The Story of the Jews

This evening, after preaching about why Christians should love the Jewish people, I arrived home just in time to catch the first episode of Simon Schama’s new BBC 2 series The Story of the Jews, based on his book of the same name. It was everything I expected from a collaboration between the finest television company in the world and a sophisticated, urbane, Reform Jewish historian.

Setting aside minor errors such as the ‘Israelites’ becoming ‘Jews’ at the Exodus from Egypt, the programme was sumptuously filmed and packed full of fascinating information. Much of the details about the Jewish community at Elephantine in Upper Egypt, for example, were new to me.

The two major focuses in the programme were Freud and Moses. Starting with Sigmund Freud and surveying the tragic history of the Jews, Simon Schama ended with Freud as he considered how and why the Jewish people have survived while their oppressors have turned to dust. Schama suggested that the answer lies in the fact that Judaism has the written Torah, the purported words of God mediated through Moses.

It was interesting to see Schama as a religious Jew – albeit not Orthodox – worshipping in synagogue and celebrating Passover with family and friends. But while it is true that the written Torah has played a part in Jewish survival, that is only part of the answer to his question.

I vividly recall the first radio broadcast by Jonathan Sacks, who retired today as Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth. On Radio 4’s Thought for the Day spot on the Today programme, Rabbi Sacks asked the same question as Simon Schama asked tonight: What accounts for the survival of the Jews? Jonathan Sacks’ answer was that the Jews have survived because ‘the final chapter has not yet been written.’ He was wrong: the Jewish people have survived and will survive because the last chapter has been written. It was written in eternity, before the universe came into being.

Although Simon Schama’s explanation is closer to the truth, he expressed doubts about the total reliability of the Bible, as did a Jewish archaeologist he interviewed. The archaeologist (whose name escapes me) felt that the historical reliability of Scripture – for example, whether David and Goliath were real personages or whether David defeated the Philistine in battle – were of little concern, it was the metaphorical lessons that were important. But a book of unreliable metaphors, however inspiring, cannot guarantee the survival of a nation and a people.

In the end, the Jewish people survive because ‘He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep’ (Psalm 121:4).  

The Terrible Twins

Richard Dawkins was on Newsnight last night, talking about his book for kids The Magic of Reality.

Talk about 'terrible twins'! Dawkins was in typical high dudgeon but the only thing Paxman could find to challenge him about was his contention that science was more 'poetic' than 'myth'.

I was dead tired but I had to dash off a letter to Newsnight and this is what I sent:

I watched Jeremy Paxman’s interview with Richard Dawkins tonight and agree with Prof Dawkins that truth is more important than comfort.

While I have become used to Prof Dawkins supercilious and patronising comments about theists, I was somewhat concerned by Jeremy Paxman’s dismissal of everyone who believes in the essential truth of the Genesis account of creation as ‘stupid’.

There are a significant number of scientists with impeccable qualifications who find the biblical account of creation more scientific than the Darwinian hypothesis.

When I read The God Delusion, I expected to be seriously challenged. Instead, I was struck by the juvenile shallowness of Dawkins’ arguments. He used arguments I abandoned at the age of eighteen.

Moreover, it should not be overlooked that some years ago, on Melvin Bragg’s In Our Time, Dawkins admitted that he believed in spontaneous generation, only he preferred to call it ‘autocatalysm’ (self-creation) because that sounded more scientific.

I have read a number of Dawkins’ books as well as books by other evolutionists, and the more I read, the more I believe evolutionists have got it wrong.

I appreciate that Paxman and Dawkins, for reasons best known to themselves, are able to believe in unintelligent design, that everything came into being because Nothing exploded, that the laws of physics were established by random processes and that life arose spontaneously from non-life. I just don’t have the faith to believe all that stuff.

Dawkins and Paxman are intelligent men and I defend their right to tell me I’m mistaken or that I’m just plain wrong. Both men are entitled to their opinions and, given the opportunity, I could defend my views reasonably articulately. But although I’m certainly not the world’s most intelligent guy, I kind of resent being called ‘stupid’ because I disagree with them.

Now I've gotta get some sleep. Good night.

Shock Horror! A balanced Israel documentary on the Beeb

When the BBC's flagship documentary programme Panorama last broadcast a documentary Israel in January, the result was a one-sided and biased distortion of Jewish history and Jewish rights to Jerusalem.

When Panorama announced it was airing "Death in the Med", an examination of events that took place on board the Turkish “aid” ship Mavi Marmara and the Gaza flotilla in May, I expected more of the same.

Instead, the BBC presented a balanced and comprehensive examination of the incident.
If you didn’t see the programme you can see it at Honest Reporting’s website, where there is other useful information about the Gaza flotilla.