David_L wrote:I don't know what you mean by "Tora-olatry".
Here's a followup article in which Wright adds some more comments:
http://finkorswim.com/2013/08/21/can-on ... riticism/# The problem with Wright's statements are that he seems to reject the Orthodox belief that the Torah was given, word for word, by G-d to Moses.
Thanks.
I was going by what you posted here: "... in which he says: "The Torah is not divine. HaShem is, and "hu Ehad [He is One]." Is the Torah authoritative? Absolutely. But is it divine? No."
I assume that you were offended by Wright saying that the Tora is not divine. Therefore, I was offended because
I feel that only God is divine-- i.e. God is One-- i.e. there is only one divinity (God, not Tora).
So I assumed you feel that Tora is divine, and since my definition of 'divine' is that there is only room for One (only God is divine), I put the word idolatry to to the position that Tora is divine- hence my use of the term Tora-olatry .
Carification would be appreciated, as I would like to remove many Orthodox Jews from my Tora-olatry category. I assume it hinges on the definition of divine. But if you do see the Tora as divine, I would like to really get into this. Do you mean that since the Tora is the will of God, and His will and He (or He and His will) are not separate, therefore the Tora is also one with God, and that which is one with God is also God?
I have problems with this and perhaps we can explore this, if this is your view.
Perhaps you can clear that up? And of course I'd like to know how the worshipping the Tora statement made by Wright fits in with seeing the Tora as divine? What does one mean by divine? What does one mean by the Tora is divine? Is it ok to worship something (the Tora) that is divine? Is there a less confusing word for this we can use other than divine?
Perhaps it's all just semantics and we just have to define our terms.