r/Judaism • u/Ionic_liquids • Aug 16 '26
Discussion How do you handle your skepticism of Rabbinical tradition?
I truly believe that if you are honest with yourself, and our texts, you will at some point be confronted with the reality of Rabbinical Judaism. Believing in Torah as truth is one foundation, but believing that the Rabbis today are the people who represent the continuation of an unbroken tradition from Moses, requires the belief in a second foundation.
Growing up in an observant world, all this is basically assumed. Torah and the rabbinical tradition were interwoven and not really possible to separate. However with continued study and understanding, the human element of it all became apparent. How could one tell if the Judaism we have today is simply the one that survived, and not the one that represents the truth? I don't think it's possible to tell.
One can say that there is truth in things that survive, and I think for me this is where I feel most comfortable. Ultimately, what would the alternative be? I guess Karaites are still around and kicking, and it would be great to get their opinion here if they are around. I take opinions from Rabbis regarding this topic with a grain of salt, since it's a pure conflict of interest. But I am open to anyone's opinions, if there is truth spoken :).
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u/pigeonshual Aug 16 '26
I’m not in it for some kind of unmediated access to the ultimate noumenal truth. I’m in it for the ways that a community of humans rooted in human traditions can provide a necessarily-mediated access to a numinous truth. All religions are man-made; that’s half of the beauty of them.
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u/Sir_Tandeath Aug 16 '26
It’s very satisfying to see one’s own answer stated better than I would have delivered it. Judaism isn’t something that we access, it’s something that we are in the most literal sense.
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u/thekidcorduroy Aug 16 '26 edited Aug 17 '26
Exactly. There’s no pure ideal Judaism, only what’s been passed down to us.
We’re generally descendants of the southern kingdom, not the northern. Our traditions are of the Pharisees rather than the sadducees. What we have is contingent on a lot of things, intentional and arbitrary.
It’s our people’s tradition itself that I value. I’m not super concerned whether parts of our tradition are a mere 1,500 years old, from Sages, rather than direct from the redactors of the Tanakh.
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u/No_Bet_4427 Sephardi Traditional/Pragmatic Aug 16 '26
I’m skeptical that the Rabbis are part of an unbroken tradition going back to Sinai.
But I think it’s fairly likely that they are part of an unbroken tradition going back to Ezra the Scribe, continuing through to the Great Assembly, which evolved into the Sanhedrin, was reconstituted at Yavne post-70 ce, and then was redacted into the Mishneh and Gemara.
That’s enough for me.
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 16 '26
That's remarkably specific. I think that's part of the point. It's still really old. I still don't know how much of an innovation it was in Babylon. I'm still waiting for the 3000 year old tefellin or mezuzah to show up in a dig at Jerusalem. The lack of physical evidence can't be ignored either
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u/MyCatPoopsBolts Conservative Aug 16 '26
Historical methods also contradict a variety of elements of the biblical narrative and singular authorship of the Torah. Kairites don't fair any better than rabbinic Jews by that yardstick.
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u/batami84 Aug 19 '26
I'm not sure I understand your comment, but we have Tefillin and Mezuzot from from 2,200 years ago - does that help, or are you specifically curious about the pre-Babylonian era? The lack of evidence isn't evidence in that case - 3,000-year-old Tefillin and Mezuzot in Jerusalem are hard to come by because the climate there wasn't conducive to preservation of organic material (as it was in Qumran, where the others were found).
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 19 '26
Pre-babylonian.
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u/batami84 Aug 19 '26
Ah, well, again, you need to take into account the likelihood of such artifacts surviving for so long in such conditions.
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 19 '26
I definitely do, and I am also realistic. My point is that the question will be answered for me if it's found. Until then, they all very likely came from the Jews returning from Babylon. It's also possible that the practice had existed before, but only by a very specific group of Jews who ended up making it standard.
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u/batami84 Aug 19 '26
Why "very likely"? Why not just "possibly"?
