Sunday, July 08, 2007

Marriage and Judaism

Elliot Dorff, one of my favorite rabbinical school professors -- and just a general mensch -- is featured in the latest broadcast of NPR's Speaking of Faith.

Rabbi Dorff speaks beautifully in this show about the role of marriage in Judaism, and about how Jewish traditions -- especially Shabbat -- help support the institution of marriage.

It's worth a listen!!!

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By the way, I think it says something wonderful about Judaism that Rabbi Dorff should start out talking about sex and marriage and eventually end up taking about Shabbat. That's what reading the Talmud is like -- all discussions eventually lead to Shabbat. It's the great obsession of Rabbinic Judaism. . . . And something that distinguishes Judaism from the other Abrahamic faiths. Can you imagine Christian scholars starting out talking about sex and marriage and end up talking about the Christian sabbath command to rest from work once a week? No way! They might talk about the role of prayer or of faith in Jesus, but not the sabbath. It's not that Christians don't have a sabbath in their faith -- they do (you can see the remnants of this in the places still left in the United States where the law keeps stores closed on Sunday). But Christianity is not obsessed with the Sabbath. Rabbinic Judaism -- and me! -- are.

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