Is The Torah Biased?
The answer to that questions is no. Certainly one cannot accuse our Creator of having the human trait of bias. But to any thinking human being who has any kind of sensitivity to the human condition there are some very troubling Halachos.
One of the most troubling of Halachos is the way the Torah deals with rape of a Naarah, (a twelve year old girl) in Shemos (22:15,16). The Torah tells us that any man that has sexual relations with her, the punishment is as follows: If the father refuses to give his daughter to the rapist for marriage, the rapist must then pay a 50 Shekel fine to the father. This, the Torah tells us is the “value” for virgins given in marriage.
If there is any human being that is not troubled by these biblical verses, including the most ultra of Orthodox Jews, then he is not human. Imagine the same scenario with you own twelve year old daughter. She is raped by an adult… and the punishment? A fifty dollar fine!
I never understood this Halacha. Yet that is clearly the way the
Torah spells it out. Does this mean I cannot accept the Torah? Does it not show bias by God himself? Of course it doesn’t. What it shows is that our own sensitivities are very driven by the culture and the time in which we live.
What does this say about us and about our civilization? Is it possible to say that our own morals are superior to that of the Torah? Hardly. One need not look further than the typically dressed American teenager in the street in the summer... or many of the billboard or magazine ads... even in the relatively decent magazines like “Good Housekeeping”. The amount of skin exposure is often off the charts. Compare that with the modesty standards required by Halacha.
Certainly Torah standards of modesty in dress are superior by far, to the standards of our current civilization. And if one looks at the entertainment culture, one would have a hard time finding anything even remotely resembling sexual morality there. Yet there is this discrepancy about the Torah attitude to rape between the two cultures. What gives?
The answer is that I do believe that one can have a moral standard that is higher than the one outlined for us in the Torah. The Torah sometimes gives us minimum standards. And allows us to implement higher standards as society changes, while making sure the minimal standards are not violated.
One could conclude from the Halacha I quoted that in ancient times rape was not looked at in the same way it is today. I know it is impossible for our minds to comprehend that. But it seems to be the case. And it isn’t all that difficult to understand that. Throughout history, if one looks outside of the Torah world, women were far worse off in just about every area of life. They were treated mostly as possessions with no rights at all. But our sages understood what God wanted of us. They built a legal system and thus a society where women were not only treated as human beings but were actually given priorities and rights that their husbands could not countermand. So as civilization advanced so too the Torah’s attitudes on how women should be treated became more like the accepted norm.
Perhaps civilization advanced beyond the Torah’s minimum standard on this isue and came to see rape as amongst the most disgusting of violations against humanity. I too see it that way. Does that mean I am holier than the Torah? No. It means that I have developed a moral understanding that is greater than the standard required of me by the Torah, a standard that was moral in a society that treated women differently than it does today.
The Torah actually encourages a higher standard of behavior than it mandates. It is possible to do something that is totally disgusting, yet technically permitted by the Torah law. It is a concept called Naval B’Reshus HaTorah, a term that I believe was coined by the Ramban. The Torah recognizes that there is a higher standard than the minimum. And it tells us to seek it. The Torah explicitly states it: Kedoshim Tihiyu. Make yourselves holy. This means that even in those areas that are technically permissible one should seek a higher standard of behavior. That would definitely include our modern sensibilities to rape. And that is as it should be. It is quite proper to look at rape the way we do.
There are many other Torah laws like this one that are difficult to understand, like the institution of slavery for instance. But the same reasoning applied here can apply there.
The bottom line is that one can truly feel that a specific Halacha is unfair but one should understand that our feelings are often culturally generated and are not necessarily unfair by the absolute standards of the Torah, and a historical context. One should rather understand that God in His infinite wisdom gave us a system designed to serve Him and at the same time provides us with the best possible way to live. If inequities are perceived, one must realize that... perception is not always reality. One needs to look at the entire picture not the least of which is the historical perspective. And one must have a great deal of Torah knowledge in order to understand those issues which trouble us. And sometimes, no matter how great we become in understanding Torah knowledge we just can’t always understand the “why” of God.
The Torah was given for the ages, not just for ancient times or for current times. One great civilization after another has died while our own has continued to survive in spite of all attempts to destroy it. It was Torah law that carried Jewry throughout the millennia. Once we realize that and see the beauty of a system relative to all others throughout history we can see its divine origin and appreciate the rectitude of its laws.
Updated:9/14/06
