[Avodah] The Torah is Not Religion

[Professor L. Levine]

We are counting towards Shevuous which commemorates the giving of the Torah. The question is "What is Torah?'


The following is from RSRH's essay Sivan I that I have posted at Sivan I<https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/sivan_1.pdf> (Collected Writings I)


The Torah, however, did not spring from the breast of mortal man;
it is the message of the God of Heaven and Earth to Man; and it was
from the very beginning so high above the cultural level of the people
to which it was given, that during the three thousand years of its
existence there was never a time yet during which Israel was quite
abreast of the Torah, when the Torah could be said to have been
completely translated into practice. The Torah is rather the highest
aim, the ultimate goal towards which the Jewish nation was to be
guided through all its fated wanderings among the nations of the
world. This imperfection of the Jewish people and its need of education
is presupposed and clearly expressed in the Torah from the very
beginning. There is, therefore, no stronger evidence for the Divine
origin and uniqueness of the Torah than the continuous backsliding,
the continuous rebellion against it on the part of the Jewish people,
whose first generation perished because of this very rebellion. But the
Torah has outlived all the generations of Israel and is still awaiting
that coming age which "at the end of days" will be fully ripe for it.
Thus, the Torah manifests from the very beginning its superhuman
origin. It has no development and no history; it is rather the people of
the Torah which has a history. And this history is nothing else but its
continuous training and striving to rise to the unchangeable, eternal
height on which the Torah is set, this Torah that has nothing in
common with what is commonly called "religion." How hopelessly
false is it, therefore, to call this Torah "religion," and thus drag it by
this name into the circle of other phenomena in the history of human
civilization, to which it does not belong. This is a fundamentally wrong
starting point, and it is small wonder that it gives rise to questions such
as the following, which have no meaning so far as the Torah is
concerned: "You want Judaism to remain the same for ever?" "All
religions rejuvenate themselves and advance with the progress of the
nations, and only the Jewish 'Religion' wants to remain rigid, always
the same, and refuses to yield to the views of an enlightened age?"


See the above URL for much more.  YL

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