A serious question

[WisdomSeeker]

Chavak:.......


P.S. Are you a Rabbi?

To all my friends here, I want to apologize for not responding sooner. When I registered, I registered using an email address that I don't monitor very frequently, and did not realize untill now, that there had been responses to my post. Thank-you. i will reply to everyone's comments individually.

Rabbi0

Thank-you for your reply.  The answer you cited resonated with me to a large extent. One of the things that went through my mind was that G_d would probably want to work within the context of the times by which He intervened. 

If He intervened in the modern era, for example, He would probably need to acknowledge the presence of an internet that people use to convey ideas. He might work with that, and other modern day things.

So, in that sense, it makes sense to me.

However, what is left over is things like the taking of sides between one set of people against another; up to and including the killing of men, women  and children. How do we explain that even to ourselves? Do you beleive that G_d would have such a  vested interest in conflicts and wars and would take a side and enable them to wipe out others? Was thta necessary if He is all powerful. Why could He not have willed peace? 

I know it is not for us to question G_d. However, I am trying to parse out whether some of the HB(OT) and NT was man made. It begins to make more sense if it were.

Agnostic to all of this, I will always remain a Christian and always give deference to both the HB(OT) and NT, because of two experiences I had. Both of which are not appropriate for me to discuss as they happened in a context in my life, and it would be improper to share. Besides, I am not here to try to compel anyone of anything. 

However because our commonality is that we share belief in the HB(OT), I beleive there is an onus to understand it and defend it where appropriate. 















No, Chavak has many fine qualities, but she is not a rabbi.

On the other hand, I am.

Let me share with you what one of the greatest Jewish philosophers, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon a/k/a Maimonides a/k/a the Rambam, wrote in his Guide for the Perplexed -  

"It is impossible to go from one extreme to the other suddenly. Therefore man - according to his nature - is not capable of suddenly abandoning that to which he was deeply accustomed... As it was then the deeply ingrained and universal practice with which people were brought up to conduct religious worship with animal sacrifices... G-d in His wisdom did not see fit to command us to to completely reject all these practices - something that man could not conceive of accepting, according to human nature which inclines to habit.... "