The Authentic Bible - A Best Seller
The Jewish religion governs the Jewish people. From cradle to grave, laws and regulations are clearly stated in the Torah, the Jewish bible.
On Thursday night, May 16th, Jewish people worldwide will celebrate a holiday called Shavuot, meaning weeks, marking the culmination of the seven weeks since Passover.
There are three pilgrim festivals, Passover, Shavuot and Tabernacles. Shavuos highlights the Divine revelation on Mount Sinai. According to all Biblical accounts it was witnessed by 600,000 men ages 20 to 60, besides women, children and a multitude of emancipated slaves including nobles who accompanied Israel at the time of the Exodus. There were several million eye witnesses to the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. The Jews' firm belief in Torah and Divine commandments is not a matter of faith but an absolute conviction. As the saying goes "seeing is believing."
In the year 1312 B.C.E. the Bible records the phenomena known as "the Revelation on Mount Sinai".
In the Book of Education by Rabbi Aaron Halevi of Barcelona, a 13th century sage, it states that "It is a well accepted tradition of all civilized people of the world to accept the evidence of two or more witnesses as conclusive proof, even to the extent of sentencing a man to his death &.. That is why the Almighty G‑d gave the Torah to Israel in the presence of 600,000 male adults, so that they could bear testimony to the fact."
Now all this seems to come to an end with the printing of a new bible by the Conservative movement called Etz Haim. The movement is considering the new bible an accurate and most current version of the Bible. This, based on studies compiled by David Lieber of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. Sadly, this version of the bible questions the Exodus, the story of the flood, biblical archeology questioning Egyptian sources of Israel's sojourn in that country.
David Wolpe, a rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, somewhat of a maverick, addressed his Passover flock with words questioning Israel's sojourn in the desert. Wolpe shocked his congregation and continues to espouse the questioning of the validity of the Bible regardless of the thousands of years of reading the Bible's account as actual and unquestionable.
What happens to such leaders and their congregations? - I wonder. Usually those who question authenticity of their own religion dilute their beliefs and traditional customs, assimilating and, at worse, adopting other religions. Perhaps one day we will read the following report:
JERUSALEM (May 26,3002) -- Archeologists have discovered the remains of what appears to be an ancient 20th century Judaic sect's temple, its library and the bones of what may have been the sect's priest or rabbi. The discovery was made in an area then known as Los Angeles, in the southwestern part of North America.
A spokesman for the archeological dig, called "Did Sinai Exist" said the bones, when assembles, would give them their first glimpse at Wolpe Man, a wandering Semitic tribe that lost its way in the latter half of the 20th century.
But what most interests scholars of the period is a well preserved collection of writings, in English, called "Etz Hayim," which, translated from Hebrew, means "tree of life." The writings, by Wolpe Man scholars of the age, reflect 20th century archaeological conclusions that the basic tenets of Judaism are "bubbameisers," which, loosely translated, means fairy tales. Among the tales the volume debunks are the basics of the Five Books of Moses, used by Jews for 3,000 years prior to Wolpe Man's era. Their conclusion was the books themselves were written by men who borrowed heavily from prevailing myths of the region.
The Five Books of Moses, or Torah, which has been in continuous use by Jews for thousands of years, except among the followers of Wolpe Man, describes enslavement of Jews in Egypt and a miraculous redemption by G‑d and deliverance after 40 years in the desert, to the Promised Land. "Etz Hayim" essays conclude that there is no actual proof that a large population of Jews ever lived in Egypt or traveled in the desert.
According to legend, Wolpe Man delivered this news to more than 2,000 followers gathered to celebrate the biblical holiday of Passover. Judaic scholars at the time wondered why, if the exodus of Jews from Egypt never happened, Wolpe Man's followers bothered to take the day off and gather in their temple, which, ironically, was named "Sinai Temple." (Mt. Sinai is where the Jewish people received the Ten Commandments.)
Attendance at Sabbath and holiday services dwindled after the sermon was delivered, since congregants concluded that if the exodus never happened, surely the Torah was never given to the Jewish people. And if there was no Torah, they could spend their Saturdays and holidays working or shopping or playing tennis and having shrimp cocktail for lunch.
Shortly before it was sold to a Baptist congregation, the temple renamed itself "Temple Mt. Whitney." When the Baptists took over the building they renamed it "The Holy Word of G‑d at Sinai Free Baptist Church." Wolpe Man, the legend goes, stayed on as keeper of the "Etz Hayim."
Now, a millenium later, archeologists and other scholars have concluded that Wolpe Man was trying to prove that G‑d doesn't exist. Wolpe's followers realized that if its Torah was false, there was no need to keep kosher, refrain from work on the Sabbath and holidays, lead moral lives and support synagogues. Scientists have concluded that Wolpe Man's tenets and those who contriubted to his sect's "Etz Hayim" volume probably suffered from a strange, selective blindness that periodically affects the Jewish people in affluent times and results in a loss of faith.
"It was interesting," a spokesman for the discovery said, "to note that of all the hundreds of thousands of Wolpe Man who existed at the time, only one Wolpe Man has been found. We have to assume that the rest of them either found their way back to Torah Judaism or became Baptists."
It is my firm belief that all religions must unite in fighting this depraved and inaccurate commentary of the Torah which questions the origin of the Creation and the traditional Bible's Old Testament version of the Exodus and the flood.