This is being written after Ruach class on Saturday and will be published on Sunday.  I got the inspiration for the title from the state of our disputation about the pros and cons of Pinchas murdering a coupling couple, defiling the precincts of the Holy Ark.  Pinchas killed the two with one blow of a short sword-like pike in flagranto delicto and the dispute was that he was praised for his act or despised for being used as God's active agent in this matter.

There was a great deal of going back and forth using various texts and different authorities on the subject.  God's action in killing thousands of disobedient Hebrews was a throw-away topic and we didn't go too far in that direction.  What was important to the over twenty-five members of the group was which interpretation by the Rabbis or the actual text and its commentary at the bottom of each page was the correct one.

Sam Bloom was the Melamad for this morning session.  His son Ron and daughter-in-law Shoshanna actually read the selections chosen by Sam.  He had his own opinions from his own experiences which he shared with the group.  In fact, each of the group shared his or her opinions based on their own experience with Reform Judaism.  Michael, a new member, was looking for which Reform formulation of belief was the only correct one.

This energized the group that, once again, became a mob of voices each eagerly wishing to make points and to be heard.

I listened for the most part and had decided that the laws at this particular moment of the Jewish desert Diaspora were promulgated not so much against the pagan idol worship but the foreign women whose wanton ways seduced the desert trekking males into fornication.

Then again, I listened and watched and then got the attention of Sam and made a pronouncement.  What was apparent to me was that there were two forms of the laws we were discussing.  One was MACRO THEOLOGY which was the kind we taught to children.  The other, MICRO THEOLOGY, was the kind we were into - dissecting each word and nuance to find what the ancients were trying to tell us in the Scriptures we read so diligently each week.  "Macro" are general principles while "Micro" are the nit-picking "pilpul" which go on forever and are never accepted by all.  This disputation is what I live for each week.  It is somewhat like family squabbling about gossip that is juicy and never seems to end.