Jews and the Invention of Ethical Consciousness

by Moshe Dann (September 2012)

Led by Moses, Aaron, Miriam and the elders, they embarked on a treacherous journey across the desert towards Eretz Yisrael, the land that God had promised to them and their forefathers. Bearers of a new civilization, a moral imperative, Torah, they got lost, and found.

Restricted from participating in the physical world defined by landed wealth and power, Jews relied on the dominance of Thought, the intricacies of problem-making and problem-solving that postulated the Mind of God and the Mind of Man in divine communion.

Wherever they were driven, despite suffering, dislocation and destruction, Jews survived as a People because they were citizens of a nationality greater than any that existed, or will exist, one that has no boundaries in space or time, yet, is rooted in everyday life, the ultimate creative process, the Monarchy of Mind.

Walk into a church, mosque or shrine and what do you see? The symbols of that faith, beautiful architecture, clean floors, prayer rugs, a sense of reverence and order.

Although relatively few Jews may have been able to read and write prior to the Exile, it seems reasonable that Jewish sacred writings, especially Torah existed in some form that was accepted by all Jewish scholars and scribes, at least since the early monarchical period, since it would have been nearly impossible to introduce and impose an innovation on the entire Jewish people that would be accepted without debate, comment and dispute.

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**** This may explain why no other ancient myth-making culture survived, produced a corpus of systematic thought, or theology.

The author is a PhD historian, writer and journalist living in Jerusalem.

Addendum:

Eastern religions, Taoism, Buddhism etc propose detachment from the world as a way of dealing with pain and suffering.

Thinking about God

Walter Burkert, (Greek Religion, p.182) the defining characteristic of Greek anthropomorphism is that “the Greek gods are persons, not abstractions, ideas or concepts.”

This is a radical departure from all other theologies and religions.

Thinking about Thinking

This inquiry into the origins of the idea consciousness is basically historical. With a background in classics, I was somewhat surprised to find that standard texts ignored any references to Jewish sources. Consciousness seemed to be taken for granted as a Greek invention.

All cultures have myths, which are ways of making sense out of the world. But what is their message and where do they lead?

Through its belief in a totally abstract concept of Divinity, its emphasis on the question, its willingness to include ambiguity, an insistence on Infinite and Unknowable, Jewish civilization produced meta-cognition, a way of insight and creativity that leads to consciousness. Jews turned theology into questions, curiosity and the search for Truth into holiness, and the quest for meaning into a sacred endeavor.

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