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I really wish I didn't have to keep going over the same ideas in almost every thread. It's as if I've never posted here before.
You keep confusing Jews with Christians. We are not the same. Our attitudes and approaches to the Bible, its authority, and how it is to be used are entirely different.
We do NOT believe that God gave us an infallible heavenly rulebook that is complete, comprehensive, eternal and unchanging so we'll never have to think again. That IS the attitude of some Christians. I won't defend that, because I think it's wrong.
You can complain all day that we should expect to have a book like that, that God should have given us all the answers up front, that we should be brain-dead zombies like all believers are supposed to be (and most of whom inarguably are), but we just don't feel obligated to follow that program.
Jews believe that we have to keep working out the meaning of the Torah in every generation. We are not only allowed to do that, we are commanded to do that. We don't ever get to sit back and say, "Well, we have all the answers now. Just follow this list of simple rules and everything will be fine." we believe that God gave us brains, and He expects us to use them and not just depend on Him for our answers.
Of course the rules change. How could they not, over a timespan of almost 4,000 years? What has not changed in that time? The understanding of what a "family" or a "nation" is, what "ownership" and "property" means, the relationships between men and women, between parents and children, between employers and workers, between nation and nation--all of these are radically different now from what they were three or four millenia back.
What has not changed are the principles of justice, compassion, equality, and liberty. Those are what we claim to get from the Torah; the specific applications will inevitably change in every generation, and it is our job, not God's, to figure those out, and those answers will change as the times do. My own thinking has changed on some of these matters since coming to this forum, and that's how it should be. humans are made to LEARN, not remain static and unmoved.
But why didn't God just make absolutely everything really clear from the first? Why aren't there passages that explain global warming, the ethics of driving an SUV, and for that matter, electricity, evolution, quantum mechanics, and everything we've yet to discover in the future? Granted, those old guys in Bronze Age Mesopotamia wouldn't have known what an "SUV" or a "quark" is, but God is God; He could have made them write it down anyway, right?
If He had done that, what would the point of human intelligence be?
When I was in math class, the teacher knew all the answers; why didn't he just tell us what they were, instead of making us work them all out? In Judaism, God expects us to grow up and think for ourselves.
So why don't we just dump God and the Torah and figure it all out from scratch, then? Well, the math class did have a textbook, and the teacher didn't just leave the room, either--even though most of the work was done at home. You have to have somewhere to start; some generally applicable laws, maybe a few example problems, and then a whole bunch of stuff that you have to try to make sense of. Then you have to go outside the classroom and apply what you've learned.
And sometimes, you have to make corrections. I know I felt that I was really beginning to understand algebra when I felt confident in pointing out an error in the textbook.
Analogies can only take us so far. Unlike math class, in Judaism, God Himself is barred from the deliberations about the meaning and intent of the Torah. I've posted the story elsewhere: during a debate on Jewish law, a voice from Heaven weighs in with a definitive opinion--and the rabbis rebuke God and decide the other way. "You gave us the authority to decide these things; now butt out."
Have we gotten it wrong sometimes? Without a doubt. But the class is never over. Go to any synagogue in the world, and you'll see that it's still in session. The debate on homosexuality is reaching a consensus as we speak, and we've decided to overrule the Torah. We don't know why it reads as it does, or even what situation or practice in the ancient world it was addressing; but we're certain that in today's world, that prohibition is simply wrong.
What's wrong with that? You complain that we get all of our values from an ancient book, and then you complain when we don't, because that's what you think religion is supposed to do. What kind of sense does that make?
Are you getting this yet? The Bible, for Jews, isn't the final word on any issue, the end of debate, the place where humans stop thinking and bow in submission. It's the first word, the beginning of debate, the place where humans start thinking.
Does the Bible condone slavery? On the surface, it apparently does; but there are some pretty strong hints that it's wrong. How do you explain the prohibition on returning escaped slaves to their owners? If slavery is perfectly OK, that's about as counterintuitive as it gets. Cyrus the Great got the idea before we did; good for him. We think a lot of Cyrus for other reasons, too. Why wasn't slavery condemned outright? Beats me. Maybe the world wasn't ready; maybe it never explicitly occurred to the men who wrote down the oral traditions or the men who edited the final version. And maybe there's another reason.
I'd be willing to guess this: A thousand years from now, there will be something about today's society that people will find shocking and repugnant, and obviously so. Maybe it will be the private ownership of cars, as I mentioned in my OP; maybe it will be private property, period. Maybe it will be something else that's not occurred to anyone yet. In any case, mores and moral standards will change again. And there will be those among my people that will find reasons in the Torah that those changes are correct and right (on private property, it won't be hard; there is plenty in there about caring for the destitute. There is no word for "charity" in Hebrew. The applicable word is "tzedakah," which means "justice.").
And if there are still boards like this one, there will be people asking, "Why didn't God just outlaw [x] in the first place?"
Maybe He wants us to figure out that it's wrong, and why.
Which is most important in your own life? The lessons you were just taught and accepted blindly--or the ones you figured out for yourself?
I know that everyone here expects people who believe in God to be simple-minded children that hand over their brains to some holy man or holy book and just do what they're told. "The Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it," is a common Christian catchphrase. Well, I'm sorry to disappoint, but Jews don't ride that bus.
I've said it many times, and I'm sure I'll have to say it many more; I don't defend "religion" in general, and I'm tired of people assuming that I do. Judaism has very little in common with other faiths, other that that word "God."
And again, as I said earlier on this very thread: the word only. Our very concept of what that word means is different, let alone our views on the Bible.
I'm sorry if what I've been saying here upsets anyone's nice, neat little worldview-- you know, the one that says everyone who believes in God is an idiot on the level of a child who believes in Santa Claus, that all religious people have kissed their brains goodbye in favor of unreflective acceptance of whatever they're told, and that religion is always and everywhere a burden and a hindrance to human intelligence and development.
That view is overwhelmingly correct, but it does not apply to Jews, and we ought not be blamed for it along with the rest. Make some room in your worldview for that. If you don't, you are essentially promoting a falsehood.
We are on the same side here, in everything but that one word--and I can prove it. Whenever Christians or Muslims decide to do something stupid, vicious and brutal, who do they do it to first?
