|
|
Article: From Peshat to Derash and back again: Talmud for the modern religious Jew.
- Article from:
- Judaism
- Article date:
- June 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 American Jewish Congress. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
The emerging focus of contemporary American Jewish thought is . . . the Talmud! Two reasons come to mind for what may, in this age of postmodernism, seem like a surprising mm to traditional sources. The immediate reason is that this remains an age of destruction for the people Israel, and there are precedents from the first and second centuries for Israel's reclaiming herself from the ashes by turning to the torah she b'al peh, the Oral Torah. In an age like this, the literal sense of history is too bleak to warrant hope and stimulate renewed life; the interpreted sense is more promising, and the model for how to reinterpret what life gives belongs to the Mishnah and Talmud ...