IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
I just got off the phone with a good Jewish friend. We were talking about how there were simply stories in teh Bible that we wish would suddenly vanish from the text. For example, those verses which simply assume that slavery is an inevitable and this is how to deal with it, or verses that demonstrate the oppresion of women, and even genocide.
I said to my friend, well, you and I wish that those parts of the text weren't there, but there are those who don't feel that way. What they do instead is try to justify i.e. the slavery, the oppression of women, and the genocide.
So I hope that this thread will engender a dialogue between the two groups, those who are embarassed and those who justify.
You can choose any passage of scripture to discuss that you want, but for those who need a starting point, how about we discuss the fact that Sarah gave her slave to Abraham to wife. This means that Abraham was basically having sex with Hagar without Hagar's consent, since the very definition of a chattel slave is one whose life belongs to another and who has no choice but to do as he/she is commanded. And if there is no consent, that, by modern understanding, is rape.
I find this story to be horrifying. I know, I know, I've been told by so many people that you can't expect people from history to be held to the same morals that we have today. BUT the Torah is supposed to be the word of God. It is supposed to be the book that we go to in order to learn to be better, more decent human beings.
Okay, folks, commence....
I said to my friend, well, you and I wish that those parts of the text weren't there, but there are those who don't feel that way. What they do instead is try to justify i.e. the slavery, the oppression of women, and the genocide.
So I hope that this thread will engender a dialogue between the two groups, those who are embarassed and those who justify.
You can choose any passage of scripture to discuss that you want, but for those who need a starting point, how about we discuss the fact that Sarah gave her slave to Abraham to wife. This means that Abraham was basically having sex with Hagar without Hagar's consent, since the very definition of a chattel slave is one whose life belongs to another and who has no choice but to do as he/she is commanded. And if there is no consent, that, by modern understanding, is rape.
I find this story to be horrifying. I know, I know, I've been told by so many people that you can't expect people from history to be held to the same morals that we have today. BUT the Torah is supposed to be the word of God. It is supposed to be the book that we go to in order to learn to be better, more decent human beings.
Okay, folks, commence....