Scriptures and Talmud – What is Reality and What is Parable?

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Yaron Yadan 09/29/2006

Scriptures and Talmud – What is Reality and What is Parable?

The method of allegorical interpretation is not consistent and the reader cannot tell when something is parable and when it is not.

The Torah Spoke in a Human Manner

Chazal's view of the Scriptures is ambivalent. Sometimes it speaks in a human manner, sometimes in cryptic ways, sometime precisely, all based on the Sages' whim.

The Body of G-d

The Sages of the Talmud thought that G-d has a body and human qualities.

What the Dead Feel and What They Say

Chazal's faith in talking souls and the Scriptural permission to embalm a body and cremate it.

Talmudic Interpretations of the Mishnah — Puzzling, Odd, and Strange

- Interpreters of the Mishnah turned the Mishnah into an absurd laughingstock.

Each generation and its own Holy Writ

The Holy Writ was finalized in the first centuries CE according to arbitrary decisions by the Sages.