and prefaced his remarks with the comment that Reform Judaism does not regard the Bible as written by God or even inspired by God. And I sat there biting my tongue; Reform Judaism is not that monolithic. The Rabbi speaker did gently correct him. Without using the usual Reform phrase, “a vote, but not a veto”, he said that Reform does put Torah squarely in the center. Thanks! The question in some peoples’ minds was how to resolve these differences in viewpoint.
I wanted to explain my (Reform) viewpoint by jumping to a different metaphor altogether.
Fresh Air did a story on a scientist who had a stoke who could describe what happened to her in detail. Suddenly, she became aware how both halves of her brain operated. There was the right brain that lived in the eternal now and there was the left brain who told the narrative, who lived by the clock. The stroke took the left brain out of the equation briefly. She was like the driver who looks up and sees a rainbow --right brain-- oh how lovely! Blessed be... Then the left brain has to slam on the brakes before she hits the car in front of her.
How does that correlate? I don’t have a problem with the Documentary Hypothesis. I am perfectly happy with J, E, P, R. Being in Kalamu’s workshop has made me more comfortable with tearing a piece of literature apart. That’s left brain. But my right brain is still there and I can still enjoy the finished product. At times, a poem is so perfect that I can’t do a reasonable job of tearing it apart. Knowing that the Torah is an amalgam of voices doesn’t destroy the finished product for me. Every human being is an amalgam of voices. And isn’t it marvelous that that same human being can (a) study humanity in a microscopic way and (b) enjoy the macroscopic result! I can say that the redactor (R) did a good job, or I can say that God guided his hand--just as the scribe helped me write a letter in the WRJ Torah. For that matter, I can say that the redactor did an occasionally sloppy job.
The 23rd Psalm is still pretty good. (smile) My writing workshop would claim that the writer has changed metaphors mid-stream: “what? you started with a shepherd and suddenly we are talking about a set table?”
