GEN402 Despite its bookish content, Torah is more a dynamic than a literature.  It is the understanding that the Jewish people has chosen to carry forward in its ongoing covenant relationship with God. Newly 2,000 years ago Ben Azzai so described Torah’s continued vibrancy: “Torah is not even as old as a decree issued two or three days ago, but is as a decree issued this very day…” Pesikta de Rabbi Kahana 12. New challenges make a new Torah. For example, early in the 20th century anesthesia became generally available to lessen women’s pain during childbirth. Pious women wondered whether they could conscientiously use it, for did not God say to Eve, and thus to every female thereafter: “I will intensify your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bear children” [this verse]?  It did not take long for rabbinic authorities to permit its use, since they knew that the severe pain that women experience at this time could endanger their lives. Today a host of such bioethical issues has introduced a vast literature on Jewish medical ethics. And this is only one field in which contemporary grappling with various interpretations of Torah continues. Major differences between Orthodox and various non-Orthodox groups center around just how this Torah process should most authentically proceed. Yet for all that diversity divides us, it validates Torah, agreeing with the ancient words: “The words of Torah are life to the one who finds them” Proverbs 4:22.  BOROJMV 253-4