From the Rabbi’s Desk

 From the Rabbi’s Desk April 2024

Rabbi Carla Freedman

In various classes I have taught here over the last nearly eleven years, we have talked about the question of the historicity of the Bible. The matter
comes down to whether we take the Bible to be literally true.

Jewish tradition holds that every word of Torah is divinely revealed; it is “true” both in the factual sense and in the spiritual sense. For more than 200
years now, some people…Jews included…have been open to the idea that, Jewish tradition notwithstanding, the Torah is a human product, composed of materials from several sources, skillfully woven together by a later editor. Full disclosure: I am one of those Jews who accept this idea.

And I have said that the people who wrote the Hebrew Bible, including the
Torah, had no idea they were composing “the Bible”…a text taken by some to be the exact and inerrant word of God.

This matter comes to the fore every year as we prepare to observe Pesakh,
the entire source for which is, of course, the Hebrew Bible. Was there an actual man named Moses? Did the Egyptians enslave and oppress the Israelites? Did God rescue them, inflicting 10 plagues upon the Egyptians? Did God split the Sea of Reeds, allowing the Israelites to escape their enemies and proceed to Mt. Sinai?

The problem then becomes, how do we celebrate Pesakh, if we take the position that the Biblical narrative is not historically founded. And for us as
Jews, the problem is actually much larger than that. The story of the exodus from Egypt is referenced in our daily liturgy (Mi Khamokha is an excerpt fro the triumphal Song at the Sea, celebrating the exodus and the defeat of
the pursuing Egyptians), in our Shabbat evening kiddush (“zekher l’yitziat
mitzrayim”…a remembrance of the exodus from Egypt), and many other
liturgical moments.

For non-Jews, the problem matters because many liberation movements
have taken the Biblical story of the exodus from Egypt as their own paradigm. They see in the exodus story the basis of hope for a happy resolution of their own situation, and they see in their own leader a new Moses.

I have personally made peace with the disparity between what I believe and
what I celebrate at Pesakh. I appreciate the artistry of the Biblical account, and the inspiration it provided for our people over the millennia of exile, persecution and oppression which have been our people’s lot. How many generations of Jews have thought: if God could redeem our ancestors from slavery, then God could rescue us (from the Inquisition, from the ghetto, from the Nazis)? In those situations, hope was all our people had, and it enabled them to endure extraordinary suffering.

So I come to the seder table happy to celebrate this story of rescue from dire
straits, this story of God’s intervention in human affairs, this story of Jewish
survival, even if the events themselves did not happen as the Torah tells it.
What matters is how we use this story to develop our values and to form our
basic attitude to life, which, the exodus story tells us, should be one of hope and joy.

Happy Pesakh!!

 

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