Monday, November 12, 2007

Faith in action, NY style

A very delightful story in the NYT today to brighten up a dreary morning. A Jewish congregation is taking on the task of handwriting a Torah -- the first five books in what we Christians call the Old Testament -- one letter at a time. The difference? Rather than pay a scholar to write the whole thing, they're doing it themselves, a letter at a time. In other words they're honouring and revering Torah firsthand.

Now that's what I call faith in action. Of course, they have to pay for the privilege of adding their hand to it but that's another point -- they're learning about their faith rather than have someone tell it to them from the pulpit or the idiot box. And of course, it's another nail in the coffin of the theory that NYC is a godless city.

Can you imagine a televangelist allowing his or her supporters to take part in a project where they could help write a new printing of the King James Bible, a handwritten letter at a time, for a song? No, it wouldn't happen. They'd rather sell their own overpriced "study" Bibles with very heretical notations for a couple hundred bucks for something that cost maybe five bucks to print.

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