To Believe in Sinai is Unethical

Mordecai KaplanJuly 11, 1943

The problem of Judaism would not be so acute if the traditional doctrine of revelation were merely obsolete. The trouble is that to cherish that doctrine is as unethical as being guilty of bigamy. To believe that we are in possession of the authentically revealed will of God is incompatible with religious tolerance to say nothing of religious equality.

[Kaplan biographer Mel Scult writes: Kaplan was truly a revolutionary and I would like to maintain that we have not yet begun to understand the radical nature of his theological commitments. The central event of Sinai which we celebrate on Shavuot is not reinterpreted here or put into language that is more acceptable to us. It is rather dismissed as unethical because it assumes the existence of some eternal truth, a doctrine that Kaplan dismisses. Many moderns are in the same situation but they refuse to face it squarely and to see our situation for what it is.

Kaplan challenges us to face the fact that we cannot grasp the eternal and that whatever the basic truths are they are changeable and not the special property of any group. It is not easy to accept such ideas and make them part of a religious commitment but if we are followers of Kaplan that is what we must do. It is also clear that pluralism and tolerance for the beliefs of others is more important to Kaplan than any supposed revelation. . —Mel Scult]

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Mordecai Kaplan on Sinai

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Eretz Israel was to be the

Eretz Israel was to be the place where Jewish civilization would be the primary civilization -- but not the only civilization!  The traditional doctrine of literal and direct revelation by God to Moses of The Truth in the form of The Torah on Mt. Sinai is unethical.  It essentially rejects the concept of a universal God because it maintains that God gave The Truth to one person on behalf of a single people.  And it is incompatible with tolerance and to valuing living in multiple civilizations.  And, like the concept of chosenness, it was, in Kaplan's view, a very dangerous doctrine for a people to maintain at a time of developing a nationalist movement.  Kaplan was right doctrinally. promote unsigned

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Well, to believe in Sinai is ethical

Well, to believe in Sinai is ethical or unethjical is still an unsolved issue, but your post succeededin putting light on its other side.  Credit loans

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Very well put, Eric. And

Very well put, Eric. And thanks for pointing out that "our version" of "zot hatorah" is grounded firmly in traditional liturgy (from this part of the service, that is), which I had not realized. skin care for women

Kaplan founded ways of

Kaplan founded ways of reinterpreting and our traditions. Certainly, for most of the causes he chooses reinterpreting and "transvaluing" our traditional ideas, myths and rituals. dog supplies

Kaplan was a devout Zionist

Kaplan was a devout Zionist and preached Jewish nationalism.  Yet he was adamant about eliminating the concept of chosenness from our liturgy -- even though he understood that this concept could indeed be transvalued.  He believed that to transvalue this concept rather than eliminate it would be unwise.  Precisely because he advocated Zionism, he knew that it would be risky and unwise to combine 20th century nationalism with traditional beliefs of "chosenness".  He was a universalist.  A parochial nationalism tainted with popular beliefs about being chosen or better than others was unacceptable.  And so he was unyielding about removing references to chosenness from our liturgy. government jobs

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Kaplan founded ways of reinterpreting and our traditions. Certainly, for most of the causes he chooses reinterpreting and "transvaluing" our traditional ideas, myths and rituals.

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Judaism – with all of its

Judaism – with all of its rules, ethical imperatives, and rituals – is our community’s unfolding response to God. It is the language we speak in response to God’s silent call. If we want to hear God’s word as we heard it at Sinai, we have but to look into our tradition. Torah study, acts of kindness, words of prayer and ritual are all ways of tuning our ears to God’s reverberating call. According to our tradition we all stood at Sinai. Each of us has an innate sense of what that call sounds like and looks like. Our task is to tune our souls into its echo and to respond.

Midrash I: God offered the

Midrash I: God offered the torah to all other peoples and each of them were prepared to accept part but not all until He (sic) came to B'nai Israel who said we will hear and we will do.
Midrash II: God took the whole mountain and turned it upside down over B'nai Israel and said if you don't accept the Torah I will drop this mountain on your head.(i.e. the Holocaust and the exile are the mountain dropped on our heads)
Midrash III: We were all together at Sinai and not only do I remember being there but I also remember who stood next to me. In other words local units make up the peoplehood of Israel and unite us in our peoplehood.

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To believe in Sinai is unethical

Kaplan pioneered ways of reinterpreting and "transvaluing" our traditions.  Indeed, for many reasons he preferred reinterpreting and "transvaluing" our traditional beliefs and myths and rituals.  All the more reason for us to pay attention to those instances in which he advocated outright rejection of past beliefs!

