Excellent book! - A few proofs author neglected to mention

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	• Permission to Receive Lawrence Kelemen Targum, 1996 - 232 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Methodical approach to determine the source of the bible

If you need conclusive proof that the Five Books of Moses were given to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, I'm afraid you'll never find it. In Permission to Receive, however, Rabbi Kelemen presents four arguments to support the contention of Traditional Judaism that the Israelites as a nation did, in fact, receive both the Oral (Talmud) and Written (Five Books of Moses) Law at Mt. Sinai via Divine revelation. Presented in methodical manner, it is an easy and informative read. The arguments examine whether the narrative and code of conduct presented in the Oral and Written Law is congruent with logical reasoning in regards to the initiating mechanism forming the religion (i.e. Divine source or man developed), archeological evidence, and the sociological behavior of Traditional Jews. While each of the four arguments on their own merits are insufficient as proofs as to whether the revelation at Mt. Sinai occurred, together they form a whole that point toward that conclusion.

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If you already believe, this makes you feel good

The book is not bad. If you are already sure or pretty sure that the bible is of totally divine origin, than this sure helps to solidy that view and provides a couple of logical/rational arguments to counter opposing viewpoints. But, for someone who is questioning, they are not convinced and also feel somewhat patronized because the author tries to pull idea over on you as if you were an idiot. One of the chapters too, the one that argues that the Jewish people and particularly the state of Israel is objectively superior in basically all ways to other nations of world is also basically a lie of a chapter. The statistics are lifted out of context and unfortunately ignore the many, many problems, economic and otherwise that literally plague the Jewish community, particularly in Israel.
But, its short, an easy read, and worth a glance.

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Permission or Obligation to Receive?

Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen's "Permission to Receive" follows his book "Permission to Believe". In the latter Kelemen argues for the existence of God; in this book he argues for the central claim of Orthodox Judaism, that the Torah is God's immutable word. "Permission to Receive" is superior to "Permission to Believe", in my opinion, and can be read independently. It also seems to me that some of the evidence that God revealed the Torah is also evidence that God exists.
Kelemen presents two arguments for the divine origin of the Torah. First, he explains why God is likely to have revealed himself, and why the Torah is the best candidate for this revelation. He eliminates religions that accept the Torah's divine origin but then ignore its frequent assertions of immutability.
Secondly, he argues that the Torah's unique account of national revelation makes it very improbable that it is a man-made fabrication. Kelemen also briefly responds to the claims of the documentary hypothesis about the origins of the Torah; for a more extensive and stunning rebuttal of the documentary hypothesis, I recommend Umberto Cassuto's "The Documentary Hypothesis".
Kelemen subsequently responds to two arguments against the divine origin of the Torah. First, he responds to the claim that the Torah isn't historically accurate by drawing extensively from the archaeological record. For a more detailed and up-to-date defence of the historical accuracy of the Hebrew Bible generally, I recommend Kenneth Kitchen's "On the Reliability of the Old Testament".
Kitchen shows how the archaeological and textual evidence places the authorship of the Torah in the late second millennium BCE, close to the time of the events described. I think that this means that human authors would have had an even more difficult time convincing Israel to accept the Torah than Kelemen suggests in his second argument, because the national memory of the events would have been strong. While Kelemen shows how the evidence here is consistent with the Torah, he does not emphasise how the evidence confirms the Torah's account.
He also responds to an argument against the divine origin of the Torah from the claim that the Torah does not improve people ethically by showing how its adherents and their descendants have been significantly more successful in marriage, education and charity and suffer significantly less from alcoholism, drugs and criminality than other groups, with religious Jews significantly outperforming non-religious Jews in many respects. The ethical influence of the Torah further confirms its divine origin.
Kelemen argues clearly and with impeccable scholarship. His arguments are individually powerful and cumulatively compelling. I recommend this book both for Jews who don't believe in the divine origin of the Torah and for those who do, for Kelemen emphasises the importance of the subject and his conclusion for all. I also recommend Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb's book "Living Up to the Truth", which covers some similar arguments for the divine origin of the Torah along with other arguments, and can be read online.

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Well written & engrossing but, I'm not convinced

I believe in G-d and I consider Torah to be holy but, I am not convinced that it was literally revealed by G-d at Sinai. I have read Kelemen's earlier book entitled "Permission to Believe." In that book, he argues for the existence of G-d and I agree with his conclusion, in that book, that G-d is real. This book, howver, did not convince me that the nature of G-d is such that He literally revealed Himself. Nonetheless, Kelemen makes a well reasoned argument.

