Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site npois.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!houxm!ahuta!npois!adam From: adam@npois.UUCP (Adam V. Reed) Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: The Mitzvot and Humanistic Judaism - round two Message-ID: <218@npois.UUCP> Date: Sat, 2-Mar-85 13:10:24 EST Article-I.D.: npois.218 Posted: Sat Mar 2 13:10:24 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 4-Mar-85 20:23:18 EST Organization: ATTIS, Neptune, NJ Lines: 44 Ari Gross asks: > How does a Humanist Jew keep the mitzvah of Parah Aaduma (the >sprinkling of the ashes of a red heifer on one defiled by a corpse)? Corpses bred pestilence, and those who touched them were likely to spread it. This was especially important in the case of a Kohen, who would come in contact with many people in the course of Temple duties. Thus, the purification procedure had to be onerous enough to make sure that every reasonable precaution would be taken to avoid defilement. The meaning of this mitzva is to avoid becoming a carrier of pestilence. I keep it by, e.g., getting immunized to any contagious disease before traveling in countries where it might be endemic. >And what is today's humanistic equivalent of "killing out Amalek" ? >Was that precept just to appeal to the bloodthirsty Israelites but has >no bearing on the 'enlightened'? As gratuitous killers of defenseless people, Amalek does have contemporary equivalents, such as Nazis and other terrorists. I keep this mitzva by helping the Simon Wiesenthal Center. >If the Torah is of divine origin then it is rather presumptuous of us >to assume that we can know all the reasons that motivated Him to give >us a particular mitzvah and are therefore capable of substituting it >for its moral (humanistic) equivalent. What if there are additional >reasons for the precept that supersede our limited knowledge and >understanding? The claim that the Torah is of divine origin pre-supposes that the divine is subject to human knowledge. I do not agree with this assumption. "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent". Humanistic Judaism is the position that the Jewish way of life ought to be defined without appealing to supernatural authority. > If, on the other hand, the Torah is not of divine origin then why >would a humanistic Jew feel compelled to keep any of its precepts' >moral equivalents? I keep the Mitzvot, as I understand them, because I am a Jew. Adam ben Tzvi Aharon (Adam V. Reed) npois!adam