In The Genesis of Justice, Alan Dershowitz brings a unique view of the narratives of Genesis, coming from a defense lawyer's perspective. Dershowitz reads Genesis as an educational book trying to show mankind the need for both rules in general and specific ordinances. On the surface, Genesis seems to be a very unfair book. Dershowitz tackles each seemingly unjust story in each chapter. Cain kills his brother but walks, G-d seemingly overreacts and floods the world, Avraham then tries to defend Sodom but loses, Avraham tries to kill his son but is praised, Dina is raped and an entire city gets killed, Tamar becomes a prostitue and ends up being the forebearer of the messiah, and then Joseph's brothers sell him and end up being chosen as well. Taken from this simple perspective, every story in Genesis seems to be immoral. Dershowitz breaks down each story and rather than showing how the story is actually a moral one, he explains that Genesis is teaching us why the world cannot function the way it did in biblical times. The ten commandments and other laws are necessary to the functioning of a society. In this way the Bible is showing that Natural law cannot reign supreme and there must be some positivist structure where laws are kept because they are laws. The G-d of Genesis is one that is learning, or at least showing how we should learn, to create a just society through laws.
While I found this interpretation interesting, I had a couple issues with it. Firstly, I am not sure we can truly say that Halakha is a positivist structure. I am currently taking Contemporary Legal Theory and Halakha in Revel with Professor Rynhold (great class and professor), and it is far from clear that this is true. While many theorists do take this stance and view Halakha as purely positivistic such as Menachem Elon, others, including the Chief Steif Lord Sacks view Halakha as natural law theory. Perhaps Dershowitz simply holds as Elon does, but this stance is far from certain. Secondly, from a literature perspective I can understand Dershowitz's points about a G-d which is learning to make a moral justice system. This can be a very good educational technique to portray G-d as a relatable character, and allows Genesis to be a engaging tool relevant to everyone, rather than a doctrine that one needs to adhere to. However, at least in the case of the flood, can we really say that G-d had all of those people killed to teach us something now, even though they may not have deserved it? Now, if one wishes to take the flood story allegorically this problem goes by the wayside and Dershowitz's explanation can be a very fulfilling one. But if we assume that G-d did bring the flood, I don't see how we can say that He did so even though it was immoral, and learned a lesson from it.
Even with these problems, I found The Genesis of Justice to be extremely enlightening. Dershowitz takes an interesting new view of the old Genesis stories and sheds light on them. I particularly liked how he raised many issues on each story that he didn't fully explain leaving the reader with a lot to think about. He writes the book much like he thinks Genesis was written, leaving the reader with the power to try and figure out the lessons therein to try and make the most just society he can.
