Reader’s Write: Telling only part of the religion story

The Island Now

Theodore Theodorsen places a premium on “tolerance” but evidently this excludes tolerance of religious people. (Organized Religion Often the Enemy of Tolerance, 21 Feb.) Reading his letter one might suppose that, to be religious, one must be a superstitious ignoramus or a descendent of Attila the Hun.

On the contrary, the Bible in general and Judaism in particular, is the foundation of today’s humanistic and just western civilization. 

Why did the Bible begin with the creation of a single couple?  The rabbis replied, “So no one can say, “My ancestors were better than yours.” 

The Bible says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” and in 39 places, “You shall not wrong a stranger” for you were strangers in Egypt. 

The Ten Commandments include those forbidding murder, theft, false witness; even coveting, a sin of thought. I would include the injunction against adultery but perhaps this is another act for which the writer advises tolerance.

Our system of justice is biblically based. “You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show favoritism, and you shall not take a bribe, for bribery blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts justice. Justice, justice shall you pursue….,” “You shall commit no injustice in judgment; you shall not favor a poor person or respect a great man; you shall judge your fellow with righteousness.”

In business matters the Bible demands fairness. “You shall not deal deceitfully or falsely with one another. The hired worker’s wage shall not remain with you overnight  You shall not place a stumbling block before a blind person (trick someone). “

On the holiest day of the year a fast Day of Atonement, the following from Isaiah is publicly read: ““Why, when we fasted did you not see?  …Because on your fast day you see to your business and oppress all your laborers!  Because you fast in strife and contention and strike with a wicked fist!  Your fasting today is not such as to make your voice heard on high.  Is such the fast I choose —?  NO, this is the fast I desire: to unlock the fetters of wickedness, …to let the oppressed go free; …to share your bread with the hungry, and take the wretched poor into your home; when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to ignore your own family.  Then shall your light burst through like dawn, and your healing spring up quickly.”

 The writer makes a big deal of the Tamerin study of diverse reactions to an out-of-context passage from the Book of Joshua concerning killing in wartime. I would like to ask his reaction to the ten million Germans and Japanese killed in World War 2. Does he think the United States “acted morally rightly or wrongly?”

Mr. Theodorsen’s implication is that the war conducted by Joshua was unjust whereas Jews wrongly consider it just. But if he knew the reason for Joshua’s conquest he might understand the issue differently. 

The paradigm for a just war by Israel is given when Abraham challenges God concerning His intent to destroy the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Here is how it goes (Gen. 18):

 Abraham approached [God] and said, “Will You even destroy the righteous with the wicked?  Perhaps there are fifty righteous men in the midst of the city; will You even destroy and not forgive the place for the sake of the fifty righteous men — Far be it from You to do a thing such as this, to put to death the righteous with the wicked…Will the Judge of the entire earth not perform justice?”  And the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous men within the city, I will forgive the entire place for their sake.”

Abraham keeps reducing the number and eliciting the same response till, finally, he pleads:

“Please, let the Lord’s wrath not be kindled, and I will speak yet this time, perhaps ten will be found there.” And [God] said, “I will not destroy for the sake of the ten.”  And …Abraham returned to his place.

The reason God commanded Joshua’s siege of Jericho, located in Canaan, is found in Leviticus Ch. 18.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:  Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: I am the Lord, your God. Like the practice of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelled, you shall not do, and like the practice of the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you, you shall not do, and you shall not follow their practices.

As described in the chapter these practices included incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality and bestiality. The chapter concludes:

You shall not defile yourselves by any of these things, for the nations I am ejecting from before you, have defiled themselves with all these things. …and the land became defiled. Let not the land vomit you out for having defiled it, as it vomited out the nation that preceded you. 

 My advice to the writer is contained in the following quote from Rabbi Irving Greenberg:

 “Universalism must surrender its overweening demands and accept the universalism of pluralism. Only when the world admits that oneness comes out of particular existences, linked through overarching unities, will it escape the inner dynamics of conformity that lead to repression and cruelty. “

Len Mansky

Roslyn

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