The following is a fascinating exchange between an Elder and a Rabbi regarding the Torah, the Talmud and the Book of Mormon. Torah is “The Law of the Lord.” the Five Books of Moses. The Talmud includes”Oral Traditions” and interpretations of the Torah as passed down through the centuries and is like scripture to the Jews. “Love” is a central value in Jewish theology and ethics. At the center of “Love” is “Peace and Joy”. The Elder and the Rabbi discover an amazing relationship between these two theologies through the understanding of joy.
The Law of Love
I taught institute for eleven years for the Moroni Stake for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During that time I was researching the “Law of Love.” I found this fascinating article in BYU Studies: https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/elder-among-rabbis. I made contact with Dennis Rasmussen, Professor of Philosophy at Brigham Young University, and he gave me permission to share this article with my institute class. Here, I only share a summary of his fascinating experience and insights.
An Elder Among the Rabbis
During the summer of 1978, he learned of a special institute entitled, “Institute for the Teaching of the Post-Biblical Foundations of Western Civilization,” being held in New York at the Theological Seminary of America and being taught by five rabbis on the faculty. Only twenty would be selected, and he was excited when he found out he was one of the twenty. The institute would last for eight weeks with one additional week the following summer. He was surprised to be accepted because the Seminary’s primary purpose is to train rabbis for synagogues in the Conservative branch of present-day Judaism.
When he arrived they divided them into groups of four colleagues to get acquainted with their teacher. He said, “I soon found myself in the office of Rabbi Yochanan Muffs, a wonderful man with sparkling eyes and an expansive love for people which he communicated with every word and gesture.
Dennis shared that, “He focused on each one of us, and when he came to me, and I told him my name and university, he boomed, ‘You’re the Mormon!’”
“Yes.”
“Do you wear the garment?”
“Yes.”
Then Rabbi Muffs turned and pointed out his window. Against the blue sky we could see, framed in the window, the spire of the chapel at Union Theological Seminary. On the top was a figure, blowing a trumpet. “People around here think that’s Gabriel,” he said. “You and I know who it really is, don’t we? That’s Moroni.”
Dennis then shared, “You can imagine how I was beginning to feel. As Rabbi Muffs continued, the others seemed somehow to fade from my consciousness so that there were only two in the room–the elder and the rabbi.”
Then Rabbi Muffs asked, “Do you pay your tithing?” Dennis, confused, wondered if this were a dream. Was he being interviewed for a temple recommend? Was it Bishop Muffs, or Rabbi Muffs?
“Yes.” Dennis responded.
“Do you pay it with a joyful heart?”
“Yes.”
Rabbi Muffs then leaned back in his chair and spoke more softly, but with even greater intensity. “I believe,” he said, “that joy is the essence of religion. There is nothing more fundamental to religious living than joy. That is its heart. I am writing a book about joy. I want to trace it not only through the Bible, but through the literatures of the ancient Near East generally.”
Dennis had decided before he left Provo that he would be discreet about discussing his beliefs. He said, “My purpose in coming was to learn. But I had also resolved that if a good opportunity presented itself, I would not be shy. Here was this good man, telling me about the importance of joy. What verse do you think was racing through my mind? Then I heard myself speaking: ‘You know, there’s passage in the Book of Mormon about joy that you might like. It says, “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy”’ (2 Nephi 2:25).”
Men Are That They Might Have Joy
“Oh, my God,” whispered the rabbi. “I’ve found the text I’ve searched for all my life… in the Book of Mormon.” Turning to Dennis, he said, “Say it again, but not so fast.”
As Dennis repeated the familiar words, phrase by phrase, the Rabbi’s eyes glowed. When Dennis had finished the Rabbi offered to provide a midrash, which is an imaginative and frequently extended interpretation of a text. He said, referring to God as he created man, “Adam will fall, for only being outside my presence can man exist as man, making choices in freedom. I will give him my Torah; if he obeys it he will have joy, and I will know that he obeys because he loves me, and not because he sees me watching him.” This God says in conversation with the angels in heaven.
Then Rabbi Muffs said to Dennis, “You must sit by me at lunch.”
At the end of lunch, the five teachers were invited to introduce themselves to the entire group. When Rabbi Muffs arose, he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I have had a shattering experience this morning.” All eyes became more intent. He continued, “My colleague to my left, from Brigham Young University, has given me a text from the Book of Mormon that I have searched for all my life.” Placing his hand on Dennis’ shoulder, he said, “Stand up and say it for them… and watch the Jews.”
Dennis came to realize that the power in the scripture in 2 Nephi 2:25 touched the very heart of the oral tradition of the Talmud, which is their interpretation over the millennia of the Torah, and Dennis felt he was totally among friends with the significant similarities between Judaism and Mormonism.
The Commandments To Love
He said, “as my experience at the Seminary reached its end, I began to see that the entire structure of Rabbinic Judaism rested, for the Rabbis as for Moses, upon the simple teaching which Christ himself reiterated, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. . . . Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matt. 22:37, 39; Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18.) The Torah is a law of love. Obedience is a life of love. And always at the center of love, of peace, of joy, is the Holy One of Israel.
“I came to see that the ultimate source of the closeness between Judaism and Mormonism is their common commitment to the covenant which they have received by revelation from God. Because the Jews have preserved and transmitted their covenant though the ages, it was possible for me, as a student at the Seminary, to feel that I had returned to an ancient and holy source of teachings which my own faith had taught me already to love. As I studied the Rabbinic books, attended the synagogue, and shared the Sabbath meal in the homes of my teachers and friends, I felt that I was not just a guest but a family member in “a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God” (D&C 88:119). In my brief time there, modern Israel met and embraced ancient Israel. The stream which had flowed for thousands of years mingled with the spring which had burst forth anew just a hundred and fifty years ago.”
President Russell M. Nelson’s insights are profound in regard to JOY as well: “Joy and Spiritual Survival.”
David W. Allan