Most people, even scholars, do not understand the Hebrew Bible correctly. They think the Bible, called Torah in Hebrew, a word that means instruction, contains stories of people living proper lives that should be an example for all who read it.
This is not entirely true.
Virtually every significant person mentioned in the Torah had faults, just like other humans.
In addition to instructing people how to act, the Torah teaches readers that all humans make mistakes, which they can correct to become all they can be and an example for others to follow.
The very first humans in the Bible, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God’s first command. They also failed to raise their son Cain properly. Cain became a murderer when he killed his brother Abel. This introductory description of the first humans highlights this message.
God saved Noah when He flooded the earth, and Noah’s reaction after the flood was to get drunk.
The highly respected scholar and mystic Nachmanides, who loved the Torah and insisted it is a gift to humanity by God, criticized the patriarch Abraham for telling the Egyptians, when he left Canaan and traveled to Egypt during a famine, that his wife Sarah, was his sister, lest the Egyptians kill him to take Sarah. Nachmanides argued that Abraham should have had faith that God would protect him. While I disagree that humans should rely on God for help rather than helping themselves, it is interesting to see that this pious mystic had no problem saying Abraham made a mistake.
Consider the story of Isaac and Jacob. Isaac, the second patriarch, a revered figure, was not immune to making mistakes. He failed to recognize Jacob as the son who deserved the blessing, a decision that could be seen as a mistake. He ignores his wife Rebecca’s love for their son Jacob and proposes to bless his other son Esau when Esau captures an animal, kills it, and serves him a meal. Besides being blind to the worthiness of his sons, Isaac’s behavior must have created a dysfunctional family.
Ishmael, Abrahm’s son, and Esau, Isaac’s son, are no exceptions. While many post-biblical stories depict the two unfavorably, the Torah does not criticize them. True, it indicates Ishmael erred in somehow mistreating Isaac when he was a child and describes Esau’s hatred of Jacob for stealing his blessing and vowing to kill him. But it otherwise depicts them favorably. Ishmael joined Isaac at Abraham’s funeral. Esau kissed his brother Jacob when he returned home.
The third patriarch, Jacob, made several mistakes. He showed an excessive preference for his younger son Joseph and angered Joseph’s brothers. This resulted in Joseph being sold into slavery and Jacob suffering the loss of Joseph for twenty years. Jacob also arguably erred when he did not react when his daughter Dinah was kidnapped and then again later when he blamed his two sons, Simeon and Levy when they did respond.
King David, who Jewish tradition believes is the ancestor of the coming Messiah, committed adultery with Batsheva and had Batsheva’s husband murdered.
Even Moses made mistakes, and God punished him by disallowing him permission to lead the Israelites into Canaan, the name Israel had at the time. Despite leading the Israelites from slavery and caring for them for forty years in the desert, Moses acted impatiently with the Israelites and criticized them.
Tradition states that Elijah is so significant that he will announce the Messiah. Yet, Elijah angered God, who condemned him for his loud criticism of the people of Israel. God told Elijah that he does not speak with the harsh sound of thunder but in a still, soft voice.
It’s crucial to understand that the Torah acknowledges the inevitability of human error. However, it also offers a beacon of hope. Mistakes can be corrected, and the person who erred can become an example for others. The key lies in understanding how to fix these mistakes. Some advocate for prayer, others for fasting, and some believe charity helps, a ceremony, or a religious leader’s intervention is necessary. The point is that redemption is possible.
The great philosopher Maimonides suggested a simple, rational approach that differed from the above list. It involves three steps: First, recognize what you did wrong and understand why. Second, decide to change your behavior. Third, develop habits that make it easy to avoid erring again.
I agree with you that the Bible is not shy about exposing mistakes of the early Israelites. It shows that human beings are human beings. It’s being honest about human nature. The patriarchs were human. Everyone makes mistakes. No one is perfect.
Moreover, the Bible assumes that even God (YHVH) can not only can make mistakes, but even that YHVH (like a human being) can do evil.
