Question

Hello, 
I just read your columns on studying the Hebrew Bible (134, 135) and there is something that still isn’t clear to me. 
You argued that, from your perspective, there is no value in studying the Hebrew Bible because all the values you can learn from it are “trivial.” And every time you encounter a value that is not trivial, you will interpret the biblical text in a way that fits your own values, so in any case you won’t learn anything new. 
On the other hand, your words implied that in the past this was not so: our ancestors did not find these values trivial, and they learned them from the Hebrew Bible. 
It seems to me that there is a contradiction here. After all, even a Jew who lived three thousand years ago and received the Hebrew Bible fresh from Mount Sinai would have had an already formed and ordered worldview shaped by his culture, and his study of the Hebrew Bible would not have taught him anything new either (either he already knows it, or he disagrees and will interpret the verses in a way that fits his values). 
And if you would say that he really could learn values from the Hebrew Bible, what is different between him and us—enlightened Jews of the 21st century?
Another thing that is not clear to me: where did those cultural values that you already believe in originally come from? What was their initial source?
I would appreciate some clarification of your remarks. (Or a reference to a place where you have already dealt with these issues.)
Thank you.