Halacha: The Role Of Rules In Judaism
Rabbi Baruch HaLevi (www.RabbiB.com)

 

I. What are these rules?

A. 613 Commandments

 

Rabbi Samlai expounded: Six hundred and thirteen commandments were stated to Moses: Three hundred and sixty-five negative commandments, corresponding to the number of days in the solar year; and two hundred and forty-eight positive commandments corresponding to the limbs of a human body. Said Rav Hamnuna: What is the Scriptural source? --"Moses commanded us the Torah, an inheritance unto the congregation of Jacob" (Deuteronomy 33)--The numerical value of the word "Torah" comes to six hundred and eleven. "I am" and "Thou shalt not have" we heard directly from the Almighty. Babylonian Talmud Makkot 23b-24a:

B. Types of Mitzvot/Rules: Mishpatim (judgements), Eidot (testimonials) & Chukim (decrees)

The mishpatim are logical or obvious mitzvot such as the commandment to give charity or the prohibitions against theft and murder, whose reason and utility are obvious to us, and which we would arguably have instituted on our own if God had not commanded them.

 

Eidot ("testimonials"), occupies the middle ground between the decrees and the laws. A testimonial is a mitzvah which commemorates or represents something -- e.g., the commandments to put on tefillin, rest on Shabbat, or eat matzah on Passover.

 

These are laws which we would not have devised on our own, certainly not in the exact manner in which the Torah commands; nevertheless, they are rational acts. Once their significance is explained to us, we can appreciate their import and utility.

Chukkim are those mitzvot, such as the dietary laws or the laws of family purity, which we accept as divine decrees, despite their incomprehensibility and -- in the most extreme of chukkim -- their irrationality.

II. The Role of Rules In Life - they allow us to live.

Judaism’s ‘reputation’ for being law-centered:

Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: Scripture puts the easiest of commandments on the same level as the most difficult of observances. The easiest of commandments – letting a mother bird go; and the most difficult of commandments – honoring a father and mother. And with regard to each, it is written “that your days may be long.” (Yerushalmi Peah 14d)

Rabbi Judah said in the name of Rav: A person should always occupy himself with Torah and mitzvot, even if it be for an ulterior motive, for out of occupying himself with them for an ulterior motive, he will come to occupy himself with them for the right motive. (Nazir 23b)

Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah declared: A person should not say, “I do not like swine’s meat, I do not like wearing linsey-woolsey (shatnez).” He should say, “I like both. But what can I do? My Father in heaven decreed for me not to.” (Sifra 93d)

III. Are All Rules Equal?

Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: Scripture puts the easiest of commandments on the same level as the most difficult of observances. The easiest of commandments – letting a mother bird go; and the most difficult of commandments – honoring a father and mother. And with regard to each, it is written “that your days may be long.” (Yerushalmi Peah 14d)

When it is necessary to violate a Sabbath law to save a life, we should not ask non-Jews or children (both of whom are not bound by Sabbath restrictions) to do the forbidden activities; rather, “Israel’s great and wise men” should be called upon to do what is necessary. In that way, people will understand that the
laws of the Torah are not arbitrary directives, but are intended to increase “mercy, kindness, and peace: in the world (“Laws of the Sabbath” 2:3) Code of Jewish Ethics, Teleushkin p.23

 

IV. But what about ...

A. Inspiration

1. Rabbi Eliezer said: If a person prays only according to the exact fixed prayer and adds nothing from his own mind, his prayer is not considered proper. ( B’rachot 28a)

2. There is the story of the child who went crying to his grandfather, complaining about his playmates' behavior: "Grandfather, my friends don't follow the rules. We were playing hide-and-seek, and it was my turn to hide. I hid really well, but they wandered off and did not even try to search for me." The grandfather hugged his grandchild, nodded his head, and replied: "So, too, God hides from us and God weeps when we fail to search [for God]."

