Understanding Jewish Theology: What is Revelation? May 26, 2006 by Rabbi Stuart W.

Gershon Copyright 2006 Temple Sinai, Summit, NJ Abstract: Every religion relies on revelation as a source of truth. Revelation is at the core of Judaism. For it's only through the revelations vouchsafed to our Patriarchs and to Moses at Mt. Sinai that we know of God, of the Covenant that God made with the Jewish people, of our possession of the land of Israel, of the obligation to observe the mitzvot, the commandments. Despite all this, for most contemporary Jews, revelation is not a pressing concern. Tonights teaching is devoted to the subject of Jewish theology. I would like to begin to explore with you this evening a very important concept of Jewish theology namely -- divine revelation. So tonight I will speak in general terms about the concept of revelation. And then next Friday night, on June 2nd, I will talk about a specific instance of revelation -- what really happened at Mount Sinai? Now why is revelation so important? It is so important because every religion finds its starting point in a revelation. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are what they are precisely because they claim to be in possession of revelation, the true knowledge of Gods will and word. So without that revelation, none of the western religions could exist. What is revelation? Revelation can be defined in two ways. One way is that revelation is the self-disclosure of God. It is the revealing of Gods nature, essence, or attributes. Another way of defining revelation is that revelation is the making known, the revealing, of Gods will and word and commandment to humanity. Every religion relies on revelation as a source of truth. Revelation is at the core of Judaism. For its only through the revelations vouchsafed to our patriarchs and to Moses at Mt. Sinai that we know of God, of the covenant that God made with the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai, of our possession of the land of Israel, of the obligation to observe the mitzvot, the 613 commandments.

Despite all this, for most contemporary Jews, revelation is not a pressing concern. With reason and science as the primary sources of knowledge, revelation gets put on the back burner. And revelation also raises many questions. Does God really speak? Is revelation a supernatural experience or a psychological event within the human mind? Is revelation a unique and incomparable one-time event that occurred in the past or is it a phenomenon that is still ongoing today? Our exploration of revelation begins with the simple phrase that occurs in the sacred texts of all religions: and God spoke, saying. Does God really speak? Traditionalists and fundamentalists say yes, God literally speaks. God may not have a mouth, tongue, or vocal cords but somehow God has a voice that we can hear. And this is a mystery that must be accepted. But what if we cant accept that God literally speaks. Does the concept of revelation lose all meaning for us? The answer is: not at all. The biblical usage of Gods speech does not have to be taken literally. It can be understood as symbolic language or metaphor. God does speak to us but in ways other than words. And we listen in other ways than hearing. God speaks to us through conscience. God speaks to us through the power of reason and logical deduction. God speaks to us through scientific inquiry. God speaks to us through intuition. God speaks to us through love. God speaks to us through art and music. Understood in this way, revelation can be a very real and alive concept for us. What are examples of revelation in Jewish tradition? Well, there are all the great prophets, like Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. But the greatest example of revelation in Judaism is, of course, the revelation that took place at Mount Sinai, culminating in the giving of the Torah. Sinai portrays revelation as a supernatural communication. But some of us are troubled by the view that God would limit revelation to one people alone and to one time in antiquity. However, if we conceptualize revelation in a nonsupernatural way, good things follow. If we try to understand revelation as an internal event that goes on within the human mind or soul rather than an external one, then revelation has much in common with the mental processes of human

creativity. Then Moses experience on Mt. Sinai is not so different from the creative discoveries or breakthroughs experienced by the artist, the musician, or the mathematician. If you are willing to redefine revelation as an inner apprehension of God through our human exercise of heart and mind, then revelation becomes universally accessible and possible even for you and me to experience. Finally, lets talk briefly talk about the issue of the content of revelation. As human beings, we translate the content of Gods communication to us into language, into words. The question arises: how much of that content is Gods and how much of it is human? Let me give you an example. When God says you shall not murder we feel completely confident that the content of that commandment is divine. But what about the commandment attributed to God in the book of Deuteronomy calling upon the Hebrews to kill the men, women, and children of the indigenous peoples living in Canaan? What about the commandment of the crusades to kill the Muslim infidel? What about the commandment today within fundamentalist Islam to engage in holy war against Christians and Jews? Are these commandments divine too? Or are they flawed and fallible human interpretations of what God really wants? Traditional ideas about revelation presume that God alone is the actor in the process of revelation and that humanity has only a passive role in transmitting Gods dictation. But if all the content of revelation is equally divine, then weve got a moral problem on our hands. Just about all contemporary Jewish ideas of revelation acknowledge a substantial human role in the communication of revelation. Human beings cannot simply be passive recipients of the content of revelation. The content of divine revelation is conditioned by its passage through our human apparatus of perception and language. And that human filter is fallible. The concept of revelation raises many questions for us as modern, 21st century Jews. Tonight, Ive tried to answer a few of them: Ive explained how God speaks to us today. Ive explained how revelation can be understood in a more scientific and humanistic manner. Ive explained some of the limits of what we know about the nature of God and what God wants from us. Ive explained how divine revelation is not a one-time event that occurred in the ancient past but rather a phenomenon that you and I can hope to experience in our lifetimes.