Dissent is at core of Judaism
I remember years ago, when I was in my twenties, spending hours upon hours, frustratingly trying to decode the legal minutia of a 7th Century Babylonian Talmudic text: What happens when an honorary trustee accidentally comes upon a piece of lost property?
What constitutes “comes upon?” What are his responsibilities? And what about a paid trustee? What are his obligations in the case of accidental damage? Just about to give up and resign myself to a lost youth, the text took me on a wonderful and unexpected journey.
The Talmud describes a debate that centres around whether or not the oven of a man named Achnai is considered to be ritually pure:
“Rabbi Eliezer declared that the oven is pure, while the other sages declared it impure. Rabbi Eliezer brought forward every imaginable argument, but the Sages did not accept any of them. Finally, Rabbi Eliezer said: ‘If the Halakhah (religious law) is in accordance with me, let it be proven from Heaven.’ Sure enough, a Divine Voice cried out from above, ‘Why do you dispute with Rabbi Eliezer, with whom the Halakhah always agrees?’ The Sages stood up, pointed upwards towards God, protesting: ‘Matters between human beings is not Your concern. After all, did You not establish in the Book of Deuteronomy (30:12) that, ‘The Torah is not in Heaven?’” (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Bava Metzia)
And thus the debate concluded and a foundational Jewish legal precedent established: that not even God, the Creator of the Law itself, has jurisdiction over the human court of law. (From Rabbi Barry Schwartz’s “Great Jewish Debates”)
The Talmud continues with an absolute affirmation that we humans have a right, nay, an obligation, to think for ourselves. That debate, in and of itself, is an act of holiness. This is what God requires from humanity:
“Years after (the debate over the Oven of Achnai), Rabbi Natan encountered Elijah the Prophet and asked him: ‘What did the Holy One, Blessed be He, do at that time when the Sages issued their declaration that the God has no authority in the world of human jurisprudence?’ Elijah answered: ‘The Holy One, Blessed be He, smiled and said: ‘My children have triumphed over Me.’” (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Bava Metzia)
The Jewish tradition takes this societal mission to foster a marketplace of debate and ideas seriously.
The Talmud teaches that God revealed both a written law by the God-hand, and an oral law by the hand of Moses, to the Children of Israel at Sinai. This was a parallel process whereby both laws exist, the divine and the human, in an everevolving, co-creative relationship.
We all aspire to receive the Torah in its purest form. The Talmud teaches us to do so we must first challenge, even shatter, our assumption that authenticity is resigned to the realm of the celestial alone. Ultimately, the Torah is indeed, “Not in Heaven.” Rather, it is right here, on earth, amongst our struggle to find meaning and relevance in our everyday messy, and thereby, beautiful, human lives.