Originally published 5/9/08, 1:56 AM.
To be honest, I have always had somewhat of a problem with the Chidon HaTanach. Of course, such knowledge of the Tanach is important and I am very impressed with the knowledge of Tanach that participants gained. But something always bothered me -- the written Torah can never stand alone. The very mark of our Torah, the uniquely Jewish understanding of Torah, is that it consisted of, right from the beginning, an Oral Torah and a Written Torah. The focus on the Written Torah in the Chidon, especially in all the preparation leading up to the contests, simply bothered me. Its not the Jewish way.
What occurred this week with the controversy over the Messianic girl who was a participant in this year's quiz only proves my point. The Written Bible is deemed to be significant to many beyond just the Jewish world. It was the fundamentalist Christian faith, in the guise of Messianic Judaism, that led to this girl's proficiency in the Bible. For the Chidon to be uniquely Jewish, it must apply the uniquely Jewish understanding of a written Tanach that cannot stand apart from the Oral Torah.
I am not sure how it would be implemented, but, to be uniquely Jewish, the Chidon must include the Torah She'b'al Peh. There must be questions from midrashim on the pesukim as well as from aggadata on the pesukim. This way, we would not again have a problem with a Messianic in the contest. More importantly, though, the contest would be uniquely Jewish.
Rabbi Ben Hecht
2 comments:
The same people who want to keep the Messianist out are the descendants of the old sports team owners who didn't want to recruit black players 50 years ago. Their teams quickly sank to the bottom.
Disqualifying the competition quickly leads to mediocrity amongst the remaining players. You want to show this girl up? Produce a winner than can top her. If she wins the contest fair and square, what does that say about the Torah-true entries?
The fact is that this may actually not be true. Since the contest concerns specifically the Bible, Torah She'b'ktav, who is to say that someone with a true Jewish education that includes Torah She'b'al Peh, would be able to match someone whose total focus is the written text. I remember when Nishma (with Jews for Judaism) brought in J. David Davis, the former Baptist minister who became a Noachide, to speak in Toronto, it came up that his knowledge of the written text, the Bible, was far more superior that the knowledge of Tanach of the average rabbi. The reason is very simple. The greater need, and thus the focus of our education, is for a rabbi to be proficient in gemara and meforshim. Don't assume that a Torah-true student will necessarily be superior to a Messianic in Bible. That is their one and only focus. Ours is really Torah She'b'al Peh and so it should be. To me, the need is for the Chidon to be more Jewish and thus to include midrashim and the like, simply to become specifically Jewish.
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