Motley Minority Menagerie, (Modern / Medieval / Maskilim / Mis-nagid Mixture); Malevolently, Maybe Maniacally, Mamish Mistakenly, Maintains Much Maculation Mars Manifestly Moradik Miraculous Monotheistic Mesorah MiSinai !(Take that Mis-nagid. I win with 23 words and no spelling mistakes)
More heretical ideas about torah shebictav from a selection of thinkers:
1. Ibn Ezra talks about posukim being added to the Torah, famous “secret of the 12 comment” etc. I suspect some of his buddies had evev more radical views which they didn’t make public, or at least have been lost to us. Or maybe I’m just not that educated on medieval heresy.
2. Halivni in Revelation Restored suggests that the Torah was originally perfect from G-d but then got corrupted through the ages, and Ezra’s attempt to resurrect it led to what we have today, a maculate text.
3. Daat Mikreh mentions a peshat, based on the Gemoroh and also a midrash and an Acharon (can’t remember who) that the bnei yisrael already had the bereishis texts when they left mizrayim, and G-d commanded Moshe to include them as part of the Torah.
4. My MO rabbi says he was taught in YU that its okay to believe the Torah had 4 sources and a redactor, as long as the redactor was Moshe Rabeinu, working under the editorship of G-d.
5. My YU semichah buddy says he was taught in YU that the first 11 chapters of Breishis are clearly mythology (I call it moshology) designed to counter the prevailing babylonian mythology. Kind of like Sarna & Cassutto I think, but that G-d still was the author, or at least the redactor. (Was Cassutto frum ?)
6. I heard beshem Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook that until Abvraham its mythology, but after that its fact. Similar (or same) as above. My MO rabbi doesn’t like this however, as why draw the line there ? Also I worry about the sedom story. Does the geology of that area support a recent (5000 years old) upheaval ? Any geologists read my blog ?
7. Zohar says that the torah is just a shell to contain the true inner mystical meaning. Not sure if that means the Zohar took the shell literally in addition to the mystical meaning, or if that means the shell is somewhat irrelevant.
8. Louis Jacobs theory (mentioned below) that the torah is man’s account of G-ds revelation, not G-ds account.
Any others ? All these explanation help with Biblical criticism and Science vs Torah questions, however they take away a bit from the sense that every word is sacred
