CMike
Zionist, proud to be
- Oct 25, 2009
- 9,219
- 1,172
- 190
The Talmud is a terrible document that has not served anyone very well, Jew and none Jew, do not take my word for it look into the teachings. The Talmud is a much later writing than the Torah and not universally accepted in Judaism. The Ethiopian Jews have not accepted the Talmud and regard the Torah as the most Holy work. Hopefully the Ethiopians will never embrace the Talmud. Judaism weighs in on Catholicism so the Talmudic teachings should be not be considered of limits, on the contrary, one can learn much from this viewpoint.
The oral law (talmud & misnah) is a very important component of judaism.
The oral law is there to serve non jews. It's there to serve jews. Without the oral law the written law wouldn't be able to be executed.
These critics of the Talmud are people who are utterly ignorant about what the Talmud is, it's importance, and what it says.
It's kind of like me saying the NT is a terrible document, which hasn't served anyone well, chrisitan or non-christian.
It's your religion you can decide which document is important to you in your religion. As a jew I have no credible right to tell you what is important in your religion.
During the life of Moses, Hebrew was not a written language. Therefore the two stone tablets could not have been written in Hebrew. Most like Egyptian Hieroglyphics would have been used. An oral tradition makes sense but also serves as a reason for suspicion especially with generations of tension from both sides. I have seen writings attributed to the Talmud that I find hard to believe that anyone would embrace. I find a writer Michael Hoffman interesting but I still have to doubt some of what he has written on the Talmud because it seems to terrible to believe. Some responses to his book reviews are supposedly by Jewish people that claim he is correct.
Ryan I give you credit, you are one of the few posters here I can have an intelligent discussion with.
Judaism 101: Moses, Aaron and Miriam
G-d revealed the entire Torah to Moses. The entire Torah includes the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) that Moses himself wrote as G-d instructed him. It also includes all of the remaining prophecies and history that would later be written down in the remaining books of scripture, and the entire Oral Torah, the oral tradition for interpreting the Torah, that would later be written down in the Talmud. Moses spent the rest of his life writing the first five books, essentially taking dictation from G-d.
After Moses received instruction from G-d about the Law and how to interpret it, he came back down to the people and started hearing cases and judging them for the people, but this quickly became too much for one man. Upon the advice of his father-in-law, Yitro, Moses instituted a judicial system (Ex. 18:13-26).
Moses was not perfect. Like any man, he had his flaws and his moments of weakness, and the Bible faithfully records these shortcomings. In fact, Moses was not permitted to enter the Promised Land because of a transgression (Deut. 32:48-52). Moses was told to speak to a rock to get water from it, but instead he struck the rock repeatedly with a rod, showing improper anger and a lack of faith (Num. 20:7-13).
Moses died in the year 2488, just before the people crossed over into the Promised Land (Deut. 32:51). He completed writing the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) before he died. There is some dispute as to who physically wrote the last few verses of Deuteronomy: according to some, Moses wrote these last few verses from a vision of the future, but according to others, the last few verses were added by Joshua after Moses' death. In any case, these verses, like everything else in the Torah, were written by G-d, and the actual identity of the transcriber is not important.
Moses' position as leader of Israel was not hereditary. His son, Gershom, did not inherit the leadership of Israel. Moses' chosen successor was Joshua, son of Nun (Deut. 34:9).
Moses was 120 years old at the time that he died (Deut. 34:7). That lifespan is considered to be ideal, and has become proverbial: one way to wish a person well in Jewish tradition is to say, "May you live to be 120!"
As important as Moses was to the Children of Israel, it is always important to remember that Moses himself was not the deliverer or redeemer of Israel. It was G-d who redeemed Israel, not Moses. Moses was merely G-d's prophet, His spokesman. The traditional text of the Pesach haggadah does not even mention Moses' name. In order to prevent people from idolatrously worshipping Moses, his grave was left unmarked (Deut. 34:6).