Interfaith Shoftim

[pohaikawahine]

dauer .... when you say that you reject 'prophecy', what do you mean by prophecy? i only ask because the whole concept of the 'regathering' i would call prophecy .... to prophecize is simply to predict or project .... so perhaps we have a different interpretation of the word 'prophecy' .... is it that you reject 'prophets' as opposed to 'prophecy' .... which makes me think what is the difference between a prophet and a mystic .... I suspect they are really the same, and in my view we are all prophets .... we are all mystics .... when we open our eyes and see with our souls ....

that is also interesting about capital letters because i have written this way for many years without capital letters .... but i do it as an exercise to diminish the natural ego tendencies .... for example i don't sign my name with a capital letter .... so are capitals not generally used in judaism or just in particular texts .... i've seen capitals used when vowels are not included ....

aloha nui, pohaikawahine

[dauer]

Poh,

I reject the regathering. I reject the divine origin of the Torah. I don't believe the moshiach is coming (although I do have my own moshiachy beliefs about a utopian future, and certainly do flirt with the concept of some individual coming and saving something in some way, maybe like Gandhi did, in some part of the world, where I might happen to be, because it's satisfying on a subjective level. I don't believe Moses was necessarily a real person, although I believe it may be possible, though certainly not as described in the Torah. I reject prophecy but I don't reject prophets. Prophecy is related to the concept of the oracle, the seer, the definition of a prophet is highly debatable but I'm going to say a prophet is merely someone who is brave enough to speak up against some terrible human action or collective action, empowered by God or pride or whatever else. Of course, if we're speaking biblically, this only covers a certain genre of prophets, those crazy rabble-rousing ones. One other genre might have more to do with the mystic. Like the ones wandering around having ecstatic fits. I think we have the length of time taken to complete the writing and compilation of the Tanach to blame. If it had all happened overnight, navi could only mean one thing. Unless it happened in many places.

Hebrew doesn't have any capital letters at all. All English texts that are Jewish have capitals.

Dauer

Edit: I'm open to the possibility that the Torah is divine if everything is divine, but that is merely my all or nothing approach to this issue. I don't believe that that everything is divine, nor do I disbelieve.

second edit: I'm closing this thread tomorrow. Please feel free to continue any discussion via PM or on the board where it belongs.

[Bandit]

not all of Israel believes that way about prophecy. that is just your personal belief. right dauer?

[dauer]

Correct. Judaism is not a religion of faith so much as it is a religion of action, so our beliefs tend to vary quite a bit.

Dauer

[dauer]

This thread is being locked and freeze-dried for posterity. Please feel free to read or review it at your leisure. The parsha following this one is "Ki Seitzei."

Dauer