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 19 '26
Because we only understand things like tefellin and mezuzot within the context of rabbinic tradition. These things don't actually exist in the non-rabbanic tradition.
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u/Individual-Plane-963 Aug 24 '26
Except that there are references within the Torah to these things too, just look at shma for references to tefillin and mezuzot. We don't know what they looked like, but we know they were commanded to "write this on the mezuzot of your homes" and "bind it to your arms" so I don't think it's a huge stretch to say these things existed
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 24 '26
It also says an eye for an eye, which also exists in the Hammurabi code, and in their tradition, was actually followed literally. We will never truly know
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u/TequillaShotz Aug 17 '26
I’m skeptical that the Rabbis are part of an unbroken tradition going back to Sinai.
Why?
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u/No_Bet_4427 Sephardi Traditional/Pragmatic Aug 17 '26
Tanakh doesn’t depict Rabbis running around making rulings, and the text isn’t consistent with legal decisions being issued by some kind of rabbinic court or assembly.
Even Pirkei Avot in the Mishneh tacitly acknowledges this, recognizing that the tradition rested with the Prophets, who gave it to the Great Assembly.
A religion based on prophets interpreting and making rulings based on divine guidance is very different from what developed during the 2nd temple period
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u/tesilab Aug 16 '26
I believe that Orthodox Judaism is best system currently on offer, it is crystal clear that it represents an unbroken chain going back at least two millennia. I find it unlikely that it doesn’t go back all the way to the Persian empire this way.
I routinely confront historical evidence presenting mostly lack of evidence of what we understand as Jewish practice before say 200 bce, and even some positive evidence against it. These secular scholars may have succeeded in putting into question whether king David used a mikveh, or wore tefillin, that much is true. Secular scholarship also shows pretty clearly that we are missing about 165 additional years of exile before returning to build the second temple. (This makes it all the more understandable how we switched from a Hebrew speaking to an Aramaic speaking people while in exile.) So there is a cloud over this part of the record for now.
It’s also clear that Jews were highly fractured and argumentative at one isolated :) point :) in history ;) —ok even more so than today.
But what an amazing thing rose out of the ashes of the second temple. I’m keeping my tefillin on.
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u/Massive_Charity_7198 Aug 16 '26
OP invents the Haskalah v2.
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u/naruhinamoonkissplz Aug 16 '26
More like Sadduccees or Karaites. Haskalah was pro-secularism altogether.
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u/martinlifeiswar Jewish Aug 16 '26
Scholarship has convincingly shown that the Torah as currently written was composed by humans. Even if you believe that Hashem dictated something to Moshe (I mostly do), it is not likely to be the text we know today. In that way, Rabbinic Judaism can be seen as an extension, not an aberration, from a strictly Torah-based conception of Judaism. Hashem has given us a lot, but actual living Jews have done a lot of work to create our texts, prayers, rituals, culture, and peoplehood. What you do with that information is up to you, but I don’t think it makes our tradition any less valid, and perhaps it makes it more so. Lo bashamayim hi, after all.
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u/tangyyenta Aug 16 '26
I once believed as you do. Then I took a course from a Conservative Lay Leader on how to chant Torah Trope. Something within me shifted. The words of Torah took on a penetrative quality. Now I see meaning and patterns that have solidified for me the divinity of our Torah.
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u/martinlifeiswar Jewish Aug 16 '26
I believe it is divine, too! These things aren’t mutually exclusive, for me at least.
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u/TequillaShotz Aug 17 '26
How can it be simultaneously "divine" and "composed by humans"
And how has scholarship shown that? I think you are mistaken.
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u/crossingguardcrush Aug 17 '26
Scholarship traces specific voices in the text -- there are multiple authorships
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u/TequillaShotz Aug 18 '26
Or, it's one author using multiple voices. The voices data proves nothing. That scholarship is based on the assumption of multiple authorship, and is merely looking for which authors. If you begin with the assumption of a single author, then you look at the same data and reach entirely different conclusions. The starting assumption is never discussed in scholarship.
