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Reform Judaism - Some Questions and Answers
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2.Do you believe in Torah? |
 Of course. The Torah is
just as much the foundation document of Jewish belief and peoplehood for
Reform Judaism as for previous and other expressions of Judaism. We do not believe that the Torah,
the Scroll, the Five Books of Moses were literally dictated by God to Moses on Mount Sinai - that
the Torah is ‘inerrant’, ‘extra-historical’ or ‘other’ or any of the other more sophisticated terms
that are not used for the same belief. The Torah contains stories and other material that were first
told and then written down by our ancestors. It is therefore their experience of God - and, in that
sense, Torah min hashamayim, Torah from Heaven - but not something that simply materisalised from another
reality without any human involvement and free from the inevitable marks and flaws of human limitation.
The Torah is, therefore, still our ‘tree of life’. We read from it in synagogue every Shabbat, elevate
it in front of our congregation and parade it round the shul. It is our ancestor’s understanding of God’s
involvement in the lives of the Jewish and all other peoples and their attempt to find meaning in that involvement.
It brings us closer to God and God’s will for us. It provides us with a glimpse of eternity.
From it we learn that human beings are able to go beyond considering their own individual needs. We are
able to turn outward to recognise the needs of others, that is, to behave ethically. It is our special
link with God and the values of holiness.
We are not forced, however, to believe that God wanted the Canaanites exterminated, stubborn and rebellious
children stoned, or slavery accepted. God is the embodiment of holiness and much too subtle and elusive to be
trapped in human texts or formulations. The Torah records the experience of God of fallible human beings, much like us.
We find this view of Torah, as containing both timeless insights and time-bound conclusions, liberating.
Acknowledgement: ‘What is Reform Judaism' by Rabbi Tony Bayfield.
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