The Gift of the Jews

I enjoyed thoroughly this book by Thomas Cahill. There are so many areas of the Jewish tradition that we, as Westerners, are absolutely unfamiliar with that this book serves to shed much light in understanding the Bible. Cahill's insight into human nature, coupled with his familiarity with the ancient religions, history and culture, make this a valuable companion of the Bible. I will only highlight three points that Cahill makes that really strike me.

1. Nothing so quickly provokes the urge to sin as an extended meditation on virtue (p 148). Cahill is referring to how our human nature is actually so different from our virtuous / religious front. He quotes John Henry Newman: "It is religion itself which we all by nature dislike, not the excess merely." The Ten Commandments, which many associate with religion, or religious activities, or even God, basically show us how much we do not want to follow them, or any rules or regulations for that matter, and the more we are forced to obey these commandments, the more we want to rebel. That's exactly what the Israelites did with the golden calf and the orgies that follow as rules after rules were dumped upon them. No wonder we need a change of heart, a fresh realization that walking with God is more than just following a bunch of rules!

2. If you have more than you need, you are a thief, for what you "own" is stolen from those who do not have enough (p 214). This really strikes me hard ... Isaiah and Jeremiah, among others, speak about the injustice that have been done to other fellow beings. It is so easy to dismiss their prophetic voice because we hardly think that we have been unjust to those around us. But it is true that in this world's economy, if one gains anything, someone else must have lost something. And if I own more than I really need, I essentially have stolen from someone else!

3. It is no longer possible to believe that every word of the Bible was inspired by God (p 245). There are actually lots of examples that can be quoted ... such as the low value attached to woman in the Bible, the command to kill each other in the golden calf incident (Exo. 32:27) after God explicitly stated that Thou shall not kill, the mass carnages that proliferate many parts of the Bible. But Cahill does admit that the experience on which this story is based is inspired - that the evolution of Jewish consciousness, taking place as it did over so many centuries, was animated and kept warm by the breadth of God. We must be careful how we read the Bible!