The Torah -- Old-Fashioned?

In every time and every generation, critics and pundits deemed the Torah old-fashioned. This is, and always has been, a factual error. “Old-fashioned” implies that it was once in fashion, and only later became old fashioned. The Torah, on the other hand, has never been in fashion. Its teachings have always been radically out-of-the-box and revolutionary, never conforming with the prevalent attitudes of every society and every age.

Indeed, for most of recorded history, the Torah’s very core principles of Monotheism and the Sinaitic Revelation pitted its practitioners at odds with most of the world’s inhabitants.

It was never fashionable to believe in the Torah’s eternal truths, to assert that G-d is One, infinite and all-transcendent, yet inseparably pervasive and intimately mindful of the most finite detail of our daily existence. No, it was never fashionable to abstain from all creative labors on the Sabbath, to observe the kosher dietary laws, and to observe the Torah’s supra-rational Mitzvot with the same devotion as its rational ones.

The Torah has always been far ahead of its time, so much so that the “times” still haven’t caught up with the Torah yet.

To be continued...