B. “Free Will”

1. Man has become the only being in the world who possesses a characteristic which no other being has in common with him. What is this characteristic? It is that by and of himself man can distinguish between good and evil and do that which he pleases with absolutely no restraint. (Rambam, Shemonah Perakim, Ch 8)

2. Do not imagine that character is determined at birth. We have been given free will. Any person can become as righteous as Moses or as wicked as Jeroboam. We ourselves decide whether to make ourselves learned or ignorant, compassionate or cruel, generous or miserly. No one forces us, no one decides for us, no one drags us along one path or another. We, ourselves, by our own volition, choose our own way. Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Teshuvah.

 

C. “Nishma” - Understanding:

...that you shall set before them. (Exodus 21:1)

 

1. God said to Moses: It should not enter your mind to say, “I will teach them a section of the Torah or a single halakhah twice or three times until it will be fluent in their mouths exactly according to its wording [i.e. verbatim], but I shall not take the trouble to make them understand the reason of each thing and its significance.” Therefore, Scripture says that you shall set before them – like a table fully set before a person with everything ready for eating. (Rashi [Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, 1040-1105, France])

2. Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Lubchanski said, we see from God’s command to Moses that: (1) A teacher must acquire the patience necessary to explain matters at length; (2) Although Moses would have been able to attain greater heights if he would have devoted all his time to his own spiritual elevation, God commanded him to use his precious time to explain the laws to the people; and (3) A teacher must have his students’ best interest in mind, rather than his own. (Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Lubchanski, d. 1941, Lithuania)

 

…Rabbi Yose says, “Whoever changes the phrasing which the sages determined for b’rachot [blessings] has not fulfilled his obligation” [to recite the blessing]… ( B’rachot 40b)

Rabbi Judah said in the name of Rav: A person should always occupy himself with Torah and mitzvot, even if it be for an ulterior motive, for out of occupying himself with them for an ulterior motive, he will come to occupy himself with them for the right motive. (Nazir 23b)

Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah declared: A person should not say, “I do not like swine’s meat, I do not like wearing linsey-woolsey (shatnez).” He should say, “I like both. But what can I do? My Father in heaven decreed for me not to.” (Sifra 93d)

If a Jew is forced to either transgress any of the mitzvot commanded by the Torah or else be killed, he should transgress rather than be killed. For regarding the mitzvot, it is written, "[You shall keep My chukkim and mishpatim,] which man should do and live by them" -- live by them and not die by them... When does the above apply? In regard to all mitzvot, except for [the prohibitions against] idolatry, [certain] sexual sins, and murder.

Regarding these three transgressions, if a person is told to either commit one of them or else be killed, he should be killed rather than transgress. (Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Fundamentals of Torah, 5:1-2).

Purificiation and Mitzvot As for God, God’s word is puriying (Psalm 18:31).

 

Rav said: Mitzvot were given only so that mortals might be purified by them. For of what concern can it be to the Holy One whether, in preparing meat a person slaughters an animal at the windpipe or the gullet? Or of what concern is it to God whether a person eats animals that are clean or unclean? Hence, mitzvot were given only so that mortals might be purified by them (Genesis Rabbah 44:1, Tanhuma Shemini 8)

Once the Kotzker Rebbe (Menachem Mendl of Kotzk, 1787-1859) asked his houseguests the following question: "Where does God abide?" The guests responded, "Surely the whole universe is filled with God's glory." The Rabbi of Kotzk answered, "God dwells wherever God is allowed to enter!" (cited in Leket, From the Treasure House of Hassidism by Martin Buber) In other words, God fills the entire world under normal conditions and is absent only when we block God out of our existence. This expression of theology empowers each of us as individuals.

There is also the story of the child who went crying to his grandfather, complaining about his playmates' behavior: "Grandfather, my friends don't follow the rules. We were playing hide-and-seek, and it was my turn to hide. I hid really well, but they wandered off and did not even try to search for me." The grandfather hugged his grandchild, nodded his head, and replied: "So, too, God hides from us and God weeps when we fail to search
[for God]."

In a sense, life is like that. We are engaged in a process that can be compared to the game of hide-and-seek. We search for God, and it seems to us that God is hiding. But if we give up the search altogether, then God will be disappointed. We are on a lifelong journey, and along the way we are searching for understanding.

