Not in Heaven

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Not in Heaven (lo ba-shamayim hi) is a phrase found in a Biblical verse, Deut 30:12, which encompasses the passage's theme, and takes on additional significance in rabbinic Judaism.

In its literal or plain meaning, the verse means that God's commands are not overwhelming but rather close to human hearts and abilities. As noted in the New Oxford Annotated Bible, "The covenant demand is not beyond human reach or understanding but has been graciously revealed... 'the word is near you.'"[1] The full verse states: "It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?'[1] In general, the verse conforms with how "... the deuteronomic tradition believed its Torah to be an immediately accessible wisdom, neither distant nor wondrous."[2]

In Romans 10:6-8, Paul alludes to the verse and its message of the nearness of God. Paul's interpretation is very different from the verse's treatment in Judaism.[3]

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[edit] Jewish interpretations

In rabbinic Judaism, though, "not in Heaven" has been creatively read both to justify rabbinic authority to interpret the Torah and, ironically, to justify modern innovations against Orthodox standards. Since the Talmudic period, "(The Torah) is not in Heaven" has been read to mean that the meaning of the Torah itself is to be uncovered not by prophets, or even God's miracles or words, but by rabbinic interpretation and decision-making. In the story of the Oven of Akhnai,[4] "Rabbi Yehoshua boldly affirmed the independence of rabbinic interpretation from divine intervention. In support he adduces the biblical statement that the Torah is 'not in heaven' (Deut. 30:12), which in its biblical context signifies something quite different." [5]

In the academic study of Jewish law, the verse "not in Heaven" serves as the Biblical grounding for the jurisprudential structure of halakhah (Jewish law). As one author explains, thanks to the midrashic reading of the verse, "...God himself acquiesced in His exclusion from the halakhic process. Having revealed His will in Sinai in the grundnorm, He Himself, according to the circular rabbinic argument, entrusted the interpretation of his will to the sages."[6]

In Modern Orthodoxy, Eliezer Berkovits relies on the "not in Heaven" verse to epitomize his approach to innovation within the confines of tradition.[7] In Conservative Judaism, the rabbinic recourse to "not in Heaven" is part of the movement's narrative to justify its own departures from Orthodoxy through what Robert Gordis calls the "dynamics" of Jewish law.

[edit] Sources

  • Maimonides. Mishneh Torah, Foundations of the Torah 9:1-4 (E.g., "it is said 'It is not in heaven' -- you thus learn that henceforth no prophet is authorized to innovate anything." Walzer p.269)
  • Berkovits, Eliezer. Not in Heaven: The Nature and Function of Halakhah. (NY, 1983) Cf. "Conversion and the Oral Law" reprinted in Essential Essays on Judaism (Jerusalem: Shalem Press, 2006).
  • Boyarin, Daniel. "Old Wine in New Bottles: Intertextuality and Midrash." Poetics Today, 1987
  • Gordis, Robert. The Dynamics of Judaism: A Study in Jewish Law. (Indiana UP:1990)
  • JP Rosenblatt, JC Sitterson. Not in Heaven: Coherence and Complexity in Biblical Narrative (Indiana UP:1991)
  • Walzer, et al. The Jewish Political Tradition: Authority (Yale 2000)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b New Oxford Annotated Bible, Deut. 30:14.
  2. ^ Michael Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel, p. 540.
  3. ^ Richard Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, Yale UP, 1993. pp 1-4.
  4. ^ Bava Metzia 59b
  5. ^ Walzer, et al. p.263. Cp. Urbach, The Sages p.118f.
  6. ^ Roth, p.124. Cp. Elon on the absolute authority of the sages, ch.7:4.
  7. ^ Cp. the work of David Hartman).

[edit] See also