Monday 3 December, 2007. In a wide ranging talk, Rabbi Rose took our audience through Orthodox Jewish attitudes to a variety of topics, from stem cell research to abortion via homosexuality and kosher methods of killing animals. We learned among other things that Israel is a secular country where the law of the state takes precedence over the law of god; that Rabbis aren't infallible but can be divinely inspired; that there is no concept of 'natural law' in Judaism and that while contraception and abortion are discouraged or prohibited except in special circumstances, the status of women and homosexuals is improving. In the 19th century there had been a drift away from the religion but now more young people are affiliating themselves to Judaism as it reorients itself towards an increasingly secular society.

Judaism has been ingenious in adjusting itself to some recent changes in society. Stem Cell research poses no great problems as until a foetus is 40 days old, it is not regarded as a human being; while homosexual acts are forbidden in the Torah, a person with a homosexual inclination can be an entirely observant Jew as long as he or she does not act out that inclination. Lesbianism, interestingly, is unmentioned – the prohibition refers solely to men.

On the question of evolution, Rabbi Rose said that Rashi, the greatest of all Jewish scholars of the Torah, described the first line of the book of Genesis as ‘crying out for interpretation’ and that in general Jews accept Darwin's theory, although they consider it dogmatic and believe that creation is divinely ordered.

On the question of life after death, he told us that Judaism believes in this life, and that what happens after death is God’s problem. On the other hand, we will be judged on our conduct in this life and the soul is cleansed as part of the redemptive process after death. Contrary to received wisdom, the Bible is not meant to be taken literally and the concept of ‘an eye for an eye’ is one of a series of metaphors that teach lessons about how we should live our lives. Having said that, the Bible is still regarded as the history of the Jewish people, although he conceded that it is open to interpretation and leaves many questions unanswered.
 
After the talk, there was a spirited discussion on the question of whether or not, as the Rabbi said, "all children are indoctrinated" and one of our members who is a Veterinary Surgeon took him to task over the unnecessary cruelty involved in the Kosher methods of animal slaughter. The Rabbi replied that Jews are not convinced that the other methods of slaughter used are any less cruel. It was clear that neither side of the debate was inclined to move from its position and we concluded the evening on a rare note of compromise as the Rabbi stated “he had never claimed that you have to be religious to be moral”.

TM

 

Monday 5 November 2007. It was appropriate that the meeting was held on Bonfire Night, as Jack Gold was sending up a few rockets of his own when he launched his review of the history of science since the beginning of time.

In the discussion which followed, there seemed to be a consensus that while we had to accept that science did not have all the answers, it is, to quote Humanist member John Wiltshire, ‘the best model of reality we have’.   There is still much more to be learned, and in the meantime, the philosophy which underlies Humanist ideals was not too drastically undermined by this fact.  In fact there is not such a lot of trouble with science and we can look forward to all manner of new, useful scientific discovery.

Cathy Crawford