MAJORIIE INGALL
The Torah, the first 5 Books of the Bible, are the statement of Jewish law. The Talmud is a compendium of commentary on Jewish Law—–reflecting the views of a number of learned Rabbis of old. In a sense, they are much like legal opinions from many different judges. They are disparate views and often contradict on another. Few if any other religions, have an official document like it. Other religions key documents are prescriptive, and where there are occasional contradictions , effort is made to rationalize. However Judaism has the strong religious tradition of dissent from singular dogma. Different Jewish sects and groups differ in what in the Talmud they follow, and Reform Jews, the largest group in America, assume a continuing discussion of the Talmud with the ancient Rabbis having no more weight in their opinions that modern thinkers—–theologians, philosophers, and others.
Marjorie Ingall is a contributing writer at Self magazine and a columnist for The Forward and Tablet Magazine. She has written for many other magazines, including The New York Times, Glamour, Redbook, Seventeen, Ms., Food & Wine, Wired, and the late, lamented Sassy, where she was the senior writer and health editor. At Sassy, she won several awards for health and social issues coverage. She is the author of The Field Guild to North American Males, the co-author of a sex-ed book for teenagers, Smart Sex and a former writer/producer at the Oxygen TV network.