 

Torah and Mitzvot

These are the rules... (Exodus 21:1)

Wherever [the term] eileh (these) is stated, it cuts off the preceding; v’eileh (and these) adds to the preceding. Just as the preceding [laws were given] at Sinai, so these [were given] at Sinai. (Rashi [Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, 1040-1105, France])

Just as the former are from Sinai, these too are from Sinai (Rashi). We know that every commandment in the Torah is from Sinai, and “even that which a veteran student will teach before his master was already said to Moses at Sinai” (Yerushalmi Peah 2:6).

 

What then is the stress in Rashi that the laws of this parashah were given at Sinai? Rather, this teaches us that even those laws that we can understand purely intellectually and logically are valid only because God wants them and agrees to them. It is not human
logic that determines matters, but God’s will as expressed at Sinai. (Hidushei HaRIM [Rabbi Isaac Meir Alter, the Gerer Rabbi, 1799-1866, Poland])

Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: Scripture puts the easiest of commandments on the same level as the most difficult of observances. The easiest of commandments – letting a mother bird go; and the most difficult of commandments – honoring a father and mother. And with regard to each, it is written “that your days
may be long.” (Yerushalmi Peah 14d)

Rabbi Judah said in the name of Rav: A person should always occupy himself with Torah and mitzvot, even if it be for an ulterior motive, for out of occupying himself with them for an ulterior motive, he will come to occupy himself with them for the right motive. (Nazir 23b)

Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah declared: A person should not say, “I do not like swine’s meat, I do not like wearing linsey-woolsey (shatnez).” He should say, “I like both. But what can I do? My Father in heaven decreed for me not to.” (Sifra 93d)

 

Sparks for Discussion

Rashi and others make the point that all of the Torah’s mitzvot are equal, all given by God at Sinai, all equally binding. Still, it is almost impossible for a person to given equal weight to observing all the mitzvot. Why do you perform the mitzvot you do? Why do you choose not to do others? Are there any mitzvot you do just
“because God said so”? What do you imagine God would think of your approach to mitzvot? How do you define the word “mitzvah”?

 

To Learn and To Teach

...that you shall set before them. (Exodus 21:1)

God said to Moses: It should not enter your mind to say, “I will teach them a section of the Torah or a single halakhah twice or three times until it will be fluent in their mouths exactly according to its wording [i.e. verbatim], but I shall not take the trouble to make them understand the reason of each thing and its significance.” Therefore, Scripture says that you shall set before them – like a table fully set before a person with everything ready for eating. (Rashi [Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, 1040-1105, France])

Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Lubchanski said, we see from God’s command to Moses that: (1) A teacher must acquire the patience necessary to explain matters at length; (2) Although Moses would have been able to attain greater heights if he would have devoted all his time to his own spiritual elevation, God commanded him to use his precious time to explain the laws to the people; and (3) A teacher must have his students’ best interest in mind, rather than his own. (Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Lubchanski, d. 1941, Lithuania)

 

Disciples increase the teacher’s wisdom and broaden his mind. The sages said, “Much wisdom I learned from my teachers, more from my colleagues, from my pupils most of all.” Even as a small piece of wood kindles a large log, so a pupil of small attainment sharpens the mind of his teacher, so that by his questions, he elicits glorious wisdom. (Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Talmud Torah, 5:13 [Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, 1135-1209, Spain and Egypt])

 

A student should not be embarrassed if a fellow student has understood something after the first or second time and he has not grasped it even after several attempts. If he is embarrassed because of this, it will turn out that he will come and go from the house of study without learning anything at all. (Shulkhan Arukh, Yoreh Deah 246:11)

 

Sparks for Discussion

We are all, at various times, teachers and students – not just in classrooms, but learning to read Torah, teaching a teenager to drive, training a new employee at work, or being that new employee. Think about the best teachers you ever had. What makes a great teacher? What qualities are most important for teachers? For students? How do we encourage great teaching and learning in our schools, shuls, homes, and workplaces?