Jewish wholy words..

[Tyler Durden]

The idea of Jewish "Scripture" is far more complex than can be described in 
a short amount of time.

Clearly, the Torah is far more important than anything, even the other books 
of the "Old Testament" (for Jews the Old testament is actually in 3 or 4 
books). The Torah is the only piece of Jewish scripture said to be dictated 
letter-by-letter to Moses.

Now there are several "rings" of lesser works concentric around the Torah, 
including the Talmud and the Mishra and then a couple of dozens of centuries 
of other stuff. The Talmud is often called the "Oral Torah", but even this 
designates a slightly inferior status, being the written version of words 
originally spoken by Moses. The Mishnah are not scriptures at all, 
technically, though they can be given great reverence depending on the Rabbi 
that wrote/spoke a particular section.

Contrast that to the Protestant notion of Go/NoGo for scriptures...we don't 
even have the Apocryhpa anymore, despite the fact that Martin Luther had it 
in his Bible and quoted from it. It's eaither divinely inspired or it 
ain't...a simplisitic idea that probably helped spread Protestantism to the 
poor and uneducated.

In short, it's silly to somehow get on the Jews for something that shows up 
in some commentary written 20 centuries ago (eg, Baylonian Talmud).

-TD



>From: Tim Benham <pique at netspace.net.au>
>To: cypherpunks at waste.minder.net
>Subject: RE: Jewish wholy words..
>Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 15:51:48 +1100
>
>On Thursday 02 December 2004 10:46,  "Tyler Durden" wroye
><camera_lumina at hotmail.com>
> > Subject: RE: Jewish wholy words..
> >
> > No.
> >
> > Technically speaking, only the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible,
> > written by Moses) are technically "scripture"...everything else is
> > commentary.
>
>Doesn't the commentary have equal if not superior status?
>
>Sanhedrin 59a I took the trouble to look up. In fact it says that a non-Jew
>who studies the Torah deserves death. It also says he is a "High Priest" 
>and
>rounds off with a discussion of which animals one may cut living parts from
>and eat.
>
>Whether googling the rabbinical Law qualifies me for the death penalty is
>unclear.
>
>cheers,
>Tim