The Ten Commandments and Laws

After reading the ten commandments and the other laws that are given in the torah, to me it is much like a reading a handbook for a lifestyle than anything else. Many of the laws are about creating a "meal" so to speak so that it is holy in the eyes of God, as well as rules about governing ones self with others. These laws seem like guidelines as to how to be holy in the eyes of God and make ones self like him (which in the end is the ultimate goal I guess). However, the thing about these laws is that they can be very hard to follow at times. I mean when you are growing up its hard to not want to disrespect your parents (its a natural tendency I think for most), it also seems like the laws are challenges for the israelites to see if they can really live up to the image of God. The laws may seem simple but when you look closely at ones day to day life, I think that it would be really hard to constantly follow the ten commandments!

The Ten Commandment Lessons

The lessons God gave the Israelites after the Ten Commandments changed their lives. I am not sure, but were the Ten Commandments given to make the Israelites’ lives hard or to warm them of dangers and to show them the safe ways to go in? God also made it difficult for the Israelites to live new life. In (Deuteronomy 6 verses 6-9), I think God forced the Israelite parents and adults to must talk with the children about God’s laws. The Israelites must write words on doorposts and on gates. If the children did break the laws, who would God punish, the children, the parents, or even all the Israelites? The chaotic narrative of the transmission of the Ten Commandments is complicated. Who actually heard and saw God? Why would God want to speak to Moses, but intended the Israelites to hear the words of laws? Basically all of this seemed ambiguous in the reading.

Contradictions

I know I already mentioned this in a comment to Jackie's post but I wanted to elaborate on it again here. As I'm reading the laws, and even the 10 commandments, I keep finding places that contradict previously stated laws, similar to JBK's comment about marriage. At times, stories contradict the laws in place and other times God's own actions are the opposite of what he tells the Jews to do. The 10 commandments say "Do not commit murder" (exodus 20:14). Later God commands a genocide of all peoples living in Canaan with specific instructions of who to kill and how in Deut. 7. How does a God that commands not to kill also commands the Jews "not to spare" all "Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites." The 10 commandments also protest jealousy but in Deut. 6:15, God admits to himself being a "jealous God."
This is also remniscent of what were talking about in class concerning tattoos. Many Jews do not follow the strict dietary rules in place by the Bible yet still will not bury someone in a Jewish cemetary that has a tattoo. There are chapters and chapters about rules that Jews do not follow anymore yet stay strict about a rule that makes up only one line. I could go on and on with more examples of contradictions or cases like the tattoo rule (a ban on homosexuality vs. the story of Jonathan and David, etc.) but I guess what I am getting at is, how do modern day practitioners choose? How do we decide today which laws are applicable and which side of the contradictions to choose?

The Torah

Although the word “Torah” literally means “teaching,” I believe that Torah can also be authoritative at the same time through laws and rituals as shown in Leviticus. I think the teaching aspect of the Torah can be shown by God giving the rules to Moses, who in turn must teach them to the Israelites. Although this action is authoritative, at the time it was considered the best way to get across God’s will. Although the laws and teachings that the Israelites abide by have turned into rituals that still survive today, I thought it was interesting when Professor Kraus mentioned that you are no longer expected to carry out these rituals in the same manner, such as now being permitted to trim one’s beard. “You are not to cut off the hair from your temples or shave the edge of your beards.” Leviticus 19:27.
In regards to the connection between these laws and narratives, I think that it is possible to call both biblical narratives and the rules in Leviticus, Torah. Because the main element of the torah is “teaching,” I believe that both narratives and the rules in Leviticus are able to instill faith in their followers. I think the story of Genesis and the laws found in Leviticus are linked because in the beginning of Genesis, God created man and everything around him, which becomes the foundation of all the laws and instructions of Torah, which are specified in Leviticus. An important idea behind the ritual purity, as mentioned in Leviticus, comes from Genesis as well according to Greenstein in Back to the Sources. In the story of Genesis, when God created the world, he separated distinct areas and people from the dark chaos. Then in Exodus, Israel is distinguished from many nations, which governs the Torah’s ritual. The Torah divides the world into that which is Godlike and pure and that which is profane.

Torah as Law

Here are some ideas and questions to think about if you respond to the reading by Edward Greenstein on Biblical law in Back to the Sources.

He says,

The Laws of the Torah are one of its means of teaching; they are the specific behaviors by which God inculcates his ways -- what we call values -- in his human creatures. If we are to understand these values we must read the laws, in a sense, as a sort of body language that outwardly symbolizes something of a much deeper significance.(p.84)

It is significant that the Hebrew word "Torah" literally means "teaching," though it seems to be used in the book of Leviticus to refer to a law or set of ritual practices, i.e., "this is the torah of the whole burnt offering...," "This is the torah of beast and fowl..." I have also discussed this peculiar use of "torah" in Leviticus here. What values do the Torah's dietary laws, the laws regarding the treatment of slaves and servants, or the laws of taking a pledge from a borrower (which Greenstein discusses) symbolize?

What exactly is the connection between these laws and the stories of the Creation, the Exodus from Egypt, or other important stories from the Biblical history of the Israelites? Do the laws of purity around the sanctuary have any connection to these stories?