Reason and Mystery in the Pentateuch
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Reason and Mystery in the Pentateuch is grounded in the faith that the following related truths are self-evident: God revealed to Moses two works, known together as the Torah. The first work is the Pentateuch (the Written Law), revealed as a book consisting mainly of a sacred history and a codex. The second work is the Mishnah (the Oral Law), an elucidation of the codex transmitted orally through many generations, then redacted as a book. The Torah has never been corrupted; the text read today is identical to the text God revealed to Moses. Because God, who is perfect, revealed the text, it must be perfect. Only in it must intent and execution be identical. And because God is essentially incomprehensible, the Pentateuch must be, at least in part, incomprehensible. The present book will interest traditionalist Christians, to whom, as to traditionalist Jews, the Pentateuch is sacred. It will interest readers not committed to the truths above for the insight it provides about readers for whom those truths are self-evident. For those readers, readers of faith, the Pentateuch must be not merely read, but continuously, intently, and reverentially studied. Reason and Mystery in the Pentateuch demonstrates how such study of the Pentateuch, considered as a literary artifact, may be conducted. In particular, it underscores the limits imposed by its Author upon the capacity of human intelligence to comprehend the plain meaning of its sacred history and its codex, and the linguistic strategy by which those limits are established.
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Aaron Streiter
The present study, addressed to traditionalist Jews concerned with theology, presents a fact, discusses the response it necessitates, and explains why a counter-response offered by some traditionalists is antithetical to traditionalism, and therefore without value to it.
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And that many of them do prove impervious to it is a fact, from which, for traditionalism, there is no refuge. Not all puzzling concerns in the Pentateuch are beyond understanding. But against the significant number at least that are not even two theological dicta invoked, often, and almost formulaically, afford protection. The dictum that many plain meanings of a narrative fact may co-exist (shivim panim la’torah) must mean something metaphorically, as must the related dictum that interpretations that seem contradictory may be true (eilu ve’eilu divrei elokim chayim). But neither dictum can have literal meaning when a concern regarding historical fact is studied. For example, the ram’s horn that signals Mount Sinai may once again be approached cannot be sounded by God when the spoken Revelation ends and by Moses when he returns from the second, or third, of his forty-day stays on the mountain. (Nor, as will be shown, can either dictum have literal meaning when irreconcilable interpretations of the plain meaning of a law are studied.)
Whatever the metaphoric meaning of the two dicta, concerns related to sacred history (and, as will be shown, concerns related to law) that are impervious to understanding constitute a significant, perhaps even a pervasive, motif in the Pentateuch. And that inescapable fact mandates three tasks. The fact must be documented, as regards both sacred history and law. The response the fact compels must be underscored, and discussed effectively enough so that, as a theological and practical matter, traditionalists consider it seriously. And that a counter-response antithetical to traditionalism perforce produces nothing of value to it must be demonstrated.
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