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Dear Self,
You've just been reminded that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jakal88 doesn't do deep thinking late at night, and beyond that, that he reacts to concerns as problems to be solved, in rather classic male fashion. Therefore asking him to help you process theological concerns rather than finding solutions to pragmatic concerns, starting somewhere around midnight, is just going to be heavy going, no matter what.
Love and Sighs,
The Practical Female Part
That said- somehow I ended up very mildly freaking out about my inability to convey to others nor really to express to myself my view of the religious significance/origin/source of Torah, especially Torah she'b'al peh. I know that I do separate "divine origin", "cultural impact" and "human error" lenses, which I apply not only one at a time but overlapping as well. But since I have never had a crisis of 'what if this stuff doesn't come from G-d? If not, why should I follow it?", I feel like I neither have a worthwhile answer for that question, nor do I have the depth of explanatory tools that people who have had that experience are given through the sharing of that experience with other people who have had it, are having it, or the like. I feel like I've developed these different lenses, and I use them well, but when it comes to Torah she'b'al peh especially, I somehow assimilated its importance without having an answer to that question of "why" on a verbal level. It isn't that I think that G-d gave us every word of it exactly as it is- but it is derived from Tanakh to some extent, and perhaps I am trusting to the passage of time and religious passion to have refined it rather than polluting it. But I know that I haven't given it the attention that the question deserves- because all I hear is an either/or question (either it is from God, and therefore perfect, or it isn't and therefore worthless), and I've already rejected one side of that (the latter) without having needed to give it so much thought- it makes it hard to continue on: I think best by discussing, and most of the folks I talk to aren't working from any of the same starting points that I am.
You've just been reminded that
jakal88 doesn't do deep thinking late at night, and beyond that, that he reacts to concerns as problems to be solved, in rather classic male fashion. Therefore asking him to help you process theological concerns rather than finding solutions to pragmatic concerns, starting somewhere around midnight, is just going to be heavy going, no matter what.Love and Sighs,
The Practical Female Part
That said- somehow I ended up very mildly freaking out about my inability to convey to others nor really to express to myself my view of the religious significance/origin/source of Torah, especially Torah she'b'al peh. I know that I do separate "divine origin", "cultural impact" and "human error" lenses, which I apply not only one at a time but overlapping as well. But since I have never had a crisis of 'what if this stuff doesn't come from G-d? If not, why should I follow it?", I feel like I neither have a worthwhile answer for that question, nor do I have the depth of explanatory tools that people who have had that experience are given through the sharing of that experience with other people who have had it, are having it, or the like. I feel like I've developed these different lenses, and I use them well, but when it comes to Torah she'b'al peh especially, I somehow assimilated its importance without having an answer to that question of "why" on a verbal level. It isn't that I think that G-d gave us every word of it exactly as it is- but it is derived from Tanakh to some extent, and perhaps I am trusting to the passage of time and religious passion to have refined it rather than polluting it. But I know that I haven't given it the attention that the question deserves- because all I hear is an either/or question (either it is from God, and therefore perfect, or it isn't and therefore worthless), and I've already rejected one side of that (the latter) without having needed to give it so much thought- it makes it hard to continue on: I think best by discussing, and most of the folks I talk to aren't working from any of the same starting points that I am.