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Title: Permission to Receive by Lawrence Kelemen ISBN: 1-56871-099-2 Publisher: Philipp Feldheim Pub. Date: May, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (6 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Methodical approach to determine the source of the bible
Comment: If you need conclusive proof that the Five Books of Moses were given to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, I'm afraid you'll never find it. In Permission to Receive, however, Rabbi Kelemen presents four arguments to support the contention of Traditional Judaism that the Israelites as a nation did, in fact, receive both the Oral (Talmud) and Written (Five Books of Moses) Law at Mt. Sinai via Divine revelation. Presented in methodical manner, it is an easy and informative read. The arguments examine whether the narrative and code of conduct presented in the Oral and Written Law is congruent with logical reasoning in regards to the initiating mechanism forming the religion (i.e. Divine source or man developed), archeological evidence, and the sociological behavior of Traditional Jews. While each of the four arguments on their own merits are insufficient as proofs as to whether the revelation at Mt. Sinai occurred, together they form a whole that point toward that conclusion.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent book! - A few proofs author neglected to mention
Comment: This is the best book on the subject that I have ever read. However, here are two additional proofs the author neglected to mention.
1) Although the author convincingly proves that the Torah could not have been written sometime later in history (the Missing Hero argument), he does not do a good job proving that Moses did not write it or transmit it. However, this is implausible because the Torah states about a half dozen places such statements as "You approached and stood at the foot of the mountain. The mountain was burning with a fire reaching the heart of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and mist. Then God spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sounds of words, but saw no image, there was only a voice. And he said to you his covenant that he commanded you to do" (Deuteronomy 4:11-13).
Note the constant use of the word "you". Had Moses made up the events, written them down, and distributed them to the people, upon reading it they would have said to him something to the effect of: "These events that you are describing never occurred! You are a fraud!" And they would have proceeded to burn the Torah. Moreover, they would have never related the event to their children as diligently as they have, since millions of parents could not be expected to collectively lie to their children about an event they had supposedly witnessed (there is no precedent of such a thing ever happening).
2) One proof against other religions, such as Christianity and Islam that the author neglects, is that they, unlike Judaism, acknowledge that one of their adherents can cease to be a member of their religion and to become a member of another religion by converting to it. Presumably if they believe this to be the case then it follows that in their conception G-d acknowledges this to be the case as well, since the beliefs of religions embody God's beliefs. Otherwise G-d has failed in ensuring that his faith has been disseminated accurately. An unlikely scenario.
However, if there is only one correct religion then all other religions are false, and therefore not acknowledged by God as religions at all. If this is so, how could God or his adherents acknowledge conversion to a religion that does not exist in their framework? God might be able to acknowledge that someone has stopped practicing God's religion or even that he has left the religion to practice no religion at all. But to convert to a nonexistent religion is impossible. Furthermore, considering that God is kind and good, would he allow one of his adherents to leave to practice a religion that God himself knows to be false? In Judaism, however, once someone is born a Jew he is never acknowledged to be "not Jewish" no matter how many religions he converts to.
Rating: 4
Summary: seems to understand Christianity even less than I do
Comment: I think Scott Ryan's review covered the core of Kellemen's arguments, and I don't have that much to add (although I do think Kellemen does gloss over some difficult issues--e.g. would a reasonable God want to give us every concievable scrap of information about how to live, a detailed code that nevertheless allows for some interpretation, a less detailed code, or just the reason we were born with?). One weakness I saw that Ryan didn't: a very weak understanding of Christianity (and I say this as someone who is pretty ignorant on the subject myself). Kellemen notices numerous inconsistencies in the New Testament, and resolves to ask some Christians to explain them away. So far, so good. But he asks Catholics to explain those inconsistencies, and the Catholics are only too happy to agree with him that yes, the New Testament as written is wrong on some details. What's wrong with this? What's wrong is that if you want a defense of Biblical inerrancy, you don't ask Catholics (any more than you would ask Reform Jews to defend the proposition that the Torah is literally the word of God). Instead, you ask the Christians who really do believe that the New Testament is inerrant: fundamentalists and Baptists (the Christian equivalent of Orthodox Jews, in the sense that they take the Biblical text more seriously than other Christians). If Kellemen had gotten such people to agree that, yes, the New Testament is wrong on a few points, I would have been more impressed.
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Title: Permission to Believe: Four Rational Approaches to God's Existence by Lawrence Kelemen ISBN: 0944070558 Publisher: Philipp Feldheim Pub. Date: January, 1990 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz ISBN: 047146502X Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: To Kindle a Soul: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Parents and Teachers by Lawrence Kelemen ISBN: 1881927199 Publisher: Leviathan Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: One People, Two Worlds : A Reform Rabbi and an Orthodox Rabbi Explore the Issues That Divide Them by YAAKOV YOSEF REINMAN, AMMIEL HIRSCH ISBN: 0805211403 Publisher: Schocken Books Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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