(C) Rabbi Menachem Creditor
It is not, as some believe, a "post-rabbinic age", but rather a
"re-rabbinic age."
It is time for the Torah's meanings to be reunderstood, both by
utilizing classic rabbinic interpretations, and by replacing some of
them based on particular contemporary definitions of Authentic
Judaism.
We must, as Buber put it, extricate the Torah from the "rubble of
rabbinism," but good excavation doesn't raze ruins. It carefully
reveals and recovers the beauty of a solid foundation by identifying
and removing debris. Not all earlier rabbinic scaffolding requires
replacement. Some does.
I believe it is urgent that we must take our places as mythic poets
and legal decisors - as living incarnations of the sages we meet in
traditional Jewish text - and to cultivate the language of our Jewish
souls as we wield that very language (and, most importantly, the deeds
that flow so well from it) in service of the world.
Our most vital task is to situate ourselves squarely within the mythic
Jewish framework that resonates across (and beyond) the passage of
time, and to continue addressing the aches of the universe with an
authentic, alive Jewish response.
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Rabbi Menachem Creditor
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