hashkafah philosophy - Does Judaism have a concept of holy text literalism?

Apologies if this is an ignorant, foolish or offensive question. I am not Jewish, and am asking to satisfy my curiosity.

Some time ago, on a political forum online, I was discussing religious literalism, the tendency of some religions to insist that their holy texts are the revealed word of the divine and thus cannot ever be contradicted by modern research, philosophy or belief systems.

A poster claiming to be an Orthodox Jew turned up, and said that Judaism finds this concept bizarre. That it is understood that the scripture was written a long time ago, by fallible humans who lacked modern understanding, and might thus be flawed. He went on to say that Jews maintain books of Rabbinical law which are updated as a result of discussion amongst learned Rabbis down the ages and which are given almost equal weight to the Torah.

He stated that it is generally agreed amongst Rabbis that the original creation story, for example, can be understood as a metaphor rather than the literal truth. And that this explains why there is little or no opposition to modern evolutionary science amongst Jews.

Is this partially or wholly correct? And if so, are there any particular cultural or scriptural reasons why Judaism differs in this regard from other Abrahamic religions? Given that a number of Jewish practices appear somewhat anachronistic to other cultures, on what basis do Rabbis decide which laws and views should be updated, and which should be kept?

Answer

Either what was posted on that forum is about half-correct, or your understanding of what was said was about half-correct. Traditional Judaism does believe that "[H]oly texts are the revealed word of the divine and thus cannot ever be contradicted by modern research, philosophy or belief systems." It is not true "[t]hat it is understood that the scripture was written a long time ago, by fallible humans who lacked modern understanding, and might thus be flawed." We believe that scripture was written directly by God and that it is 100% truth.

This does not mean, however, that we cannot understand the Torah in the context of modern knowledge. To use your example, it is not outside the range of orthodoxy to believe that the creation story in Genesis is written metaphorically. To be clear, it is not wrong; it is metaphorical. Imagine the Torah being given thousands of years ago explaining modern physics. The pre-scientific people of the time couldn't possibly understand it. Even today, the exact mechanism for creation could not possibly be understood by anybody but the most brilliant scientists (and probably not even them). Instead, we have a metaphorical version that gives enough of the details in order to convey the message that needed to be passed on. The Torah is not a science manual, so if some scientific details have to be glossed over to make us understand its underlying message, so be it. Again, that does not subtract from the likelihood of having been written by an all-knowing being.

As far as the rabbinical books of laws, those do exist, though they're not afforded quite the same level of sanctity as the scripture. Those laws are not really updated as much as they are constantly being reinterpreted in order to understand how they apply today.

So in short, we believe that scripture was written by God and that it is 100% true; however, we do not discredit science and modern knowledge. Instead, we try to use modern knowledge to have an even better understanding of what the Torah is teaching us. In other words, the Torah is totally true but not totally literal.