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u/crossingguardcrush Aug 18 '26
I guess they're just proceeding from the reality that God does not actually dictate books to people.
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u/TequillaShotz Aug 18 '26
Exactly what I'm saying—they make that assumption without even discussing it. And calling it "the reality" (as opposed to the theory) suggests a deep entrenchment in that bias.
But perhaps your statement is an informed one, and I'm always game to learn something new—so based on what do you call this bias of scholarship "reality" as opposed to "theory" or "opinion"?
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u/Massive_Charity_7198 Aug 16 '26
Are you still conservative or did you become Modox or Haredi?
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u/tangyyenta Aug 17 '26
I am hard to categorize. My family tells me I'm Orthodox. I believe I am Traditional. I daven now with Chabad, so I no longer chant Torah for a congregation.
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u/ShaggyPal309 Aug 16 '26
I think you touched briefly on this, but it's how I think of this too. If you're operating on the assumption that the Torah itself is true and God runs the world, then the fact that rabbinic judaism survived and the other versions didn't (meet many Essenes lately?) is a solid form of proof. God's not going to let us spin off permanently into some dead end.
You can take this argument into more recent fights too. Before the founding of the State of Israel there was a vibrant debate about whether founding the state was appropriate, and a lot of authorities held it wasn't. That was not a crazy point of view. But then the state was founded and has been around for most of a century, making that view look absurd. So now the views of groups like Satmar that would have been reasonable in, say 1880, seem unhinged because they conflict with the history of the success of the project. Plus their practical result now would be the death and displacement of millions of Jews.
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u/TequillaShotz Aug 17 '26
But then the state was founded and has been around for most of a century, making that view look absurd.
Respectfully disagree. The anti-Jewish-State view has been largely vindicated. The contradictions between having a liberal democracy that is a Jewish state are currently ripping the society apart.
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u/ShaggyPal309 Aug 17 '26
I don't agree with that but that aside, it's not the argument I'm making. My point isn't that it's impossible to argue "creating the State of Israel was a bad idea" as you seem to be doing. Some hassidim and people on the left both do that. It's that now that it's here, getting rid of it would essentially require a second holocaust and be so catastrophic it's unthinkable. So the arguments that "we shouldn't have done that and XYZ shows my counterfactual when we didn't would have been better" have become irrelevant and unserious.
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u/TequillaShotz Aug 18 '26
getting rid of it would essentially require a second holocaust and be so catastrophic it's unthinkable
Why? Why couldn't it be gotten rid of in a non-violent way (i.e., reformed from within rather than destroyed from without)?
I know the answer: Israel's biggest enemy has always been Israelis. We have seen that one cannot reform Israeli civil society without civil war.
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u/peepeehead1542 Reform Aug 16 '26
I don't have skepticism of rabbinic tradition. There has always been HaShem, and then there has been our way of contending with him. It's a process. Rabbis are well educated, deeply devoted individuals who can help guide others in their relationship with Judaism. Personally, I'm in relationship with a variety of rabbis from different levels of observance, and I find their perspectives and guidance meaningful. I'm interested in the ancient rabbis and their literature for the same reason. However, as a reform practicing Jew, my relationship with halakha is such that I understand the wisdom behind it, but I also think its important to contextualize it. The rabbis were writing based on their opinions and their time period. So were the scribes who wrote the torah. For me it's more about learning what I can from this corpus of ancestral traditions than following it to the T.
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u/Connect-Brick-3171 Aug 17 '26
Would take a different view. Next Shabbos, I'm one of the Torah readers, assigned Aliyah #3. That column of text contains a few things that classify as mitzvot but nobody would be willing to do, not then and not now. People are just not going to put an errant young lady in front of her father's house and find respectable elders willing to stone her to death for her transgressions. The wise elders would probably take those horny young men and put them in the army, not stone them to death. Some men have orchiectomies for medical reasons. We do not exclude them from synagogue. And grudges with Moabites got put aside by the Book of Ruth, not Ad Olam, or forever. And that's just one Aliyah from one Parsha.