Kaplan was clear that our tradition treated women as inferior to men -- and not merely as "different".  He uttlerly rejected these beliefs, practices, and rituals and exhorted us to create an egalitarian Jewish community.  He was willing to accede to popular pressure to change a little slower than he preferred -- but not as slowly as most of his followers wanted.  He was unwilling, however, to compromise on the goal of an egalitarian community and he was unwilling to give a positive spin to those parts of our tradition that were misceganist and sexist.

Kaplan was a devout Zionist and preached Jewish nationalism.  Yet he was adamant about eliminating the concept of chosenness from our liturgy -- even though he understood that this concept could indeed be transvalued.  He believed that to transvalue this concept rather than eliminate it would be unwise.  Precisely because he advocated Zionism, he knew that it would be risky and unwise to combine 20th century nationalism with traditional beliefs of "chosenness".  He was a universalist.  A parochial nationalism tainted with popular beliefs about being chosen or better than others was unacceptable.  And so he was unyielding about removing references to chosenness from our liturgy.

Similarly, Kaplan rejected the traditional concept of the Torah being revealed to Moses on Sinai (and the derivative belief that what was not revealed to Moses on Sinai was revealed to Rabbi Akiva).  First, it is bad theology.  We don't believe in a God that acts in this way, a God that reveals The Truth for All Time to a single individual and to be the property of a single people.  Secondly, the holiness of the Torah comes from the same source as the holiness of any other text.  The Torah is holy because the Jewish people have made it holy.  (Other peoples also have similar texts that they have made holy.)  But most importantly for Kaplan, this belief is fundamentally unethical and incompatible with living in multiple civilizations.  And here is the essence of one of the most radical elements of Kaplan's thought.  Unlike his former colleaqgues in Young Israel and unlike his colleagues at JTS, Kaplan valued living in multiple civilizations.  Living in a multicultural society was not just something that he was willing to accept as necessary.  Even his view of Jewish civilization in Israel was a vision of a Jewish community living in a multicultural society.  Eretz Israel was to be the place where Jewish civilization would be the primary civilization -- but not the only civilization!  The traditional doctrine of literal and direct revelation by God to Moses of The Truth in the form of The Torah on Mt. Sinai is unethical.  It essentially rejects the concept of a universal God because it maintains that God gave The Truth to one person on behalf of a single people.  And it is incompatible with tolerance and to valuing living in multiple civilizations.  And, like the concept of chosenness, it was, in Kaplan's view, a very dangerous doctrine for a people to maintain at a time of developing a nationalist movement.  Kaplan was right doctrinally.  And, unfortunately, he was right about the dangers such a doctrine posed to Zionism and the future of Jewish civilization.

I respectively disagree with Mordecai Kaplan on Sinai

I have a hard time with the dismissal of a belief just because Kaplan views it as incompatible with religious tolerance. Sinai from my perspective represents an event like the Exodus in Judaism. God reveals the core mission of the Jewish people be his holy nation by being moral. He provides a moral framework for doing this before and after his failings (i.e. the golden calf). God, according to Jewish tradition, calls on Israel to lead by example or as we traditionally put it become "a light unto the nations."

While Jews we have traditionally asked more of ourselves, like keeping Kosher, than non-Jews. But these have been specific to our way of life. We call on others to be moral. We do not tell non-Jews that they are going to hell if they do not embrace Judaism, like some Christian preachers.

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Revelation and Sinai-- Universalism and Particularisms

There are three famous midrashim about Sinai MMK is pointing out that the first two of these are anathema to reconstructioists and Dan Cederbaum is pointing to the third which is essential.
Midrash I: God offered the torah to all other peoples and each of them were prepared to accept part but not all until He (sic) came to B'nai Israel who said we will hear and we will do.
Midrash II: God took the whole mountain and turned it upside down over B'nai Israel and said if you don't accept the Torah I will drop this mountain on your head.(i.e. the Holocaust and the exile are the mountain dropped on our heads)
Midrash III: We were all together at Sinai and not only do I remember being there but I also remember who stood next to me. In other words local units make up the peoplehood of Israel and unite us in our peoplehood.

Unfortunatley the "zot hatorah" in the traditional liturgy mythologises the first two and ignores the third. That is why choosing the second phrase (etz khaim he) rather than the first phrase of the longer paragraph from the pre Birnbaum orthodox prayer books is a better choice, which traditional (this tradition dates from the the period 1880-1940) prayerbooks have chosen.

I believe there was no doctrinal decision in the traditional editing of the paragraph down to one phrase --it simply was the first line. We can choose and have chosen the second line without offending tradition.

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Revelation and Sinai--Universalism and Particularisms

Very well put, Eric. And thanks for pointing out that "our version" of "zot hatorah" is grounded firmly in traditional liturgy (from this part of the service, that is), which I had not realized.