Letter: Don’t tinker with Talmud’s writings

Wednesday, May 5, 1999 | 12:01 p.m.

The sanctity of the Talmud, for traditional Judaism, is second only to the Bible itself. It presents the authoritative interpretation of the Jewish Bible and is the source and codex for all the rites, rituals and practices of the observant Jew. His comments, therefore, are most offensive to the religious sensibilities of traditional Jews, just as religious Muslims are rightly offended by Salmon Rushdie's comments about the Koran.

Moreover he is caught up in a blatant self-contradiction: On the one hand he claims the members of his "conservative movement" believe that Jewish law binds them. In the same breath he dismisses Jewish law, which is based on the Talmud, because it is outdated, relating to life as it was 1,500 years ago and therefore in need of reinterpretation.

I ask a simple question. Why go through the motions of mental acrobatics to reinterpret the Talmud, to force contemporary views and ideas into its writings in order to accommodate society's ever-changing mores and fads?

This would be outright forgery; a dishonest and hypocritical claim to speak in the name of a historic tradition going back thousands of years, when in effect creating it anew this very day! It is like selling newly made products as precious antiques.

RABBI SHEA HARLIG, Chabad of Southern Nevada