The meaning behind the words

It is one of the fundamental and deep rooted tenets of the Jewish

belief that the entire Torah is of divine origin, handed down by

Moses, and absolute, immutable and undeniable. The great revelation

at Sinai and the receiving of the Torah is the single most important

event in history when an entire nation heard the divine word,

partially through Moses, thus verifying an important article in our

faith, prophesy. God reveals his will to humans. Moses handed down

the written Torah as well as oral traditions and laws through an

unbroken chain, which were eventually documented in the Talmudic era.

These strong and unyielding beliefs explain the tenacity of the

Jewish people’s stubborn preservation of faith through centuries.

As Josephus writes (Against Apion 1:8); “All Jews imbibe with

their mother’s milk the belief that these books are of divine origin,

as well as the resolve to remain faithful to them, and willingly, if

need be, to die for them .” Furthermore, much of the Torah details

failures and defeats individually and collectively, including among

them of many righteous people. This is further evidence of the truths

and authenticity in every story and word of the Torah. The word Torah

means lesson and teachings. God is giving humans a living scripture

complete with pertinent stories which convey life’s lessons.

RABBI REUVEN MINTZ

CHABAD JEWISH CENTER

Newport Beach

For those of us who love them, the stories of holy scriptures are

“fantastic.” They are “the Word of God” and, as our Book of Common

Prayer (pp. 853-4) tells us, God inspired their authors and speaks to

us through them. We understand their meanings through personal

prayerful reflection and by studying the wit and wisdom of those who

find them central to human living. These stories are about people who

are simultaneously believing and unbelieving, innocent and guilty,

crusaders and crooks, full of hope and full of despair; in other

words, they are stories about us. And they are stories about God and

God’s saving deeds in history; they are great guidance for discerning

God’s will for today’s situations and our roles in them. Holy

Scriptures are about life, the way it really is.

In “Wishful Thinking,” Frederick Buechner counsels that if

somebody claims that you have to take the Bible literally, word for

word, or not at all, ask him or her if you have to take John the

Baptist literally when he calls Jesus the “Lamb of God.” And if

somebody claims that no rational person can take a book seriously

that assumes that the world was created in six days and humankind in

an afternoon, ask them if they can take Shakespeare seriously whose

scientific knowledge would send a contemporary third-grader into

peals of laughter. So the stories of holy scriptures should be taken

not “literally” but as “fantastic.”

THE VERY REV. CANON

PETER D. HAYNES

St. Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Church

The Qur’anic text contains literal and allegorical words as well

as numerous metaphors. This means that the Muslim scholars would not

interpret the entire Qur’an literally. It depends on the situation

and on the contexts. As an example, the Qur’an states, “The hand of

God is above their hands.” The hand here symbolizes the power and

authority of God, and it is not taken literally.

IMAM MOUSTAFA AL-QAZWINI

Islamic Educational Center

of Orange County