How do I deal with this problem? I remind myself that the God of the Bible is the product of Biblical authors who lived thousands of years ago in the Ancient Near East, who had their own unique way of understanding who God was and how God behaved. But I also remind myself that the Jewish understanding of God does not begin and end with the God of the Bible.

Throughout the evolution of Jewish civilization, there has always been a spectrum of Jewish theologies. (There is, for instance, the God of the Talmud/Midrash, the God of the early Jewish mystics, the God of Medieval Jewish philosophy, the God of Lurianic Kabbalah, the God of modern Jewish rationalism, the God of post-Holocaust philosophy, etc, etc.)

Some of these theologies we will agree with, some we won’t. Some we will find inspiring, some we will find repugnant. That’s OK. I would suggest that the sancity of our sacred texts does not come from the literal meaning of their words, but rather the fact that they are a record of our own people’s sacred struggles – a process that has been ongoing from Jewish generation to generation.

I’d love to hear from others as well!

Rabbi Brant Rosen

Another exmaple is the battle of Jericho. In this the Israelites killed every man, woman, and child in the city as well as the oxen, sheep, and asses. Apparently this was OK by God.

In fact, in Deuteronomy God instructs the Israelis on how do deal with enemy cities in the territories which God gave the Jews. The instruction is “not to leave single soul alive”.

There are many other instances like this. I would like to ask Rabbi Rosen (or others) how they deal with these problems.

- Dan Solomon

Teaching moment.

Says I, “Son, you’re right. But remember: God is a god, not a person. People are people, not gods. It takes a long time for them to understand each other in this book. God confronts Adam and Eve, and they don’t ‘fess up; they pass the blame, so he throws them out of the garden. God says he’ll destroy the earth, and Noah never argues; he just builds the ark. It’s not until Abraham that someone figures out how to argue with God, and even then, he fails. Only Moses gets it right, and makes God back down from destroying the whole people: ‘Do you know what the Egyptians will say,” he asks God, ‘if you do?’

From which we learn, as Jews: when you screw up, you’re supposed to admit it, and when the Powers that Be start killing, you’re supposed to blunt the blow.”

Or as my son puts it now, in religious school classes, much to his classmates’ chagrin: “Just because God says it or does it, doesn’t mean it’s right.”

(I love the elegance, by the way, of killing both the strong and the weak to end a system where the weak are oppressed by the strong. It’s utterly inhuman, but hey, if you’re an immortal being, what’s such a big deal about wiping the slate clean to start over? Maybe human death means as little to you as some two-year-old crisis, like misplacing a favorite washcloth, means to a grown up.)

Glad to have you on the case, Rav.

It is also critical to note that the Flood is portrayed by Torah as more than simply a “death sentence” for Noah’s generation – it was nothing short of a wholesale reversing of the process of Creation. The earth was overrun with the primordial waters, wiping out every living thing that breathed – including animal life. It is fair to interpret God’s promise at the end of the story – to never again destroy the earth in such a way – was in some measure an admission for the need for “divine restraint” in the future.

Thanks for weighing in, everyone!

Rabbi Brant Rosen

You make it all sound pretty black and white, and I think Torah is anything but. Recall in the story of Noah itself the rainbow and G-d’s covenant never to destroy all flesh again by way of a flood again (Genesis 9:14-18). That doesn’t exactly sound like a ringing endorsement for bringing on the flood in the first place or being supportive of capital punishment. Also, I believe commentators have also weighed in over the years as well. Maybe some read Torah to support capital punishment and others not — but the point is — its not black and white.

Brad