Texts, values, and historical change: Reflections on the dynamics of Jewish law

Abstract

The image of Jewish law as a self-contained fortress impervious to the slings and anows of external fortunes or extra-legal ideologies and values has been nurtured by two ve1y different forces. For centuries, even millennia, Christian authors depicted Judaism as a legalistic religion indifferent to considerations of loving-kindness and grace. As Paul succinctly puts it, "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life" (2 Cor 3:6). An early Protestant joke told of a Catholic priest who mistakenly placed an inedible object in the mouth of a communicant; after waiting an intolerably long time for it to melt on his tongue, the parishioner exclaimed, "Father! You have made a mistake. You have given me God the Father. He is so hard and tough He will never dissolve."