Section 12.3: The Torah on Hindus?

Section 12.3: The Torah on Hindus?

The Torah, the first five chapters of the Bible, is the holiest scripture of the Jews. The Torah covers revelations from God to different apostles up to Moses. It is part of Old Testament and as such forms the core of Christian belief. The apostles described in the Torah are also recognized by Bible and Koran.

Though Jews, Christians and Muslims believe in the same God, they are at odds while practicing their faith. First, they call God by different but not inter-changeable names, like LORD God (or God of Israel), God the Father (Jesus as the Son) and Allah (God in Arabic), respectively. Though the Bible and Koran do recognize God’s messages in the Torah, the Koran recommends Muslims not to be friends of Christians and Jews. On the other hand, Jews may not recognize Jesus as the “Son” of God or Mohammad as the “last” messenger of LORD God.

Jews, Christians and Muslim are collectively referred to as Abrahamic and “People of the Book.” In general, Abrahamics are monotheist and exclusivist and believe in the superiority of their faith over each other and others. Some of them may consider Hindus to be polytheists and idol-worshippers.

It is not the intention of this author to criticize any scripture. This section is written to help Abrahamic-Dharmic interfaith couples make knowledgeable decisions for their planned married life.

Ideally, it would be easy if one believes that scriptures were written (but inspired by God) by apostles/sages ages ago and should be interpreted in the context of their time. If a Jew believes that the Torah is literally a direct message from God and is to be followed literally, the Hindu partner has to wonder why the LORD God of Israel did not consult Ishvara before giving some conflicting statements.

For an interfaith couple, it is not what is stated in an individual’s scripture that is important but what an individual has learned from it. Here, select quotations from the Torah are listed that a Hindu-Jew couple must read together to answer how these verses will impact their marriage.

12.3.1 The Second Commandment

God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai (circa 1593 BC). The Second Commandment should be of major concern to any interfaith couple. Here, an angry and jealous God gives a message of absolute intolerance towards other belief systems. Any form or ways of worshipping God other than that described in the Torah is prohibited.

The Second Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image – any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject Me.” (Exodus 20:3-5)

Compared to the above, Jesus stated the Second Commandment as, “And the Second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Further, Jesus added, “There is no commandment greater than these (love thy neighbors).” Unfortunately, Jesus’ followers continued to highlight and repeat God’s seemingly exclusivist messages while writing the Bible. Koran prescribes even more severe punishments for unbelievers.

If a Dharmic is considering a lifelong relationship with an Abrahamic, it would be wise to know what kind of interpretation your intended spouse has learned during his/her lifetime. To make an “informed” decision, the Dharmic should ask the Abrahamic: 1) Does Lord Krishna qualify as God?; 2) During a Hindu wedding ceremony, the Hindu priest will invoke many Gods from heaven and earth. Are you going to accept being a part of such a wedding?; and 3) Are you going to fear your Jealous God if you enter a Hindu, Jain or Sikh temple, take prasad (offerings from God), or are invited to be a part of other Hindu rituals at my parents’ home?

For a Jew-Hindu couple, it is important to make sure that the intended spouse does not believe in this Second Commandment literally and is not intolerant to the Hindu belief that the Almighty may be worshipped in one or more different forms. If any person holds an exclusivist vision of God or religion—that only their religion is the true path—an interfaith relationship is not for them. If someone in a Jewish-Hindu couple finds some irreconsilable differences, they need to explore them fully before getting married.

12.3.2 Angry and Jealous God

The Torah has described God as a “Jealous God” 10 times, as an “Angry God” 40 times and the word “fear” is used 60 times; many of these statements are made by God Himself.

If a potential Jewish spouse is fearful of a jealous LORD God’s stern messages for other faiths, it could create problems in your married life while practicing the Hindu belief system of seeing the Almighty in any and all possible forms, including females, animals, plants, rivers, mountains, the sun and moon.

12.3.3 Torah on the “Other” Gods

Hindu Dharma believes in one Ultimate Reality (Brahman), but Hindus have liberty to express the All Mighty God by different names and forms (Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti). Likewise, the Torah teaches that there is absolutely only one God or ultimate reality. However, the Torah has stern warnings for those who believe in “other gods” or express God with names or in any form and shape. If so, are Gods as described in the Hindu scriptures “other” gods?

The reference to the “other” gods in the Torah is in reference to the Pagan practices at that time and probably not to Hindu ways of believing in God. Likewise, Lord Krishna also said, “Those who are devotees of ‘other’ gods and who worship them with faith actually worship only Me, but they do so in a wrong way.” This Krishna’s message is not directed to the Abrahamic concept of God. As it is said all along in this book, an interfaith couple must learn to interpret scriptures in its context for happier outcomes.

