The Proof is in the Pudding

Now, Where’s the Pudding?

“We’re not wide-eyed believers. We have proof,” say many religious Jews, with smug authority.

Judaism, according to its enthusiasts, is unique among theistic religions. They assert that millions of people witnessed and experienced direct communication with god, kickstarting the religion. They point to the biblical narrative about god giving ITs torah and its ten commandments to freed Egyptian slaves, assembled at the foot of Mt. Sinai. They dogmatize that that event was preserved perfectly, conveyed verbatim through generations, and that no other faith can make such claim of public, indisputable recorded interaction between god and people. No fake news here. This isn’t belief. This is eyewitness history, baked into the world record.

Except… it isn’t.

As sportscaster Warner Wolf would say, “Let’s go to the videotape.” OK.

There’s no tape. But here’s the religion’s official transcript from the bible.

…Thunder clapped and lightning flashed, and a thick cloud sat on the mountain, and a very strong shofar blasted, and the entire nation that was in the camp shuddered… they stood at the bottom of the mountain… fully smoked because god descended on it in fire… the entire mountain quaked violently. The sound of the shofar grew increasingly stronger…god descended… moses ascended… all the people saw the voices and the torches, the sound of the shofar, and the smoking mountain, and the people saw and trembled; so they stood from afar. …moses descended and said “god said all these words”…

The grand proof of divine interaction? Thunder claps. Lightning flashes. Smoke chimneys up the mountain. Shofar blasts. People tremble, stand… far away. Moses ascends. Moses descends. Moses says, “God said all these words.”

And centuries later, Rabbis explain the sounds weren’t “decipherable,” scared the bejeezus out of them, and rendered them all senseless. Moses graciously decoded it all for them.

Revelation to the masses? God getting acquainted with ITs newborn people, directly telling them how things are gonna be? Not. Just a thunderstorm, fire, noise, and one guy with a rock clipboard. All Moses, translating natural chaos into commandments.

In other words, the scientific, provable anchor of Judaism’s divine boils down to a scary mountain and a translator.

I get it. People want to believe. Nobody wants to check the facts. Happens today too.

“It’s well-documented,” someone says. “Look it up.” Everyone accepts the “fact” and no one looks it up. There’s no proof. It’s classic reliance – nay - confidence, in the rarity of scrutiny and curiosity.

Divinely witnessed, incontrovertible, totally verifiable birth of Judaism? Right. Coupled with the assumption no one bothers to read the fine print. Or even the big print. It’s not like there aren’t bible readers. Many even know the text by heart. They just add a layer onto the bible’s words to complete the narrative. And then consider their multilayered version as proof that Judaism is not belief but recorded fact.

A lightning and thunderstorm with commentary. Sure. Your religion is very

unique. Totally not a belief thing.