BRIEFLY ABOUT THE TALMUD

In many of the gibberant posting on the internet, and stupid comments underneath newspaper articles, the Talmud is misquoted by writers seeking to prove the evil of world Jewry.


We've all seen the quotes, and we've all gone back to the source and recognized the ebb and flow of argument and counter-argument, in which the quoted statements occur. And, if we know how to read critically (which is a mitzvah), we understand that in the first place the misquoted quote is only one point of view, presented amidst others of equal weight, some of which flatly contradict it, and in the second place, if one doesn't take into account the tenor of the entire passage in which it (the quote) occurs, the point of the discussion may very well be lost.

Taking statements out of context will turn any document into a poisonous growth. How much more so a complex multi-volume exercise in working out ideas and principles by a bunch of opinionated, quarrelsome, and passionate scholars?

One or two lines from the Talmud have, by themselves, scant relevance. Context shades the meaning. Dumping a statement into a sewer will make it smell as bad whatever else it has to swim with.


The third thing to keep in mind is that the Talmud does not command so much as show a methodology and highlight relevant considerata - it is a 'howto' for the process, not a collection of answers.


Dutch commenters: idiots and otherwise.

Underneath articles concerning Irak, Afghanistan, Israel, or the US on the Algemeen Dagblad website the comments inevitably will veer off into the usual crap from bigots and blinkerminds. Being fluent in Dutch, I am usually appalled and offended at the miserable command of their own language evinced by these people, sometimes more than their odious opinions and faulty logic might even warrant.

But sometimes I am pleasantly surprised.


One of the little jewels I found recently I reproduce below, with translation interpolated.

COMMENT BY RENE - Friday July 28th, 2006:
Een woord over de hier aangehaalde Talmoed. De Talmoed is heel moeilijk joods studiemateriaal. Veel joden spenderen er uren per dag aan. Waarom?
[A word about the here referenced Talmud: The Talmud is extremely difficult Jewish study material. Many Jews expend hours everyday on it. Why?]

De Talmoed is in eerste benadering een discussiestuk. Je vindt er tientallen meningen over een menigte van onderwerpen. De verschillende, vaak tegenstrijdige, meningen worden tegenover elkaar gezet in diepe logische discussies. Soms leidt dit tot conclusies over de Joodse wet, soms niet. Je kan niet uit de Talmoed citeren en zeggen: "zo denken de joden." Het is alsof je uit dit forum citeert en zegt: "zo denkt de SP." Alsof je uit de notulen van de tweede kamer een SP-er citeert en zegt: "zo denken Nederlanders."
[The Talmud is, in first instance, a discussion-piece. You will find in it tens of opinions about a multitude of subjects. The various, often contradictory, opinions are posited in opposition to each other in deep logical discussions. Sometimes this leads to conclusions about Jewish law, sometimes not. You cannot cite from the Talmud and say "this is what the Jews think". It is like citing from this forum (the comment-slew on the AD site), saying "this is what the Socialist Party thinks". As if you quote from the lower chamber notes of a socialist parlementarian, and aver "this is what the Dutch think".]

Waarom is de Talmoed zo? Waarom hebben haar redacteurs de Talmoed haar niet beter politiek gekorrigeerd? Omdat de essentie van de Talmoed niet zit in de geciteerde meningen, maar in de logica van de afwegingen tussen die meningen. Deze logica is wat de Talmoedstudent probeert te leren, want het is deze logica die bestand is tegen de tijd.
[Why is the Talmud thus? Why did the redactors not make it more politically correct ('correct it more politically')? Because the essence of the Talmud is not in the cited opinions, but in the logic inherent in comparing the opinions. This logic is what the Talmud student strives to learn, because it is this logic which stands the test of time.]


There are still Dutchmen capable of thought.
Boruch Hashem.
Please note that I have no clue who Rene is, other than that he is Rene.