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 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Jewish wholy words.. Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 15:51:48 +1100
On Thursday 02 December 2004 10:46, "Tyler Durden" wroye <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > 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
