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From: trb@masscomp.UUCP (Andy Tannenbaum)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Assertions of jewishness by reform and Conservative Jews (long)
Message-ID: <312@masscomp.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 1-Jun-84 17:51:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: masscomp.312
Posted: Fri Jun  1 17:51:40 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 5-Jun-84 19:57:57 EDT
References: eosp1.890 <285@wxlvax.UUCP>
Organization: MASSCOMP, Littleton, MA
Lines: 37

M.L. Schneider mls@wxlvax.UUCP states:

>There is a difference between the belief of Orthodox Jews and the rest.  
>Orthodox Jews believe that the Torah was given to Moshe Rabanau on Mount
>Sini.  The rest have stated that the Torah was written by man with divine 
>inspiration.  

Whoa Nellie!

I am here to invalidate the statement above.  I am not an Orthodox
Jew, I do not pretend to be nor would anyone mistake me for one.  What
kind of Jew am I?  I am a Jew Jew.  Just a Jew, thank you.  I DO NOT
state that the Torah was written by man with divine inspiration.

Well, let me be quite explicit.  Judaism teaches that God gave
(taught) Moses the Torah when Moses went up Mount Sinai for 50 days.
God dictated, Moses recorded.  If that's what you meant by "written by
man," then you sure said it in a misleading way.

Anybody who claims that Judaism dictates another belief, is misled and
misleading.  I am driven to disgust by such misleading statements as
the one proffered above by M.L. Schneider.  I will refrain from spewing
vulgarity here, but consider it done.

Note that I am not defending the absolute truth of the fact that Moses
received the Torah from God on Mount Sinai, I am informing you that
this is Jewish belief, this is a tenet of the Jewish *Faith*,
as are the commandments in the Torah, which are accepted without question.

I have NEVER heard it proffered as a tenet of Jewish faith that the
Torah was written by man with divine inspiration (except as I explained
above).  This isn't proof that it isn't, it's just strong evidence that
the idea can't be terribly widespread.  (I grew up in New York City,
which has a large community of Jews, and went to a yeshiva grade
school, so I wasn't isolated from popular Jewish ideas.)

	Andy Tannenbaum   Masscomp Inc  Westford MA   (617) 692-6200 x274