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Thanking God for Bestowing His Wisdom on All Humans

 

The Jewish people respect and value wisdom – all wisdom not just Jewish wisdom. The Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot 58:a) has a blessing that is to be said on seeing a sage (wise man) of Israel:

 

Blessed…Who has shared of His wisdom with those who revere Him.

 

They have another blessing that is to be said on seeing a sage (wise man) of the nations of the world:

 

Blessed…Who has given of His wisdom to flesh and blood.

 

This is a remarkable insight into the culture of the Hebrew speaking people, especially when it is said over Greek or Roman sages. Remember that the Greeks, under Seleucid Antiochus IV, banned the public practice of Judaism. Centuries later, the Romans had destroyed the Temple and razed Jerusalem. These were Israel’s enemies in every way -- politically, militarily, above all culturally and spiritually. The Greeks were polytheists, and the Romans had a disturbing tendency to turn caesars into gods.*

 

For the sages of Israel to institute a blessing – a religious act of thanksgiving – over those scholars reveals a remarkable open-mindedness to wisdom -- whatever its source. “Accept the truth, whoever says it,” said Maimonides. There is religious dignity and integrity to science.

 

No less remarkable is the way in which the rabbis of that era recognized this that when it came to science, their own views might simply be wrong. There is a Talmudic passage in which the rabbis are discussing the question of where the sun goes at night.

 

First they give their own opinion,

then they cite the Greek view, that of Ptolemy.

They then conclude,

‘And their view seems more plausible than ours.’

 

That is the way the Talmud tells the story.

 

They are right.

 

We are wrong.

 

End of discussion.

 

Similarly, on a more religiously sensitive matter, the rabbinic literature records a conversation between Rabbi Judah the Prince, head of the Jewish community in the early third century, and Antoninus, a Roman sage. The discussion was about “when the soul enters a child.”

 

Rabbi Judah says, at birth.

 

Antoninus says, at conception.

 

The rabbi then astonishingly declares, “Antoninus is right!”

 

Thereafter, when he repeats the teaching, the rabbi is careful to say, “Antoninus taught me this.”

 

This was the Jewish “religious attitude” to science –

both open-minded and willing to learn.

 

That sounds a lot like the Biblical Heritage Center Primary Guideline:

 

My belief system is large enough to include all facts,

open enough to be examined and question,

and flexible enough to change when errors or new facts are discovered.

 

Shabbat Shalom,

Jim Myers

 

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SOURCE

The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, © 2011; Schocken Books, New York, NY; p. 67.

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