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I am a non-practicing Jew, and the inability of Jews to admit that Leviticus is not very good writing nor very good law, and at times outright shameful and evil, is the non-starter for me regarding Jewish theology.


Oct
21
comment Should anyone be burned to death?
@HodofHod: Yes, exactly, and so must you. It is a sin to do otherwise. Regarding this question, I wonder if violating the biblical injunction is the source of the inexplicable popularity of "The Graduate"?
Mar
27
comment Should anyone be burned to death?
@Will: The text is advocating death by burning for 1. a man who sleeps with a woman and her daughter 2. a Priest's daughter who whores herself. Neither crime seems to me to be particularly egregious. The only reason for such torture-punishments is terrorizing people into compliance, and terror of this sort is evil of the worst kind. I know Judaism doesn't do this, but it is not enough to stop doing it, one must honestly confront the cause of this law, and excise this evil influence from one's culture. It is not enough to wriggle out of it by clever lawyering.
Mar
8
accepted Should anyone be burned to death?
Mar
8
comment Should anyone be burned to death?
@HodofHod: I agree about this--- right and wrong are concepts that have meaning because God gives them meaning. But it's not through the worst horrors of Leviticus that God does so. I believe in God, not in Leviticus. It seems that there is no Jewish sect that is willing to reject this stuff, and nobody who will say it is wrong. That's the answer.
Mar
8
comment Should anyone be burned to death?
@HodofHod: I believe that God determines those ethics, and that those ethics do not include stoning or burning. That implies that those abhorrent parts of Leviticus, sorry to inform you, are just not the word of God.
Feb
25
comment Should anyone be burned to death?
@YDK: I don't believe in relative ethics, but in absolute ethics. Isn't that the whole point of monotheism? Barbaric practices such as this have only one goal--- terrorizing people into submission to religious authority, and it is a damnable practice. The holy people are those rabbis that put a stop to this nonsense.
Feb
25
comment Should anyone be burned to death?
@Will: I would commit such a crime in front of whatever witnesses are required in order to protest the inhuman totalitarianism such a law imposes. It must be denounced, and I guess none of the Jewish denominations have the courage to denounce it. Pity.
Feb
22
awarded  Scholar
Feb
19
comment Should anyone be burned to death?
+1: This does add something for me. I think then that the answer for condemnation is "no". It seems then that Jewish tradition doesn't find it easy to retract past positions, as for example, the Catholics did regarding Galileo.
Feb
19
awarded  Supporter
Feb
19
comment Should anyone be burned to death?
+1 from me too. I agree that the Rabbinical tradition is as important as the literal Biblical reading. It does allow a person to go on. But I suppose that the implicit answer to the condemnation question is "no, no condemnation" regarding the original written version of the law and its original religious court practice.
Feb
18
awarded  Student
Feb
18
awarded  Editor
Feb
18
revised Should anyone be burned to death?
explain motivation
Feb
18
asked Should anyone be burned to death?