Originally posted by epiphinehas
[b]In Judaism, failure to be a perfect tzaddik (just or righteous person) does not mean that one is a “perfect” rasha (wicked person). Most people are beinoni—somewhere in the middle, generally. And a person can “justly” be called a tzaddik, even if they sometimes fail to “meet the mark”. (There is also nothing like the Christian doctrine(s) of “original I wrote makes sense. I don't have the time right now to proof read it. G'nite.)
[/b]
Were there a standard set by God which man could not meet, it would be natural for man to seek to excuse himself in one way or another, or, if not that, imagine God's requirement more lax than it really is, e.g., "I may sin from time to time, but I believe I will be acceptable to God in the end since I do more good than ill."
Well, that’s pretty harsh: anyone who offers a more rounded and balanced view of “moral psychology” is just seeking excuses… Ironically, that is pretty close to the same charge that folks like Rajk and ThinkOfOne level at
sola fide/sola gratia Christians such as yourself.
…without exception…
Well, this is where I think you are just historically in error, and that is the only point of my objection here: that “without exsception” .
For some reason my primary source here (a book on Judaism in the NT period by Jacob Neusner in collaboration with a Christian theologian; the one in which Neusner uses the term “Judaism
s) seems to have gone on walkabout from my shelves. I have looked at some other sources, and offer the following—
E.P. Sanders—who disagrees with Neusner, and thinks he can discern what he calls a “common Judaism” in the period, nevertheless opens his book with this: “Judaism in the period of our study was dynamic and
diverse.” [
Judaism: Practice and belief 63 BCE – 66 CE (my italics).]
Lawrence H. Schiffman leans closer to Sanders than to Neusner, but his “common Judaism” is characterized by a great deal of diversity. Nevertheless, he makes these points:
“The question of the discontinuance of animal sacrifice is more complex. In the years leading up to the revolt and the destruction, animal sacrifice was certainly regarded as the highest form of worship.
Yet it was not the only form. Evidence of various kinds, including that of the Dead Sea Scrolls, demonstrates that
the role of prayer was constantly increasing in Second Temple times.”
[The Essenes, for example, did not take part in the Temple sacrifices. Nor could the Jews of the diaspora (outside Judea/Galilee), who numbered three to four times the population of Judea/Galilee.]
And: “Clearly, however, the concomitant development of the synagogue as an institution, along with the gradual ascendancy of prayer over sacrifice as a means of worship, prepared Judaism for the new situation brought about by the destruction of the Temple. By the time the Temple was taken away, its replacement had already been created.”
—Lawrence H. Schiffman,
From Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism
Schiffman notes that some scholars think that the history of the synagogue began during the Babylonian Exile (after the destruction of the first temple in 586 BCE). He disagrees, but says that it certainly began during the Hellenistic Age, which began in the 330s and ran up to the first century BCE. In any event, the synagogue and the shift from sacrifice to prayer had begun before the first century CE.
Regardless of the development of the synagogue, David S. Ariel notes: “Following the destruction of Solomon’s Temple in 586 B.C.E. and the exile of many Jews to Babylonia, nearly seventy years passed before the Israelites were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.
Many Jews who chose not to return developed ritual alternatives to to the sacrifices. Within the Babylonian Diaspora, the practice of studying the Torah text itself emerged
as the main alternative to sacrifice.” [David S. Ariel
What Do Jews Believe? (my italics).]
The beginning of this shift may also be hinted at in the prophets Jeremiah, Micah and Hosea—
“Thus says YHVH Tzevaot, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your other offerings and eat the meat! For when I freed your fathers from the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifice. But this is what I commanded them: Do my bidding, that I may be your God and you may be my people; walk only in the way that I enjoin upon you, that it may go well with you.” (Jeremiah 7:21-23; from the JPS translation.)
—Now, I have heard the objection that God did not command the sacrifices
just then, but later in the wilderness. But that certainly blunts the edge of Jeremiah’s words here to the point (pun alert!) of making them almost superfluous.
Micah 6:6-8 (from the JPS):
With what shall I approach YHVH,
Do homage to the God on high?
Shall I approach Him with burnt offerings,
With calves a year old?
Would YHVH be pleased with thousands of rams,
With myriads of streams of oil?
Shall I give my first-born for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for my sins?
“He has told you, O man, what is good,
And what YHVH requires of you:
Only to do justice
And to love goodness,
And to walk modestly with your God;
Then your name will achieve wisdom.”
And Hosea 6:6 (from the JPS):
For I desire goodness, not sacrifice;
Obedience to God, rather than burnt offerings.
_____________________________________________________
Now I do not claim that these texts are not open to various interpretations; but they do challenge the “blood sacrifice
only” notion, and may mark a prophetic move away from that (albeit a small one).
Again, I have to find my Neusner source, since he was more emphatic about the variety of Judaism
s at that time. The point is made, however, even by his academic opponents, that the Judaism of the time was diverse,
and the move from sacrifice to prayer (and Torah) had already begun from the time of the Babylonian Exile.
Comtinued…
Christ Distilled
04 Nov '09 14:513 edits
Back to Top