The Jewish Narrative

By Gregory

A few of my recent posts have dealt with the notion of narrative – what story or stories provide you with meaning and identity in your life and relationships? Humans identify deeply with stories, and without narrative, it becomes difficult to meaningfully find our place in the world.

Judaism is centered on a series of narratives contained in what Jews call the Hebrew Scriptures and Christians tend to call the Old Testament. The sacred writings are mixture of genres, plots, and styles – but they hang together on a central plot that has grounded the Jewish narrative for thousands of years. The following is a broad, but basic outline of the Jewish story, and therefore, a foundational part of the Christian story.

Emergence

The opening chapters of Genesis written thousands of years ago oddly align with a solid scientific understanding of the Big Bang and the evolutionary unfolding of the universe, and later, our planet and species. God is the creative, ordering principle of being who calls forth meaning and structure from unformed, primal chaos. God’s creativity is process oriented, increasing in complexity as time elapses.

Further, we learn that everything created is interconnected – originating in the same source, and being made of the same stuff. Human beings emerge from elements of the Earth. There is one Source and we are One Family, despite whatever tribe we find ourselves a part of.

The story of Adam and Eve, from a Jewish perspective, is about the maturation of the human family (gaining moral awareness), the dawn of the agricultural order (tilling the soil), establishing an adult relationship between humanity and the Divine, and the consequences and hardships of “adult” living. Most Jews do not read this foundational myth as implying a separation from or rift with God – and the ongoing relationship, Covenant making, and interaction between humanity and God attest to such.

Awareness – Relationship

Generations pass and the human family grows. A man named Avram from Ur develops an awareness of the Divine and reaches out to form a relationship with the Inviting Presence. The Talmud depicts Avram as working in his father’s idol making shop. At hearing the call of the “true” God, Avram smashes the idols in the shop and leaves home on a grand journey filled with promises. The special relationship that develops between God and Avram (who changes his name to Abraham) continues through the generations, passing onto to Avram’s children who are the mythic progenitors of the Jewish people – propelled forward in history by the Divine vision and promise.

Liberation – Purification

Time rolls on, and Avram’s family has developed into a collection of tribes, and then a people of thousands. According to the myth, circumstances bring them to Egypt to avoid famine. In Egypt – which means narrowness – they become enslaved. Throughout the stories found in Genesis and Exodus, there are undertones of greed, materialism, false expectations, misguided ambition, bad decisions, and in-fighting – all things that typically enslave those who encounter them.

God eventually intervenes and inspires his people to rise up and achieve liberation from their ways of narrowness. The people are miraculously rescued at the sea shore, washed clean and renewed in the parted waters. Once free from slavery, the people are further purified wandering in the wilderness (as depicted, in part, in the Book of Numbers).

Covenant – Commitments

Freedom requires direction and purpose – to what end are we free? Free for what? What’s our freedom for? The Jewish narrative claims that human freedom is to be aligned and exercised for goodness in partnership with God.

When their purification in the wilderness was complete, the Jews are brought to Mount Sinai where Yahweh offers them an everlasting partnership – a Covenant – asking the Jewish people to align with God in return for blessings. They agree and enter the Covenant.

As with any treaty or agreement, the Covenant has terms and conditions – expectations for both sides – and these are rooted in the Ten Commandments and the promise of blessings spoken of in Deuteronomy.

Journeying on the Path to Wholeness

The remaining scriptures and their stories are the details of the Jewish journey on the path to wholeness – living the Covenant and unpacking their responsibilities and obligations (Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Exodus, et al). The Jews learn how to live, act, worship, celebrate – all in ways that affirm life and wholeness.

Pivotal to the ongoing history of the Jewish people are the notions of Exile and Restoration – when the Jews wander away from the path of wholeness and disregard the Covenant, they eventually find themselves in exile – separated from their moorings, land, and the Source of Life and Goodness. When they repent, and turn around, and reengage the path of wholeness, they are restored and renewed.

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The above narrative is our meta-story – its plot is a way of finding ourselves in the big picture of life and creation.