Q&A: Scripture
Scripture
Question
Hello,
I often come across, in your replies to readers—too often, in my opinion—the statement: Scripture does not interest me. Could you sketch out the boundaries of your lack of interest in Scripture? If, for example, Scripture contained a list of the kings of England from its founding until today, and a reader were to draw your attention to that as evidence, ostensibly, that the Torah was not given to Moses, would you dismiss him with the statement, "Scripture does not interest me"? In my humble opinion, many times an answer like this from you rather resembles the example I gave.
Answer
The boundary is Scripture. I am not interested in interpretation of Scripture. That's all. If someone showed me surprising findings, of course I would be interested, but even then I think they would likely be disproved after further examination, because interpretation of Scripture is so flexible. That is the main reason for the lack of interest, since everyone reads his own views into Scripture. Another reason is that even if there were a good interpretive method, it usually would not teach me anything interesting.
Discussion on Answer
Excellent question. I can only join it. It has already been asked and discussed many times around the columns that dealt with this.
So then why did the Creator give us the book of Genesis? Or, as Rashi opens the Torah, that the Holy One, blessed be He, should have opened the Torah with "This month shall be for you the first of the months of the year"? And what is the point of the commandment, "A person is obligated to read the weekly portion twice in the original text and once in the Aramaic translation"?