Thursday, 7 June 2007
Comment -

Actually, there is no record that rebellious sons were stoned in the period between Sinai and the emergence of the rabbinic movement after the destruction of the Second Temple. Interesting, eh?

Posted By Carl 6:28pm

Tuesday, 29 May 2007
From One Boundary Crosser to Another

In B'resheet/Genesis 14:13, Abraham - Avraham Avinu - is described as Avram Ha'Ivri, Abram the Boundary Crosser from the root verb ayin-vet-resh, to cross or pass over or through. As well as His physical journey across the fertile crescent from Ur of the Chaldees - with a lengthy stop in Haran - to the Land of Caanan, Abram had crossed over a spiritual boundary from the pagan polytheistic world to the singular world-view of monotheism: the worship of the One True G-d.

Abram started the Jewish custom of crossing boundaries, as discussed so well by Gershon Winkler in his book The Way of the Boundary Crosser. The other Patriarchs and Prophets all followed suit, defining the boundaries as G-d told them. Even G-d Himself crossed boundaries by, for example, accepting the prophet Samuel to serve in the tabernacle cult, to offer sacrifice and to offer sacrifice away from the central site, although he was neither a cohen or a Levite.

Since biblical times, the Sages have found inumerable ways to cross boundaries by issuing lenient decisions on a range of subjects, all documented in the classic Jewish works and responsa. For example, the stoning of a rebellious son has never been carried out because the Rabbis simply made the associated conditions and criteria so strict that it is impossible to meet them, thus legislating this commandment away.

What is it then, that makes other issues so intractable. The question of the Agunot - chained women - whose husbands will not give them a get/religious-divorce while using it as a blackmail tool to set aside the financial provisions of a legal divorce settlement, is surely something that is crying out for attention. Even the great Rabbi Moshe Feinstein found himself unable to produce a generic solution to this abuse. Other traditions - not even biblical commandments - such as patrilineal versus matrilineal descent, an issue that has divided Jewish families since the days of the Talmud and is currently one of the seemingly irreconcilable divisions between Orthodoxy and other Judaisms - seem equally immoveable.

We won't even talk about the issue of the Messiah ...