Biblical Law as Scripture in Back to the Sources and Leviticus
I posed this question to the members of my Scripture in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam course:
Is Torah law, ritual, instruction, or narrative?
What does the Hebrew word "torah" mean in the book of Leviticus? The Hebrew word torah is the word translated into English as "law" in Lev. 6:8, 6:14, 6:25, 7:1, 7:11, 7:37-38, and 11:46 in the Oxford Study Bible. In those same verses, the new Jewish Publication Society Bible translates torah as "ritual" in Lev. 6:8, 6:14, 6:25, 7:1, 7:11, 7:37-38, and as "instructions" in 11:46?
What hints in the context of these verses does the text of Leviticus itself provide for how to interpret the word "torah?" What kinds of things "count" as torah, and what is (are) their purposes? Who is to speak these examples of "torah" and to whom are they addressed? Is it the same in all of these verses, or not, and if not, does it matter?
Do the Biblical narratives in Genesis that we read, and the rules that we read in Leviticus have anything common – so that it would make sense to call both "torah?"
Here's what I'm trying to get at. The literal translation of the Hebrew word torah is "instruction" or "teaching." So why does the OSB translate it consistently as "law" in these passages in Leviticus, while the the NJSP version sometimes translate it as "ritual," sometimes as "instruction?" It seems to me that Leviticus' choice of the word "torah" to label the sacrificial and dietary laws or rituals suggests that they are first and foremost intended to teach something. In other words, they are not just commandments that one is supposed to do because God said so. After all, only a small minority of people, the priests, are directed to do the sacrificial rituals, though all the Israelites are required to follow the dietary laws forbidding some and permitting other animals as food to eat - yet both sets of ritual laws are called "torah." Why? they must have something essentially in common. It may be that both are supposed to set examples of important values for other people.
Greenstein argues in his chapter on Biblical law in Back to the Sources that the laws of the torah are a sort of "symbolic body language" expressing the deepest values of Jewish Biblical religion. So when Leviticus says "Tell the sons of Moses and Aaron [i.e., the priests]" or "tell all the Israelites" that this is the "torah of the whole burnt offering, the grain offering," (Lev 6-7) etc., or "this is the torah of the beast and fowl" (Lev 11:46) - is it a commandment to do the rules and rituals described, or is it a commandment to teach the rules and rituals of the sacrificies and kashrut - that is, "the instruction" about, rather than "the law" to do them? There is a further ambiguity in these expressions. Does "the torah of the whole burnt offering" or "the torah of beast and fowl" refer specifically to the instructions about how to perform the whole burnt offering and which specific beasts and birds can or cannot be eaten, or are the sacrifices and dietary rules practices designed to teach us something else, and does "torah" refer to that "something else," and if so what is that something else? Respect for life, a theory of reincarnation, the distinctiveness of the Jewish people, e.g.? Or is it in a sense saying all of these things together - that by doing, one teaches (and presumably learns) some important lesson? Or by teaching, once one knows how and why to do them, they will do them? Later Jewish tradition answers yes to both possibilities. And I think that is already the connotation the comes with the word torah that the Bible uses to name these laws, rules, or rituals - whatever we choose to call them.
So it seems that the Jewish word torah refers to a text, a type of scripture that is meant not just to be read or recited, but to be performed. and it is to be performed mindfully, knowing what one is doing and why one is doing it. It is far from blind obedience to mindless rituals! So much for Biblical law. But what about Biblical narrative? Is that supposed to be performed, too (in this same sense of torah), and if so, how?
Is Torah law, ritual, instruction, or narrative?
What does the Hebrew word "torah" mean in the book of Leviticus? The Hebrew word torah is the word translated into English as "law" in Lev. 6:8, 6:14, 6:25, 7:1, 7:11, 7:37-38, and 11:46 in the Oxford Study Bible. In those same verses, the new Jewish Publication Society Bible translates torah as "ritual" in Lev. 6:8, 6:14, 6:25, 7:1, 7:11, 7:37-38, and as "instructions" in 11:46?
What hints in the context of these verses does the text of Leviticus itself provide for how to interpret the word "torah?" What kinds of things "count" as torah, and what is (are) their purposes? Who is to speak these examples of "torah" and to whom are they addressed? Is it the same in all of these verses, or not, and if not, does it matter?
Do the Biblical narratives in Genesis that we read, and the rules that we read in Leviticus have anything common – so that it would make sense to call both "torah?"
Here's what I'm trying to get at. The literal translation of the Hebrew word torah is "instruction" or "teaching." So why does the OSB translate it consistently as "law" in these passages in Leviticus, while the the NJSP version sometimes translate it as "ritual," sometimes as "instruction?" It seems to me that Leviticus' choice of the word "torah" to label the sacrificial and dietary laws or rituals suggests that they are first and foremost intended to teach something. In other words, they are not just commandments that one is supposed to do because God said so. After all, only a small minority of people, the priests, are directed to do the sacrificial rituals, though all the Israelites are required to follow the dietary laws forbidding some and permitting other animals as food to eat - yet both sets of ritual laws are called "torah." Why? they must have something essentially in common. It may be that both are supposed to set examples of important values for other people.
Greenstein argues in his chapter on Biblical law in Back to the Sources that the laws of the torah are a sort of "symbolic body language" expressing the deepest values of Jewish Biblical religion. So when Leviticus says "Tell the sons of Moses and Aaron [i.e., the priests]" or "tell all the Israelites" that this is the "torah of the whole burnt offering, the grain offering," (Lev 6-7) etc., or "this is the torah of the beast and fowl" (Lev 11:46) - is it a commandment to do the rules and rituals described, or is it a commandment to teach the rules and rituals of the sacrificies and kashrut - that is, "the instruction" about, rather than "the law" to do them? There is a further ambiguity in these expressions. Does "the torah of the whole burnt offering" or "the torah of beast and fowl" refer specifically to the instructions about how to perform the whole burnt offering and which specific beasts and birds can or cannot be eaten, or are the sacrifices and dietary rules practices designed to teach us something else, and does "torah" refer to that "something else," and if so what is that something else? Respect for life, a theory of reincarnation, the distinctiveness of the Jewish people, e.g.? Or is it in a sense saying all of these things together - that by doing, one teaches (and presumably learns) some important lesson? Or by teaching, once one knows how and why to do them, they will do them? Later Jewish tradition answers yes to both possibilities. And I think that is already the connotation the comes with the word torah that the Bible uses to name these laws, rules, or rituals - whatever we choose to call them.
So it seems that the Jewish word torah refers to a text, a type of scripture that is meant not just to be read or recited, but to be performed. and it is to be performed mindfully, knowing what one is doing and why one is doing it. It is far from blind obedience to mindless rituals! So much for Biblical law. But what about Biblical narrative? Is that supposed to be performed, too (in this same sense of torah), and if so, how?
posted by Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus at 2:56 AM
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