While yesterday was officially the first day of Jewish History class, today was the first time we really got into the subject. We spent a good portion of the time discussing the documentary theory regarding the Tanakh, which proposes that the Tanakh actually had at least four authors, not one, and whether this fact changed the importance of this holy text. As students were offering their opinions, all I could think about is the question, "How can I make a decision about the importance of a text if I hardly know anything about it?"
Then Gertz went on to describe how little he knows about religious Judaism compared to learned scholars, and this gave me perspective about what I know. He's been studying Judaism for well over ten years, and it seems to me that he is a never ending pit of wisdom. And if he, by comparison, knows hardly anything, than that leaves me essentially without anything to go on at all. I'm still wondering how I can possibly try to understand and answer the questions posed to me without any background. I took away from all of this that I should try to learn more about the subjects we are studying in order to try to be able to better contribute and to grasp more information for myself.