Below is a list of citations from the Torah about warnings against praying to “other” gods or idol worshipping:

Anyone you find your gods with shall not live. (Genesis 31:32)

You shall not have the gods of others in My presence. (Exodus 20:3)
You shall not make [images of anything that is] with Me. Gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves. (Exodus 20:4)
Be careful to do all things that I have said to you; and do not invoke the name of other gods, neither let them be heard out of your mouth. (Exodus 23:13)
You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars. (Exodus 23:24)
But you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim (cult objects related to the worship); for you shall worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. (Exodus 34:13-14)
Then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their stone idols, destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places. (Numbers 33:52)

Lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself an engraved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female. (Deuteronomy 4:16)
There you shall serve other gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. (Deuteronomy 4:28)
But you shall deal with them like this: you shall break down their altars, and dash their pillars in pieces, and cut down their Asherim, and burn their engraved images with fire. (Deuteronomy 7:5)
I took your sin, the calf (idol) which you had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust: and I cast its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain. (Deuteronomy 9:21)
And you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods; and you shall destroy their name out of that place. (Deuteronomy 12:3)
And you shall stone him with stones so that he dies, because he sought to lead you astray from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (Deuteronomy 13:11)
And has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; and it be told you, and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire diligently; and look, if it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel, then you shall bring forth that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, even the man or the woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones. (Deuteronomy 17:3-5)
But of the cities of these peoples, that the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes; but you shall utterly destroy them. (Deuteronomy 20:16-17)
They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations.… They have made Me jealous with that which is not God. They have provoked Me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. (Deuteronomy 32:16, 21)

12.3.4 God’s “Chosen” People

Judaism is a monotheistic and exclusivist religion. Jews believe in religious supremacy (they are God’s “chosen” people). As per the Torah, the LORD God was for the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. How realistic is it that God was playing favorites only to a small number of Jewish people in Arabia when there were millions of others human beings all over the world?

Here are verses showing God’s preference for Jews over non-Jews:

I will establish my covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your descendants after you. (Genesis 17:7)
The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13)
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice, and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is Mine. (Exodus 19:5)
I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and will be their God. (Exodus 29:45)
Look, the LORD your God has set the land before you: go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you; do not be afraid, neither be dismayed. (Deuteronomy 1:21)
You shall be blessed above all peoples: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your livestock. (Deuteronomy 7:14)
Only the LORD had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as at this day. (Deuteronomy 10:15)

12.3.5 Interfaith Marriages

The Torah has many stern warnings against interfaith marriages. A true believer in the Torah will want to solve this interfaith marriage problem by religious conversion of the non-Jewish fiancé(e). While in this day and age, many Jews might not ask for religious conversion they will almost certainly ask for the children of their interfaith marriage to be Jewish by bris and bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies. If one is looking for an interfaith marriage with equality for both faiths, keeping the child’s religious “labeling” out and letting the child decide his or her own faith at an adult age may be an appropriate choice.

Here are the Torah’s recommendations on interfaith marriages:

The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, and said to them, “We can’t do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us. (Genesis 34:13-14)
Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare in the midst of you: but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim; for you shall worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice; and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods. You shall make no cast idols for yourselves. (Exodus 34:12-17)
When the LORD your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, and shall cast out many nations before you, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you; and when the LORD your God shall deliver them up before you, and you shall strike them; then you shall utterly destroy them: you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them; neither shall you make marriages with them; your daughter you shall not give to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son. For he will turn away your son from following Me, that he may serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and He would destroy you quickly. But you shall deal with them like this: you shall break down their altars, and dash their pillars in pieces, and cut down their Asherim, and burn their engraved images with fire. (Deuteronomy 7:1-5)

12.3.6 Torah on Circumcision

Circumcision is not only a tradition but a central part of the Jewish identity. In an interfaith relationship with equality, one has to wonder if circumcision is science or superstition.

This is My (God) covenant that you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. (Genesis 17:10-12)
The uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He has broken My covenant. (Genesis 17:14)

When a stranger shall live as a foreigner with you, and will keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one who is born in the land: but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. (Exodus 12.48)
In the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. (Leviticus 12:3)

12.3.7 Torah on Animal Sacrifices

As you can read in the Old Testament, it was common practice to sacrifice animals to wash off human sin. Later, Judaism did away with animal sacrifice completely. If you are a vegetarian or an animal lover, you may not want your children to read and follow these God’s commandments.

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. (Genesis 9:3)
This is the law of the trespass offering. It is most holy. In the place where they kill the burnt offering, he shall kill the trespass offering; and its blood he shall sprinkle around on the altar. (Leviticus 7:1-2)
All the cattle for the burnt offering twelve bulls, the rams twelve, the male lambs a year old twelve, and their meal offering; and the male goats for a sin offering twelve; and all the cattle for the sacrifice of peace offerings twenty-four bulls, the rams sixty, the male goats sixty, the male lambs a year old sixty. This was the dedication of the altar, after it was anointed. (Numbers 7:87-88)

12.3.8 Torah on Cruelty to Others

Select verses from the Torah are listed here for information only, however we know that today’s Jews do not follow it. Contemporary and progressive Jews are likely to interpret these verses in their historical context, not as mandates.

You shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. (Exodus 31:14)
They warred against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they killed every male. They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain: Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they killed with the sword. The sons of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones; and all their livestock, and all their flocks, and all their goods, they took for a prey. (Numbers 31:7-9)
Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the girls, who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. (Numbers 31:17-18)
So the LORD our God delivered into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we struck him until none was left to him remaining. We took all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we did not take from them; sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; besides the unwalled towns a great many. We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. But all the livestock, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves. (Deuteronomy 3:3-7)
When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers them into your hands, and you carry them away captive, and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have a desire to her, and would take her to you as wife; then you shall bring her home to your house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; and she shall put the clothing of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that you shall go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she will; but you shall not sell her at all for money, you shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her. (Deuteronomy 21:10-14)

12.3.9 Can One Read Torah in Its Context?

Your intended Jewish spouse may believe that the Torah is a direct message from God and has to be followed literally in your married life. Alternatively, your intended Jewish spouse may believe in interpreting the Torah in its context and believe it is not literally applicable today. The above listed points are to be discussed for its applicability to your planned marriage.

You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. (Deuteronomy 4:2)