The Torah doesn't mind being repetitive. At the same time, one of the main principles of Biblical interpretation - known as
exegesis - is that there's nothing extraneous in the text. Well, that's a central tenet of rabbinic exegesis anyway.
Those two concepts might appear contradictory, but they're not. Yes, the Bible is incredibly repetitive... but that repetition is ITSELF meant to teach us something! One example of this is the famous verse, "Do not cook a [goat] kid in it's mother's milk," which actually appears THREE times in the Torah - Ex. 23:19, Ex. 34:26, and Deut. 14:21. The very fact that it is stated thrice is interpreted by the rabbis to mean it's important! So how do we extrapolate from this to other incessant... um, I mean fascinating... repetitions? This week, our Torah reading includes BOTH the Ten Commandments AND perhaps the most famous Jewish prayer, Shema Yisrael. Yet, what caught my eye as I read the text was something else that is stated, restated, restated again, and then... well, you get the idea.
Did you know that idolatry is bad? Yeah, caught me by surprise too. Seems the Torah isn't much of a fan. I've read this Torah portion
many times, so I sat down and prepared to write about the Big Ten or the Shema... but couldn't help but notice that before, during, and even AFTER these central tenets, the text harps on about the dangers of idolatry over and over again. I've included my research at the bottom of this post, but my initial count yielded TWELVE separate references to the abomination of idolatrous worship, in just four chapters of Deuteronomy. Several times, the text simply reminds everyone that there's only ONE GOD, while other instances explicitly condemn, reject, admonish, rebuke, scorn, chastise, and chide the people for previous offenses as well as potential (almost assumed...) future temptations. So yeah, pretty crystal clear on worshiping other gods... it's a BIG no-no.
Now, we're only talking here about ONE Torah portion; I think it's safe to say that the people are reminded of this prohibition a couple (dozen) other times as well.
So back to the rabbinic principle I began with, what deeper meaning could/should we extract from all this? If saying something three times means it's significant... what about a concern that is echoed exponentially more often?? My feeling is, idolatry is more complicated and insidious than we think. You may not keep a small sanctuary of house gods in your home, but I think our Tradition is trying to suggest its still lurking out there somewhere... ready to pounce on you regardless! When you read the books of the Biblical prophets, one thing you might notice is that pagan worship is particularly egregious because of something potentially surprising.
Humans seem to be particularly susceptible to marveling at their own ability to create. We are just super-impressed by... well, US! And idolatry, interestingly enough, is often described throughout the Bible as being about worshiping that which you, yourself, created. Gods of stone, wood, clay... but also money, power,
influence, and fame. Being faithful to God - at least ideally - is meant to create a sense of humility in us, realizing that there's more to this world than what I see in front of me. There's also something "else," something inexplicable, indefinable, and even unseen. When you see it this way, you might discern that the core of the Ten Commandments AND the Shema AND perhaps the Bible as a whole, is this sense of humility, gratitude, and acceptance that we are not in control. Idolatry is the opposite of all that. It's not about the act itself, but what it says about us and how we view the world. Framed this way, we might understand why the text is so emphatically opposed to idol worship... and also why it needs to repeat it again and again. Idolatry plagues us still, and is the root of so many problems across the globe. So maybe we still have more to learn? I guess it bears repeating just one more time...
CC images in this blog post, courtesy of:
Mentions of idolatry in Va-Etchanan:
1. Deuteronomy 4:3-4
2. 4:15-19
3. 4:23
4. 4:25
5. 4:28
6. 4:35 (God alone)
7. 4:39 (God alone)
8. 5:7 (1st commandment - no other gods)
9. 5:8-10 (2nd commandment - graven images)
10. 6:13-14
11. 7:4-5
12. 7:9 (God alone)
No comments:
Post a Comment