Dorshei Yichudcha

The Complexity Essays: #1 A Tale of Two Torahs The issue of the relationship between Torah shebichtav, the Written Torah, and Torah shebe'al Peh, the Oral Torah, has for millennia been one the most controversial topics. Well over two thousand years ago, the great divide between the Saducees and the so-called Rabbinic Jews was just exactly the Sadducees' refusal to accept the Oral Tradition. Far from a bygone issue, a contemporary outreach teacher reports that this issue is one the main ones that prevent people from accepting the beliefs of Torah Judaism (R. Mordechai Neugroschal, introduction to his commentary on Maharal's Be'er HaGolah). In simple terms, the difficulty lies in the fact that the Torah seems to be saying one thing while the Oral Tradition, and thus Halacha, has it saying something altogether different. Some people find this disconcerting, and demand proof for the very existence of an oral interpretation. The response has traditionally been to add...

Eleventh-century Saadiah Gaon, in his classic HaEmunot ve'haDei'ot, offers a surprisingly postmodern-sounding interpretation of King David's "Ma Rabu Ma'asecha Hashem." The conventional rendition is "how great are your creations, O God," but Saadiah's version has it, "How complex are your works, O God." Complexity is the hallmark of Creation, whether in the form of the incomprehensible makeup of the elegant universe, the depths of the human psyche, or the realities of interpersonal and political relationships. While we may gravitate toward the simple because of the comfort it affords us, rarely can simplicity give us an accurate picture of reality.  Complexity at its most basic level means simply many parts working in unison. But an often inevitable feature of complexity is that of ostensibly contradictory forces coming together to form something bigger. Thesis, antithesis and synthesis serve as the building blocks of our wor...