"There Are 70 Faces To The Torah"
(Numbers Rabbah 13:15)

By Rabbi Ed Romm
Director of Education and the Center on Campus of the United Synagogue
Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center For Conservative Judaism.

"Is the Torah true?" Was the world really created in the way it is described in the Torah? Was there really an Adam and Eve? At the core of these and other questions is the very understanding of the nature of Torah. To a fundamentalist, these types of questions would not even arise.

What does the Torah mean to someone who was trained in critical methodology and textual criticism? Without hesitation I am able to say that I believe that every word written in the Torah is true. Before accusing me of backpedalling...please read on. The Torah was never meant to be understood as a scientific text. Rather the Torah is a religious book, reflecting religious truth. It describes the way our tradition views our relationship to God, God's relationship to us and our mutual obligations to the Divine and each other.

The Torah records the precious testimony of our ancestors and their religious worldview. It is the very foundation of our religious civilization. Through the development of the Oral Tradition and interpretation, countless generations were able to expand upon the core message and present it in a way which spoke to the spiritual needs of each generation.

When our ancestors responded "Na’aseh v’nishma" ("we will do and we will hear") to the Divine call, they set the way for us to follow. Judaism, a product of the Eastern World, emphasizes "correct behavior" over "correct thinking". A traditional Jewish question is not "What do you believe?" but rather, "What is the Halakhah (law)?" It is the gift of Halakhah that brings us near to our Creator, it is the gift of the Torah with its "70 faces" that keeps the eternal message in our actions and in our hearts.

[Posted 2/9/05]