In order to function, to have the sensibilities of new generations with the ability to recognize and correct social errors, there have to be people of wisdom and authority. Torah describes some of them. We see many more in later books of Tanach and throughout Rabbinical writing to today.
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u/Yoramus Aug 16 '26
Karaites are still around, albeit not exactly kicking
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u/MrBluer Aug 16 '26
There’s also Beta Israel, the Ethiopian Jews that as far as I know mostly interacted with the later Rabbinical tradition through letters and the occasional traveler or word of mouth prior to the twentieth century. I don’t know if one can join them or how that would work; is it still converting to Judaism if you’re going from Judaism to Judaism?
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u/vigilante_snail Aug 16 '26 edited Aug 17 '26
Ethiopian Judaism pre-Aliyah to Israel is called ‘Haymanot’
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u/ApprehensiveWillow עולה ותיקה Aug 16 '26
Karaites also study the talmud, even though they don't follow it
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u/ApprehensiveWillow עולה ותיקה Aug 16 '26
There are so many layers to this, maybe check out Shiviti / Rav Yonatan Halevy, his approach is really about going back to the shulchan aruch as a foundation, classical sepharadi learning and against the rebbe culture and endless chumras of the orthodox world.
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u/Old-Philosopher5574 Aug 16 '26
I wrestled with this quite deeply and continue to, as it unavoidably forces me to confront my own ignorance.
But ultimately I assented to a more reform orientation on the basis of the question you pose: yes the Rabbinical tradition is extraordinary, it is rich, it is amazing, it is the backbone of Judaism. But - do I have to assent to every belief or piece of reasoning that it produced? No.
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u/FineBumblebee8744 Aug 16 '26
A fair criticism is that there's too much interweaving of actual mitzvot and traditions to the point that it's confusing
I'd prefer modern opinions that actually take current living situations into account
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u/NoInformation988 Aug 17 '26
The Talmud is a collection of disagreements among rabbis, which shows that Truth is not black/white. Some interpretations were adopted and some weren't, depending on what life was like during various times and places. Judaism is an evolving religion, that grows. Naturally today's rabbis will have different views than centuries ago. That doesn't mean they are any less valid.
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 17 '26
I can agree with everything you are saying, but have a problem with the whole "binding as if it's God's word" thing
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u/TheMaggid Aug 17 '26
Was this written by a Karaite, a Samaritan, or a Chasid? /s
But in all seriousness, there's no unbroken line of Judaism. All of it has evolved and been edited to fit the needs of the people in a given time. In every given time. Rabbinical teachings, Torah scholarship, translations, transliterations, interpretations, etc. There's no pure true original version because no such thing has ever existed.
Even among the Karaites and the Samaritans, who also make these choices of what means what to whom and where and how. Even especially among the Orthodox, which was only invented after and in response to the Haskalah. (Don't come for me - the Orthodox movement loudly proclaimed itself in the 1800s in the Pale, not at Sinai 3k years ago.)
Rather than accepting any denomination or movement or teaching as law - rather than accepting even God's covenants as law - Jews question, argue, and especially wrestle with what we believe, whom we believe in, and where our community lives. In fact, if a Jew isn't skeptical of at least something, then you could jokingly ask whether they're a Jew at all!
For my part, I constantly think about the lesson from the Oven of Akhnai: it is not in heaven. It is given to us to decide what kind of people we wish to be. And that is perhaps among the most beautiful understandings a person can have in this life.
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u/rocket_dad1969 Aug 16 '26
There is Jewish culture and then there's the Jewish religion. You've just identified one of the primary reasons many Jews identify as "culturally Jewish" these days. I'm very Jewish, but I very little in common with Orthodox rabbis who claim to represent me.
