Praxis and Symbol: Torag and Temple

Chapter TWO LIKE BIRDS HOVERING OVERHEAD:
THE FAITHFULNESS OF THE GOD OF ISRAEL

3. Praxis and Symbol: Torah and Temple

In worldview terms, ancient Jewish praxis and symbol ran closely together, precisely because the symbols were what they were. I was going to write that the Torah was hardly a symbol that you would hang on your wall (to make the point that Torah is something you do, not merely an ornament, like the fish-sign that a modern western Christian sticks on a car); but then I remembered that of course hanging things on the wall was precisely one of the things which devout Jews were commanded to do, and which they do to this day, so that mezuzoth greet you on your going out and coming in.60 But the point remains: Torah is a symbol which by its very nature is about praxis. Torah, the greatest of all the divine gifts for a Jew, was not about grand religious abstractions but about precise patterns of behaviour...