Letters
The Torah and divinity
Soli Foger’s conclusions regarding the Torah’s divinity are problematic (“Dancing with the Torah,” October 13). Despite Mr. Foger’s claims, the Torah’s divinity is not authenticated by virtue of the transmission of the claim of such divinity from generations past to the present. Such a litmus test is no more efficacious than it is to posit that the claims of those rejecting the Torah’s divinity — which have been transmitted from many more parties in as many generations — is confirmation of the Torah’s human composition.
The attempt to camouflage intellectual honesty with the emotional embrace of tradition does not establish the Torah’s divinity. The questions posed by rational and scientific inquiry should not be discarded as the wobbly threats of modernity. To luxuriate in the unassailable premise of the Torah’s divine origin as the emotional triumph of generational transmission over rational impediments is enchanting but unpersuasive. The attempt to wall off inquisitiveness that challenges the Torah’s divinity may well serve to wall in a shrinking universe of adherents who are bound to accept the certainty of the divine origin of the Torah as an unquestionable tenet of faith. The certainty of this religious dogma (the divinity of the Torah) is as insecure as is the certainty of the proofs that upend this assumption. The inability to communicate openly and honestly regarding this foundational premise of Judaism poses grave risks for the generations that follow us.
Jack Nelson
Cliffside Park
We need our guns
Dr. Lance Strate’s “A Call to Disarm” (October 13) discloses ignorance regarding the actual history of the Second Amendment. The author fails to disclose that without it, the Constitution would not have been ratified. The rationale was also described in minutes of the Continental Congress and in letters regarding its rationale. The militia was made up of men who already had arms. The meaning was simple to those who wrote it. The founders knew that if the populace was disarmed, their freedom was in peril.
Evidently, the contents of the book of Kings is unknown. King David made use of swords, pruning hooks, and ovens in order to eradicate his foes. He obviously didn’t follow one of God’s commandments. Recently, cars and knives were used to murder Jews and others. Let’s outlaw cars and knives!
I resent that those who uphold the rationale of the Second Amendment are deemed irrational. Guns, by themselves, are harmless. Man can use them for protection or destruction. Guns kept us from being conquered by our adversaries in two world wars. Man determines the use of guns and other means of destruction as well as their use in preservation of life. If there were no guns, even more varied methods could be used in killing our fellow persons. Humans using any tool can kill!!
Shel Haas
Fort Lee
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