This meeting was hosted by the South West Essex and Settlement Reform Synagogue (SWESRS) who have recently installed a Tree of Life in the foyer of their prayer hall. The designer who created this beautiful and original commission had, by coincidence, celebrated his Bar mitzvah at what was then SWERS. The tree is mounted on boards for ease of maintenance. Leaves can be purchased to celebrate happy family events such as births, B’nei mitzvah, marriages, anniversaries etc and also to commemorate the life of someone who has passed away.
The Tree of Life is one of the names for the Torah. In the introductions to the Jewish and Islamic texts we heard about the focus on learning within both traditions. In my introduction to the Christian text (1 Timothy 3. 13 - 17) I focused on different ways of understanding the phrased 'God-breathed' as it relates to the inspiration of scripture:
'God-breathed has been understood as a way of saying that the scriptures have been inspired by God. The idea that the scriptures are directly inspired by God is often understood as being the basis for an understanding of the scriptures which sees them as being literally true in every detail and which requires absolute obedience to their literal meaning. However, this is by no means the exclusive understanding of this phrase with Christianity today and is a relatively recent understanding of the phrase. According to an article in Theology Today published in 1975, "There have been long periods in the history of the church when biblical inerrancy has not been a critical question. It has in fact been noted that only in the last two centuries can we legitimately speak of a formal doctrine of inerrancy."
A more helpful way of understanding this phrase may be think about it in relation to basic needs. The scriptures are described as being like food and water, as well as breath. These are all things without which we will not survive very long. We can survive without food for about two months, without water for up to 8 - 10 days but without air or breath for only about 3 minutes. At one level, then, these are metaphors about the necessity of the scriptures for life itself. They are as fundamental to life as breathing, water and food.
These metaphors are also about taking the scriptures into our lives in order to gain benefit from them. We can observe and discuss food, water and even breath but they all have to enter our bodies for us to physically and literally benefit from them. This speaks of the necessity for us not simply to talk about the scriptures but also to apply them to our lives for real learning and benefit to occur. Learning from the scriptures is not primarily an academic exercise. They have to affect our heart as well as our head if they are truly to be of benefit to us.
Breathing, however, is not simply about taking in but also about giving out. This is, perhaps, another aspect of applying the scriptures; they are for giving out i.e. sharing both in word and deed.
Finally, this image is not firstly or primarily about us but about God. The scriptures are the very breath of God but because breathing is about inhaling and exhaling we can understand scripture in terms of an interactive responsive to and fro, exchange or dialogue between God and ourselves. God speaks into our lives through the scriptures (this is inhalation) and we then respond in prayer or worship or action which then prompts further input into our lives followed by further response.
This to and fro between God and ourselves can be thought of in terms of dialogue or conversation which can take in all forms of response including praise, worship, acceptance, argument, complaint and requests among others. Like breathing, to be effective, this needs to be constant and ongoing but for most of us, perhaps all of us, is, in reality, halting and impaired.'
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