In the story of the golden calf, God decrees to destroy Israel after the sin of the making of the calf. Moses tells God to repent of the evil decree, he calls the decree evil (Exodus 32, 12). Remarkably, Scripture then says that God repented of the evil that God intended to do (Exodus 32, 14). Thus, Scripture, the Bible, explicitly writes that God can do evil.
To use another example, in Genesis, after making the world God then drowned it, afterwards repenting of what he had done, and promising not to do so again. So we can add God to our list of imperfect beings in Scripture. The Bible depicts God in crass anthropomorphistic and human terms.
Of course, I agree with the Bible that humans are imperfect and to err is human. I disagree with the Torah that God can make mistakes. I think this is pure nonsense. I think of God as being all powerful, and I think that an all powerful being does not (or cannot) make mistakes. God is perfect in wisdom and goodness. However, although the Bible is clearly saying that God is imperfect, if we accept the view of Maimonides, that whenever the Bible says God did or said a thing, God did not really do it, in other words, do not read the passages literally, we can understand the statements saying that God makes mistakes to suggests that even the best of us make mistakes.
Regarding Maimonides. I agree with the Rambam that we repent when we realize we did wrong, decide to change our behavior, and develop habits to ensure the mistake will not happen again. Thomas Jefferson, who was a deist, added to this formulation that you ought to perform deeds to make up for the bad deeds that you did—you don’t just repent of them—you have to make up for them. Therefore, I would add Jefferson’s idea to the list Maimonides provided.
Turk did a fine job, but I agree with Turk in regard to the ideas where he says he agrees with me but I respectfully may disagree regarding his view that God makes mistakes and definitely disagree that Maimonides was wrong in failing to add a fouth condition to overcoming mistakes, namely the need to do some good. As I mentioned frequently, Exodus 22 teaches us that we can know nothing about God, but can get some understanding by seeing what has been created, and we should do so by studying the sciences.Turk recognizes that in Maimonides’ Guide 2:48. Maimonides states that whenever the Torah states that God did something it should be understood that God did not do it but it was a natural occurrance. If Turk is saying that while the Torah text seems to say God makes mistakes, we should realise that we need to interpret the text as not referrring to God, then we agree. In regard to the Jefferson matter, the need to act properly is implied in the third step of developing habits to assure that you do not repeat the wrong. Additionally, the requirement to treat all of creation properly is a separate rule applicable to people who erred and those who did not.
Hi Rabbi Drazin,
Thank you for your reply. I want to emphasize that despite our disagreement about how God is depicted in the Bible, we agree that the patriarchs were human and humans often behave badly. The greatness of the Bible is that the sins of even our greatest heroes are not covered up. They are portrayed as human beings, with frailties and fallibility.
In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah Abraham asks God “Will the Judge of all the earth not do justice?” From this, we learn that not even God is above criticism. If not even God is above criticism then no human is above criticism. This is a good lesson, as long as we do not take it literally (i.e. that God can make mistakes). I understand that God is perfect in wisdom and goodness.
Regarding Maimonides. To be sure, I wasn’t implying that Maimonides erred in not adding a fourth condition. I was just trying to say that we could add Jefferson’s idea that when we make a misdeed, we should try to make up for it. You are correct that correct behavior is a separate rule applicable to all people. I was not referring to the general rule of behaving properly but to the idea that we need to make up for the wrongdoing by doing good deeds that make up for them. This was not meant as a criticism of Maimonides. I only wanted to add a fourth step, which I think Maimonides and you would agree. Even if Maimonides missed this last step, it is OK because no one is perfect. Even Thomas Jefferson made mistakes by owning slaves and not freeing them during his lifetime.
I’m glad to see that we agree. But make no mistake, even if we disagreed, I would still continue to like you and like sharing thoughts with you.
Excellent approach, with respect to Torah learning processes as applied science of life, dear Rabbi Israel Drazin ! Congrats. Best: stephen
Thank you, Stephen.
Great level headed article as per usual. I absolutely love your thoughts. Thank you for sharing as I have with my closest. Keep it up, it’s a beautiful thing.
Thank you, Michelle.