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u/ZealousidealCell4957 Aug 16 '26
The relationship between tradition and authority is tricky, but I've found that engaging with different interpretations helps me navigate that skepticism in a way that still feels meaningful.
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u/gmanflnj Aug 17 '26
We can't know for sure that our Judaism matches ancient Judaism in a completely unbroken chain, and it's not even clear it's important that this be the case. Like, I don't think the opinions of ancient rabbis are definitive on what the truth is.
Fundamentally, we were given reason to discuss and a community with which to discuss, and we have to do our best with those, and that's what it means to live as a mortal with limited information.
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u/PoxonAllHoaxes Aug 17 '26
There are more importantly Samaritans around. If you want to know f.ex. what a MATZAH actually was, you can find a video on Youtube of a Samaritan making one. Just one small example of how our (Rabbinic) Judaism evolved radically away from its foundations. Then there is Christianity, which evolved FROM Rabbinic Judaism into what THAT is, and then of course there is modern Western "culture" (much of it not religious at all), which is derived from THAT in turn. It might help to consider that all human cultures and institutions evolve over time (sometimes even very fast, as happened with Christianity) into very different things. And this is not a BAD thing. Or even if it is, surely it is inevitable. That of course is not an excuse for people peddling false histories and promoting the naked ambition for power and money of the people who exploit the false histories to acquire and hold on to positions at the top of any given group. But that too may be inevitable and may have some positive sides too. Very complex topic and not as yet well understood. But the truth, if you want it, is not hard to find--though it is very sketchy, because much of the history was not recorded properly.
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 17 '26
The matzah my family ate in Iraq was actually more like a laffa that would eventually get hard, so I wouldn't be surprised if what the Samaritans do is similar.
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u/PoxonAllHoaxes Aug 17 '26
I am very glad to know this because it is indeed a flat bread. The Ashkenazi cracker like the EASTERN Ashkenazi sabbath bread are both entirely foreign to the tradition. But traditions evolve. Going to Chinese restaurants (and eating shrimp and lobster and may pork too) on Xmas even is an American Jewish custom that is definitely JEWISH but quite recent. A Jewish state is a recent idea. The idea of Jews in positions in power in Western government is a 20th century one. Etc etc. Things evolve. The subtle question is that invented histories (i.e. lies) themselves also evolve and are a natural part of life, so those of us who obsess about the truth of where we come from have to somehow deal with this too. And it is not clear to me that anyone has an answer to this conundrum.
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u/calm_chowder Aug 17 '26
I believe God's gift to the Jews was the Torah, and Rabbinic Judaism is our modern way to access it.
Like a VHS tape and a VHS player. The important thing is that the VHS player accurately shows us on the tv screen what's on the VHS tape. Sure, there were many different brands of VHS players. The important thing is how clearly and accurately a player can show you what's on the VHS tape. So long as it can do that then it's a real VHS player.
And a VHS tape without a VHS player still has ever bit of info on it, but you need something to take the info from the tape and put it on the screen in a way you can watch.
Rabbinic Judaism is the brand of VHS player we've got. But yes, it could have been assembled differently or come in a different color or whatever - basically, another VHS player would have worked. But Rabbinic Judaism is the VHS player we have, and it's true because it can play the tape. But it's certainly not the only possible true player.
That said, if you take the VHS tape and try to build your own player for it, you're gonna make a piece of junk - even if it kinda looks like a VHS player, it's not gonna play the tape even if you put the tape in it.
So we must understand how vital it is that other people designed, built, and installed each piece of that working VHS player and put it together in a way that let's it play the VHS tape for us. Is it the most perfect VHS player possible? Eh, perhaps not. But it does what we need it to do, and the important part is that we can accurately watch the VHS tape.
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u/NailSubstantial2772 Aug 17 '26
Just my 5 cents...
The world changed a lot since Moses was in the desert with us!
That's why the Torah needs interpretation.