Of four arguments that he makes, the most compelling is that if Torah was not revealed and if the Torah states within it that there were over 600,000 adult males who witnessed it, then later generations would ask previous generations about the event. If the revelation did not take place, when the Torah was "foisted" on us by those claiming it was revealed, those receiving it would ask why they had not heard about it from earlier generations. In other words, Kelemen argues that the divine revelation must have taken place because the Torah states that everyone gathered at the foot of Mt. Sinai and if this were untrue, then later descendents of those who were there would have asked, "if the description of the revelation was untrue, wouldn't Grandpa have told us?" Kelemen is stating that if the Torah was later foisted upon us, earlier generations would have revealed its falsity by stating that they were not aware of Torah being revealed and if it had been, they would have been told by their fathers and grandfathers who were there. Kelemen's argument would be compleing except for the fact that the Torah sets forth events taking place subsequent to Sinai, therefore, the finished document could not have been revealed. Rather, it makes more sense that first, the commandments were revealed and the historical account later became part of the finished product. If Torah evolved, then it was not, in fact foisted suddenly. It is easy to see how this evolving legend became accepted because earlier generations were versed in the growing traditions of law. Only, many generations later did the finished document state that it was revealed in front of all the people. Since there was already an eveolving Torah, no one would question events described therein since it was not suddenly written from scrtach.

Kelemen also argues that scientific evidence proves the divine revelation of the Torah. I don't agree. The fact that archeological evidence indicates that there may have been a flood, for example, merely indicates that there was a historic basis for what was written in the Torah, not that the story of Noah and the Ark is true. I certainly agree that there is a fair amount of history in the Torah but this history is general and does not prove the truth of the specific events set forth. Another example given by Keleman is the theory that there was an original ancestor known by scientists as "Eve." However, there was an evolution resulting in this ancestor. Of course we have a common ancestor but, this common ancestor was not created from dust with "Eve" being created from Adam's rib. General truisms do not point to divine revelation.

Another argument of Kelemen's is that we are a very ethical people, more so than any other people. If this is true, it does not prove the divine revelation. Rather, it proves that, as a people, we did very well in our efforts to discover G-d.

I believe in G-d, and I am a practicing Jew. I believe, as does Rabbi Neil Gilman (in several of his books) that G-d is very real and that He is discovered, not revealed. Torah is a very holy record of our discovery of G-d. G-d is unfathomable but, concrete religious wrtings, such as Torah make G-d into an image that we can fathom. That's why Torah is holy, because it has lead us to discover G-d. Again, the book is well written and interesting but, it did not convince me of a literal divine revelation.

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Excellent book! - A few proofs author neglected to mention

This is the best book on the subject that I have ever read. However, here are two additional proofs the author neglected to mention.

1) Although the author convincingly proves that the Torah could not have been written sometime later in history (the Missing Hero argument), he does not do a good job proving that Moses did not write it or transmit it. However, this is implausible because the Torah states about a half dozen places such statements as "You approached and stood at the foot of the mountain. The mountain was burning with a fire reaching the heart of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and mist. Then God spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sounds of words, but saw no image, there was only a voice. And he said to you his covenant that he commanded you to do" (Deuteronomy 4:11-13).

Note the constant use of the word "you". Had Moses made up the events, written them down, and distributed them to the people, upon reading it they would have said to him something to the effect of: "These events that you are describing never occurred! You are a fraud!" And they would have proceeded to burn the Torah. Moreover, they would have never related the event to their children as diligently as they have, since millions of parents could not be expected to collectively lie to their children about an event they had supposedly witnessed (there is no precedent of such a thing ever happening).

2) One proof against other religions, such as Christianity and Islam that the author neglects, is that they, unlike Judaism, acknowledge that one of their adherents can cease to be a member of their religion and to become a member of another religion by converting to it. Presumably if they believe this to be the case then it follows that in their conception G-d acknowledges this to be the case as well, since the beliefs of religions embody God's beliefs. Otherwise G-d has failed in ensuring that his faith has been disseminated accurately. An unlikely scenario.

However, if there is only one correct religion then all other religions are false, and therefore not acknowledged by God as religions at all. If this is so, how could God or his adherents acknowledge conversion to a religion that does not exist in their framework? God might be able to acknowledge that someone has stopped practicing God's religion or even that he has left the religion to practice no religion at all. But to convert to a nonexistent religion is impossible. Furthermore, considering that God is kind and good, would he allow one of his adherents to leave to practice a religion that God himself knows to be false? In Judaism, however, once someone is born a Jew he is never acknowledged to be "not Jewish" no matter how many religions he converts to.

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Four rational approaches to the Torah's Divine Origin, for those who value both intellectual integrity and the Jewish spiritual inheritance.

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