Permission to Receive: Four Rational Approaches to the Torah's Divine Origin

I believe in G-d and I consider Torah to be holy but, I am not convinced that it was literally revealed by G-d at Sinai. I have read Kelemen's earlier book entitled "Permission to Believe." In that book, he argues for the existence of G-d and I agree with his conclusion, in that book, that G-d is real. This book, howver, did not convince me that the nature of G-d is such that He literally revealed Himself. Nonetheless, Kelemen makes a well reasoned argument. Of four arguments that he makes, the most compelling is that if Torah was not revealed and if the Torah states within it that there were over 600,000 adult males who witnessed it, then later generations would ask previous generations about the event. If the revelation did not take place, when the Torah was "foisted" on us by those claiming it was revealed, those receiving it would ask why they had not heard about it from earlier generations. In other words, Kelemen argues that the divine revelation must have taken place because the Torah states that everyone gathered at the foot of Mt. Sinai and if this were untrue, then later descendents of those who were there would have asked, "if the description of the revelation was untrue, wouldn't Grandpa have told us?" Kelemen is stating that if the Torah was later foisted upon us, earlier generations would have revealed its falsity by stating that they were not aware of Torah being revealed and if it had been, they would have been told by their fathers and grandfathers who were there. Kelemen's argument would be compleing except for the fact that the Torah sets forth events taking place subsequent to Sinai, therefore, the finished document could not have been revealed. Rather, it makes more sense that first, the commandments were revealed and the historical account later became part of the finished product. If Torah evolved, then it was not, in fact foisted suddenly. It is easy to see how this evolving legend became accepted because earlier generations were versed in the growing traditions of law. Only, many generations later did the finished document state that it was revealed in front of all the people. Since there was already an eveolving Torah, no one would question events described therein since it was not suddenly written from scrtach. Kelemen also argues that scientific evidence proves the divine revelation of the Torah. I don't agree. The fact that archeological evidence indicates that there may have been a flood, for example, merely indicates that there was a historic basis for what was written in the Torah, not that the story of Noah and the Ark is true. I certainly agree that there is a fair amount of history in the Torah but this history is general and does not prove the truth of the specific events set forth. Another example given by Keleman is the theory that there was an original ancestor known by scientists as "Eve." However, there was an evolution resulting in this ancestor. Of course we have a common ancestor but, this common ance

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.

I find this book to be well-written,the arguments are clear and logical;both the arguments and the evidence presented compelling one to consider the question of Torah's Divine origin seriously.This book is excellent for someone who is open to honestly consider this question.

This volume is, I think, much more thorough and solid than the same author's earlier work, _Permission To Believe_, which was a bit more limited in scope and a bit weaker in its arguments (though still recommended). In this volume, something of a sequel to the other one, R. Lawrence Kelemen develops four basic approaches to the rationality of the belief that the Torah was divinely given. The first is straightforward enough. R. Kelemen argues that an omnipotent and benevolent God can reasonably be expected to have provided some sort of revelation and ensured its faithful preservation; he then fishes around to see where in the world this revelation might be. There are a number of monotheistic faiths, so how do we choose? Well, every one of these faiths credits the Torah to God, though each also claims to have superseded it. This latter claim undermines itself, since the Torah itself says it will never be superseded. So . . . The second argument is pretty good too. R. Kelemen's burden in this chapter is to show that the origins of Judaism are well attested by witnesses, whereas the origins of several competing faiths are not. He manages the job well, arguing fairly convincingly that if "all Israel" had _not_ heard God speak at Sinai, there really wouldn't have been any convenient time at which this claim could have been slipped into the Tradition unnoticed and unopposed. R. Kelemen then defends the status of the Torah as divine revelation against two opposing views: secular biblical criticism, and the (possible) claim that Jews are no more ethical than anyone else even though they possess this supposed revelation. In the first case, he wonders why secular Bible critics have ignored the mass of commentary in the Talmud expressly devoted to explaining all the apparent textual contradictions that secular critics seem to think nobody ever noticed before. Then he marshals a host of recent archeological evidence indicating that the Torah's history is sound. In the second case, he sets forth an array of demographic data indicating that not only _are_ Jews unusually ethical, but this unusually ethical behavior is also correlated with Torah-observance. All in all, the volume is very successful. There may be occasional gaps in the argument and various points over which we might quibble, but R. Kelemen himself notes that he isn't trying to provide rock-solid proof; besides, you can't accomplish everything under the sun in a single book. And the evidence he _does_ present will probably leave the reader thinking that it would take an act of faith _not_ to regard the Torah as God-given.

An exceptionally clear, tightly reasoned, thoroughly well researched argument for the Pentateuch's divine origin. Kelemen has launched the most destructive attack on secular biblical criticism of the century, and he does it with eloquence and intellectual muscle. A must read for readers on either side of the debate. This is the standard text.