--- In [email protected], boyboy_8 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I'm an English major and notwithstanding Northrop Frye's "The Great > Code: The Bible and Literature", the OT should not, in my view, ever > be read as literature or as a history book. It takes not a mental > powerhouse like Frye to see that the OT and especially the Psalms and > even more so the works of King Solomon are full of poetic imagery. It > is the lowest form of information, in my view. What is much more > sublime is what the text intends us to understand. Why read Rashi? > He only touches on the surface, on the "p'shat" of the verse. Why? > because at least you know what the simple meaning of the verse is. > You want deeper? You read the Ohr Chaim, you read the Kli Yakar and > you get much deeper levels of meaning. You want deeper still you > look into the Zohar on the specific section of the Torah and try to > get your head around what the Rabbi's are hinting at. It is almost > impossible to really make sense of what they say because they speak > in a language full of code words and hidden meanings that only people > at their level could appreciate. So, there are many levels of > interpretation, the poetic/metaphoric is the simplest and lowest > level, in my view. I have to always say in my view because these are > my understandings or failures to understand.
If this stuff is all about making the ways of the world crystal clear why does it have to be written in codes and hidden meanings? Seems to me if these guys wanted us to benefit from their so-called wisdom they might take a direct approach and tell it like it is. It is more likely that the OT is so filled with self contradictions and absurd dramas that obscuring its meaning further with secret codes elevates the necessity for a Rabbi to interpret it for the poor dumb asses who think there is something behind the smoke and mirrors. What a great way for a Rabbi to come up with a following? > > Rav Nachman of Breslov, the grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, wrote much > and sometimes gives incredibly thrilling insights into very high > levels of insight. > > Someone was writing a bit earlier (I've lost track with so many > postings) about the raising up of the dead....and a mention was made > of the Rambam. Although it might be the n'th degree of "chutzpedik" > for me to say so, I think that even the Rambam might have been in > error here. The truth might be that if and when a so-called Messiah > shows up that the way he teaches Jewish law might not sound like > anything that has been familiar to 2000 years of Rabbinic thinking. > In my view of things (all guesses) if the M will usher in a new age, > then he will have to help destroy all the crusty old ways of thinking > that have accumulated over the years since prophets died out. If, > like MMY, he was to usher in a "spiritual regeneration" he might > appear to be almost heretical to mainstream ultraorthodox Jews. This > would not surprise me at all. What type of thinking he will > introduce is beyond my imagination. > > I've had discussions with other orthodox J's where my position is > that the entire section of the OT where sacrifices of animals and > birds take place, is a misinterpretation of huge proportions. > Somewhere along the way, don't know when, the mystery of sacrifice > got mixed up with a literal interpretation. In other words, instead > of knowing what sacrifice a goat meant, people went out and > slaughtered a goat and dashed its blood about and thought that this > is what God wanted. To me that part of the OT is all upside down and > inside out. Sounds like people with modern concerns reinterpreting the bloody mess of the past. The OT is very clear on how, why, and where the animals are butchered. There is no mystery - these ancient rites are not special to the Jews either. We can be thankful we don't live in the same sort of ignorance of the world the ancients lived in. For example if I have a disease I may take antibiotics rather that slay the family goat. Ignorance. Sheesh. > > Closing off for now: I recall years ago when MMY sent a team to > Israel...and the way I heard the story is that MMY was told about > what goes on during Passover and when he heard of the story of the > blood of the paschal lamb being daubed on the door lintels he was > supposed to have said "Oh, I didn't know that the Children of Israel > had a technique to get to immortality?". When I heard that told to > me I got the shivers. > > Cheers, > > Fred It gives me shivers as well that so many people are subservient to their infantile desires of immortality. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. We are born and we die. End of story. The rest is idle speculation. s. >
