The Genesis of Justice Read Online Free

Ultimately,
     even the most open-minded of these commentators is not prepared to make the leap of doubt or faithlessness, though they demand
     that others make a comparable leap of faith. The most prominent of the Socratic commentators is Maimonides, who studied Greek
     philosophy and who believed that scientific knowledge was consistent with biblical truth. His writings endure not only as
     biblical interpretation but also as stand-alone philosophical works.
    Then there are the subtle skeptics. Although they proclaim complete faith, any discerning reader can sense some doubt—doubt
     about God’s justice, doubt about God’s compliance with His covenant, even occasional doubt about God’s very existence. These
     commentators employ veiled allusion, hypothetical stories, and mock trials to challenge God and to wonder why His people have
     suffered so much. It is no sin, according to these skeptics, to
feel
doubt. After all, human beings are endowed with the capacity, if not the need, to doubt. The sin is to
act
on these doubts. Judaism is a religion in which theological purity is not as important as observance of the commandments.
     When God gave the Jews the Torah, the people said they would “do and listen” (
na’aseh v’nishmah
). This response—placing “doing” before “listening”—has been interpreted to justify theoretical skepticism as long as it is
     accompanied by devout behavior. 20 Among the prominent skeptics is Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, an eighteenth-century Hasidic master who actually filed
     a religious lawsuit (a
din Torah
) against God for breaking His covenant with the Jewish people. 21
    Throughout most of history it has been assumed that the Jewish Bible was written or inspired by God and that it was given
     to the Jewish people at Sinai as a single document. During the Middle Ages some traditional commentators wondered about textual
     inconsistencies that suggested multiple authors or later additions. Moses describes his own death. Places and peoples are
     mentioned that did not come into existence until well after the Torah was supposed to have been given at Sinai. For example,
     in a passage describing Abraham’s journey, the Bible states, “The Canaanite was then in the land.” * Ibn Ezra wonders about the historical accuracy of that statement, offers a possible interpretation, and then hedges his bet:
     “Should this interpretation be incorrect, then there is a secret meaning to the text.” He cautions, “Let one who understands
     it remain silent.” 22 A commentator on Ibn Ezra suggests a reason for the rather cryptic warning: Ibn Ezra realizes the clause about the Canaanites
     is an anachronism but is loath to engender doubt among his readers. The solution: silence! Many biblical scholars now acknowledge
     that the Book of Deuteronomy appears to have been written later than the other four books and that the different styles within
     the first books suggest multiple authorship, subsequent editing, and redaction.
    The question of who wrote the Bible has been hotly debated by academics for more than a century. Though I am familiar with
     this literature and have used it in my classes,
this
book is not part of
that
debate. 23 Instead
The Genesis of Justice
speaks not to the who but to the how: How are we to understand the stories of apparent injustice that are supposed to teach
     us about justice? In order to join that millennia-old debate, I have chosen to accept the assumptions of its historic participants
     about the divine nature of the text. For purposes of this book, it does not matter whether Genesis was dictated to Moses by
     God or compiled by an editor from multiple sources. What
does
matter is that it has been considered a sacred text for more than two millennia. This does not, of course, require a literal
     fundamentalist approach. As Ibn Ezra put it: “[I]f there appears something in the Torah that is intellectually impossible
     to accept or contrary to the