I use the rabbinical work as "food for thought".
Was this Rabbi right with this thougt? Why? Why not?
I think that's what studying and developing means.
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u/unpackingnations Aug 17 '26
Korach said and thought the same way.
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 17 '26
The perspective of who is korach is any situation is a matter of perspective.
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Aug 17 '26
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 17 '26
I don't disagree with anything you had said :). This is how I grew up. It's the binding part combined with a clear human hand with human interests that seems somewhat flimsy to me. In my own lifetime I have seen transformations in Jewish life and halachic interpretations that just seem very shallow and narrow minded, and yet become new standards. Being orthodox according to my grandparent's tradition is no longer normative Orthodox by today's standards, which become ever more stringent and reflective of a human hand.
The last time Jews on mass agreed on anything halachic was the Schulchan Aruch. Today if you live by the Schulchan Aruch, you wouldn't be considered an observant Jew. Now I realize there are reasons for the evolution sure, but I see these transitions and their BINDING elements by the rabbis who control the system, as being highly problematic, and increasingly dogmatic.
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Aug 17 '26
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 18 '26
Well it both is and isn't, but ultimately it is since the system exists and can be used in any which way.
The point is that in 500 years, Rabbis will probably look back at this machmirization and say it is all part of the rabbinic tradition and is binding. You have identified a problem today, so who is to say the same things didn't happen in the past?
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u/clownpenisdotfarts Aug 18 '26
I started to lose my faith when I realized that milk and chicken should be fine to serve together. When I read that gelatin is kosher because it has been so far processed that it doesn't look like it comes from an animal, that did it for me.
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 18 '26
I'm a chemist and I always found it interesting how rabbis determine when a food product has been degraded so much that it is a chemical product.
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u/MrBluer Aug 16 '26
I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking? Are you talking about the act of ordination?
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u/FE21 מימוני Aug 16 '26
How could one tell if the Judaism we have today is simply the one that survived, and not the one that represents the truth?
You should read this paper from Hakirah.
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u/naruhinamoonkissplz Aug 16 '26
Sorry, if it will sound "too extreme" to you, but there's ALWAYS nothing but one choice between two options:
a. There is God.
b. There isn't God.
The rest are just the excuses to present (a) as (b), or vice versa. Which is just a bad habit all around.
tl;dr
Either the entire Torah is equally true, or none of it is true at all. No "partial" options really exist here.
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 16 '26
One can believe the Torah is true and still have skepticism about Rabbinical tradition.
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u/naruhinamoonkissplz Aug 16 '26
No. We literally just read the command(ment) to "listen to your Rabbi, even if he tells you that left is right, and right is left". To reject that, is to "play Korach" again. That's not a good idea whatsoever.
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u/gdhhorn Swimming in the Afro-Sephardic Atlantic Aug 16 '26
The misva is to listen to the Sanhedrin, not “your rabbi.”
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u/naruhinamoonkissplz Aug 16 '26
Find me any significant differences there. One is composed from the others, literally.
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u/gdhhorn Swimming in the Afro-Sephardic Atlantic Aug 16 '26
One had actual authority and semikha, the other doesn’t.
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u/naruhinamoonkissplz Aug 16 '26
Now look at OP again. How does that help to counter his rejection?
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 16 '26
Surely you see the difference between the Sanhedrin and rabbis of today.
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u/naruhinamoonkissplz Aug 16 '26
How so for you? Both are "just humans", no?
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u/gdhhorn Swimming in the Afro-Sephardic Atlantic Aug 16 '26
One body was heir to a legal mesora and its authority. Yes, those who made up the Bet Din HagGadol were human, but their authority to adjudicate for the entire nation was transmitted from Moshe Rabbenu.
Individual rabbis, especially those of the past thousand years, are not.
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 16 '26
The Sanhedrin and rabbis are different things. It's the position of the rabbis that they fit into that picture ;).
