theliq
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- Jul 12, 2011
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Kvetch: My (chabad) copy of the Torah online has this translation of Devarim:
6 For you are a holy people to the Lord, your God: the Lord your God has chosen you to be His treasured people, out of all the peoples upon the face of the earth.
7 Not because you are more numerous than any people did the Lord delight in you and choose you, for you are the least of all the peoples
8 But because of the Lord's love for you, and because He keeps the oath He swore to your forefathers, the Lord took you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.
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It should be clear from those verses - more in context - that we are NOT to view ourselves as special, but GOD's Love. And that it is GOD's Grace that He chose us, not on account of any merit of our own. Indeed we remind ourselves of that every Yom Kippur in prayers such as the 'Aveinu Malkeinu'........
It is specifically to AVOID that possible sin, that the Reconstructionists have replaced 'chosen' references in their liturgy, even within the blessings over Torah. They do not say 'Who has chosen us from among all the nations.....' instead it's 'Who has drawn us near to serve Him'.
While I see the Torah as an eternal love letter from our Creator - I see Judaism as our response to His Love, and in that our understanding of the text is continually 'unfolding', blossoming into greater revelations as we grow in spiritual stature and are able to perceive more and more. That is a Jewish vision of 'progressive revelation'......
Speaking of spiritual stature, this quote I find applies - though it was initially made with regard to science. Of course to a Jew (or a Scholastic Christian!), the physical natural world is a function of GOD's Creativity - so it can only show us Truth.
"If we see far, it is because we stand on the shoulders of giants."
Goodness Me "Jewish VISION OF PROGRESSIVE REVELATION.....????????????NO THANK YOU Marg.............