The Goddamn Torah is Bullshit – Michael Massing

By MICHAEL MASSING

Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, probably never existed. Nor did Moses. The
entire Exodus story as recounted in the Bible probably never occurred. The
same is true of the tumbling of the walls of Jericho. And David, far from
being the fearless king who built Jerusalem into a mighty capital, was more
likely a provincial leader whose reputation was later magnified to provide a
rallying point for a fledgling nation.

Such startling propositions – the product of findings by archaeologists
digging in Israel and its environs over the last 25 years – have gained wide
acceptance among non-Orthodox rabbis. But there has been no attempt to
disseminate these ideas or to discuss them with the laity – until now.

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which represents the 1.5
million Conservative Jews in the United States, has just issued a new Torah
and commentary, the first for Conservatives in more than 60 years. Called
“Etz Hayim” (“Tree of Life” in Hebrew), it offers an interpretation that
incorporates the latest findings from archaeology, philology, anthropology
and the study of ancient cultures. To the editors who worked on the book, it
represents one of the boldest efforts ever to introduce into the religious
mainstream a view of the Bible as a human rather than divine document.

“When I grew up in Brooklyn, congregants were not sophisticated about
anything,” said Rabbi Harold Kushner, the author of “When Bad Things Happen
to Good People” and a co-editor of the new book. “Today, they are very
sophisticated and well read about psychology, literature and history, but
they are locked in a childish version of the Bible.”

“Etz Hayim,” compiled by David Lieber of the University of Judaism in Los
Angeles, seeks to change that. It offers the standard Hebrew text, a
parallel English translation (edited by Chaim Potok, best known as the
author of “The Chosen”), a page-by-page exegesis, periodic commentaries on
Jewish practice and, at the end, 41 essays by prominent rabbis and scholars
on topics ranging from the Torah scroll and dietary laws to ecology and
eschatology.

These essays, perused during uninspired sermons or Torah readings at Sabbath
services, will no doubt surprise many congregants. For instance, an essay on
Ancient Near Eastern Mythology,” by Robert Wexler, president of the
University of Judaism in Los Angeles, states that on the basis of modern
scholarship, it seems unlikely that the story of Genesis originated in
Palestine. More likely, Mr. Wexler says, it arose in Mesopotamia, the
influence of which is most apparent in the story of the Flood, which
probably grew out of the periodic overflowing of the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers. The story of Noah, Mr. Wexler adds, was probably borrowed from the
Mesopotamian epic Gilgamesh.

Equally striking for many readers will be the essay “Biblical Archaeology,”
by Lee I. Levine, a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “There
is no reference in Egyptian sources to Israel’s sojourn in that country,” he
writes, “and the evidence that does exist is negligible and indirect.” The
few indirect pieces of evidence, like the use of Egyptian names, he adds,
“are far from adequate to corroborate the historicity of the biblical
account.”

Similarly ambiguous, Mr. Levine writes, is the evidence of the conquest and
settlement of Canaan, the ancient name for the area including Israel.
Excavations showing that Jericho was unwalled and uninhabited, he says,
“clearly seem to contradict the violent and complete conquest portrayed in
the Book of Joshua.” What’s more, he says, there is an “almost total absence
of archaeological evidence” backing up the Bible’s grand descriptions of the
Jerusalem of David and Solomon.

The notion that the Bible is not literally true “is more or less settled and
understood among most Conservative rabbis,” observed David Wolpe, a rabbi at
Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and a contributor to “Etz Hayim.” But some
congregants, he said, “may not like the stark airing of it.” Last Passover,
in a sermon to 2,200 congregants at his synagogue, Rabbi Wolpe frankly said
that “virtually every modern archaeologist” agrees “that the way the Bible
describes the Exodus is not the way that it happened, if it happened at
all.” The rabbi offered what he called a “litany of disillusion” about the
narrative, including contradictions, improbabilities, chronological lapses
and the absence of corroborating evidence. In fact, he said, archaeologists
digging in the Sinai have “found no trace of the tribes of Israel – not one
shard of pottery.”

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