Prof. Rabbi Immanuel Schochet “Bible Criticism: Human Composition or Revelation?”
Prof. Rabbi Immanuel Schochet, author of over thirty books on Jewish philsophy and mysticism, and retired Prof. of Philosophy at University of Toronto, delivered the annual Dr. Baruch Samuel Brackman memorial lecture named after the father of Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of Oxford University Chabad Society.
The lecture was preceded by a tribute to Dr. BS Brackman OBM by his son, Rabbi Eli, who said that his father was an accomplished scientist and inventor while raising a religious Jewish family. He managed to harmonise his scientific way of thinking about the world and reality with leading a religious Jewish way of life with the beliefs that accompany it.
Prof. Schochet argued in his humorous and stimulating lecture that essentially Bible criticism is not in contradiction with the belief in the revelation of the Torah, since they are two separate disciplines.
As with any book, once it is written it has entered the public domain and one can apply to it any method of analyses that one wishes, including literary criticism. This, however, has nothing necessarily to do with the truth of the author. An author for example might write a work of fiction completely conjured up in his or her own mind. From a literary perspective, one might conclude based on the style, syntax, paragraph structure, etc., that the author was influenced by particular works of literature and certain periods in history. This however might be far from the reality. The theory is only based on the laws and methods of literary criticism.
The same is true of the Torah. The books of the Torah can be viewed upon as a piece of literature and must consist of multiple authors written at different periods but this is a circular argument, since one is basing ones theory about the Bible’s origin and authorship on a particular premise. If one changes the premise, that the Torah is not literature but a book of revelation, then the criticism has no bases.
This does not however imply there are no problems and contradictions in the Torah which need reconciling. But having problems does not mean one needs to subject it to the methods of literary criticism. The ancient rabbis indeed write extensively about the numerous contradictions, inconsistencies and difficulties of the Biblical text. One example is the teaching by Rabbi Yishmael in the Mishna. He says if one finds two Biblical verses that contradict each other, one should search for a third verse that will reconcile the two. Indeed, the Talmud is full of discussions about contradictions, doublets and problematic juxtapositions in the Bible.
Prof. Schochet concluded his talk with the argument that the foundation of Judaism is not belief but, as Maimonides writes in the opening of the Mishneh Torah, knowledge of the existence of G-d. This knowledge is possible based on the historical experience at
Prof. Schochet claimed that this knowledge of the Divine from Mount Sinai is knowledge based on testimony and is sufficient to counter the arguments of Bible criticism, which as all scientific theories are only worth holding on to until a better theory arises. This is in contrast to what can be considered absolute knowledge of the Divine origin of the Torah passed down the ages of Jewish history though testimony.
The lecture was attended by about fifty students and faculty and was followed by many questions.
Rivka wrote...