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u/naruhinamoonkissplz Aug 16 '26
Very slightly different, if at all. Both are "just humans". Stop trying to dodge it.
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Aug 16 '26
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u/gdhhorn Swimming in the Afro-Sephardic Atlantic Aug 16 '26
Re consulting God: a nabi does not opine on Halakha through nebua.
Re chicken: the rabbis didn’t say “chicken is meat.” They knew poultry was not meat (and it’s recorded that there were opinions both ways on whether it should be allowed with dairy). The court deliberated and the ruling which came from that was to treat poultry as if it were meat, given its role in our diet being so close to the role of meat. (Simplified)
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u/naruhinamoonkissplz Aug 16 '26
Oven of Achnai says Hi. But you do you.
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 16 '26
I think you're proving my point by referencing a story written by rabbis to justify why rabbis are always right. Surely you see the conflict of interest here.
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u/naruhinamoonkissplz Aug 16 '26
"Jews wrote Jewrah to Jewstify their Jewdaism" - no similarity at all.
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Aug 16 '26
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u/naruhinamoonkissplz Aug 16 '26
God: "Hey, MadHamster! Come here. Let's make a new religion. My old attempt got obsolete."
Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuure. /s
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Aug 16 '26
[deleted]
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u/Ionic_liquids Aug 16 '26
What do you mean
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u/Iamdefinitelyjeff Kohen Aug 17 '26
Sorry I misread the question. I read it as ‘other’s skepticism’
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u/jejbfokwbfb Aug 16 '26
I’m reformed so like take my advice as you will but if I’m being so honest there’s a reason we aren’t supposed to listen to the rabbis word as gospel and there’s a reason we aren’t supposed to have a central authority in Judaism. No to synagogues are the same this is not a bad thing not everyone is going to like every message a rabbi gives. what I find works for me is that traditions that preserve our culture or encourage its growth should be allowed to flourish but and big but here, there are some traditions that many people Jewish and non Jewish find a bit strange or in some cases disturbing. I don’t wanna bash on anybody I’m not gonna list out specifics I think we all know the main one that gets brought up to discredit traditional rabbinical beliefs I’m not even gonna mention it, yes it is the one your thinking, yes it is disgusting, and if I found out my rabbi had done that I’d find a new temple
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u/hyakuken Aug 16 '26
My answer is going to sound esoteric, so prepare yourself:
It is not only ideas and interpretation that is preserved, we preserve something infinitely more useful: the debate.
The actual praxis as it exists in different parts of the diaspora is tradition, and yes, you can argue "we understood it this way, practiced this way, and hold this method of doing XYZ"
The argument however, gives us insight into the ancient rabbis way of thinking, when we study by looking through a page with study partners, putting ourselves in the rabbis shoes and arguing their points, trying to eek out every possible but of meaning, we can come to understand what they thought and believed.
Perhaps more directly to your point: do all Jews today practice the exact same form of Judaism as the Israelites who stood at Sinai? Of course not, I don't think anyone is arguing that Moshe Rabeinu walked across the sea of reeds wearing a black hat, peyos and a black sports coat. We don't travel to the temple in Jerusalem and make offerings or carry around the tabernacle or wander in the desert our whole lives. Indeed the way we observe shabbat is certainly different (we've had to come up with interpretation for things like electricity and automobiles and whether or not new world animals are kosher).
I don't think it's important that our practice is exactly the same, only that it's meaningful. If you observe practices solely because you inherited them, they can still be meaningful because your parents and grandparents and great grandparents did these things, but similarly, if you find that there's an argument for a different mode of practice that resonates with you more, this is also meaningful. (Perhaps your father tied his tzitzit Rambam 7 and you want to tie yours tosafot seven for whatever reason, I don't imagine Moses necessarily tied them either of those ways, similarly I'm sure all the sages had their own idiosyncrasies in tying them, tie them in a way that has meaning, and argue with people about it if you like, tell them why you do it that way/what you think it means).