The Velveteen Rabbi has a detailed summary and review of a talk by Dr. Joel Hoffman on The Perils of Bible Translation. Some of the examples are funny and thought-provoking. It's worth reading.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
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We believe in the importance of Judaism. We believe in its wisdom, its spirituality, its meaning, its beauty. And in its power to make people better and make better people.
But we also see something of a crisis in contemporary Jewish religious thought and practice.
On the one hand, notwithstanding the fact that many traditional Jewish teachings are spectacular in their clarity and insight, the Orthodox worldview requires accepting some claims that we believe are false, outmoded, or even in rare cases immoral.
On the other hand, liberal Judaism far too often reduces this great and complex moral and spiritual legacy to simplistic ethical rules, trivialized rituals, and childish stories. An impoverished religious core is often surrounded by religiously peripheral - albeit important - issues like cultural Judaism, support for Israel, the Holocaust, anti-semitism, and social action.
Saddest of all, many Jews have opted out completely, finding Judaism itself unnecessary, unpleasant, and pointless.
This blog is our attempt to develop and defend a meaningful middle ground. In doing so, we need to defend against the Orthodox claim that this type of Judaism is inauthentic and the more liberal and secular claim that this type of Judaism is unnecessary.
All of that said, our Judaism is rooted primarily in what we affirm, not what we reject. Feel free to join the conversation and leave a comment as we develop and explore our ideas about Judaism.
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We believe in the importance of Judaism. We believe in its wisdom, its spirituality, its meaning, its beauty. And in its power to make people better and make better people.
But we also see something of a crisis in contemporary Jewish religious thought and practice.
On the one hand, notwithstanding the fact that many traditional Jewish teachings are spectacular in their clarity and insight, the Orthodox worldview requires accepting some claims that we believe are false, outmoded, or even in rare cases immoral.
On the other hand, liberal Judaism far too often reduces this great and complex moral and spiritual legacy to simplistic ethical rules, trivialized rituals, and childish stories. An impoverished religious core is often surrounded by religiously peripheral - albeit important - issues like cultural Judaism, support for Israel, the Holocaust, anti-semitism, and social action.
Saddest of all, many Jews have opted out completely, finding Judaism itself unnecessary, unpleasant, and pointless.
This blog is our attempt to develop and defend a meaningful middle ground. In doing so, we need to defend against the Orthodox claim that this type of Judaism is inauthentic and the more liberal and secular claim that this type of Judaism is unnecessary.
All of that said, our Judaism is rooted primarily in what we affirm, not what we reject. Feel free to join the conversation and leave a comment as we develop and explore our ideas about Judaism.
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