Deciding What is Good and Right
Author: Esther Ehrman, Av 5764/August 2004Ki ta'ase ha-yashar be-eynei H ' - "You shall do what is right in the eyes of the Lord" (Deut.ch.12 v.25)
Ki ta'ase ha-tov ve-ha-yashar be-eynei H' eloheicha " You shall do that which is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God" (Deut. Ch 12 v 28)
In his final speech to the nation before they enter the promised land, Moses makes the above statement twice within the space of three verses and the same idea is insisted on twice more in the weekly portion RE'EH (Deut.11 v.26 - ch.17 v.17). We nod our heads in agreement, but how clear are weabout the meaning of the statement? We accept that the Torah asks us to do that which is good and right and we assume that The Torah educates us to use our judgment in the matter. We would therefore expect to find this laudable advice by way of introduction or general conclusion or, perhaps together with the injunction, later in the same portion, to be generous to the poor Ch 15, v.7-8 "you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him..". That, however, is not the context in which we find our statement.
Chapter 12 begins "These are the laws (chukkim) and judgments (mishpatim) which you shall observe to do in the land which the Lord God of your fathers gives you to possess it all the days that you live on the land". There follow injunctions to overthrow every heathen place of worship and bring offerings only where we shall be told to, "and there you shall eat before the Lord your God and you will rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households wherein the Lord your God has blessed you (v.18). You shall not do after the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes(v.19)". This context would seem to indicate that doing what is right in one's own eyes is the opposite of doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord, which, here is a very specific injunction about idolatry.
Moses goes on to tell us not, under any circumstances, to eat the blood of meat "for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat (v.23). You shall not eat it, you shall pour it on the earth as water (v.24). You shall not eat it that it may go well with you and with your children after you, for you shall do that which is right in the sight of the Lord"(v.25). The next verses repeat the injunction on sacrifices and pouring out the blood, followed by v.28: "Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you for ever, when you do that which is good and right in the eyes of the Lord". The context, as we see, is again very specific. Doing that which is good and right here means applying the specific laws about not eating blood and bringing the correct sacrifices in the correct place only and it comes under a general heading of laws to be applied in the promised land.
Chapter 13, too, echoes our statement, this time at the end of a chapter which is very specific on the removal of idolatry in the land. If a prophet lures the people to idolatry, prophesying signs and these come about, he is to be put to death; if people succeed in luring a city into idol worship, the city and its inhabitants are to be destroyed by sword and fire " that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy and compassion and multiply you as He swore to your fathers when you will hearken to the voice of the Lord your God to keep all His commandments which I command you this day to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord your God."(Ch.13 v18-end).
Taken out of context, the injunction to do that which is right and good in the eyes of the Lord seemed to be a moral statement of a very general kind that could be implemented by an individual. Looking at the statements in their context gives us a very different connotation. The individual's judgment of what is right leads to lawlessness (We see this elsewhere, at the end of the Book of Judges; the account of the repeated backsliding into idol worship and into rebelliousness is summed up in the last verse of that Book ish ha-yashar be-eynav asah, every man did that which was right in his eyes). There is a great deal more to be said on the subject of good and right, as many later commentaries have shown. But in this section of the Torah to do that which is good and right means to obey specific instructions meticulously. The instructions are given to ensure that we maintain our loyalty wholeheartedly and single mindedly to the worship of the Almighty. Ideally, of course, doing that which is right in our own eyes and that which is right in the eyes of the Lord would coincide.
Bereishit – Do Some Things Come First?
Author: Esther Ehrman, Tishrei 5765/Oct 2004Bereishit bara elohim et ha shamayim ve et ha aretz 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth' (Genesis 1,1).
In the Torah world, it is hard to imagine that anything, even the world, preceded the Torah and so the Midrash explains: ein reishit ela torah 'beginning can only mean Torah' (Bereishit Rabba), meaning that with 'reishit', i.e. with Torah, the Almighty created the world. Equating Torah and Bereishit is what we do on Simchat Torah when we follow up the reading of the last section of the Torah immediately with the reading of the opening chapter.
Having settled that point, the Midrash asks about other things that seem to have the privilege of precedence. The Almighty created 'the heaven and the earth'. Heaven, says Beit Shammai came first; it is mentioned first. No, say Beit Hillel, look at the very next chapter: be yom asot H' elohim eretz ve shamayim '.in the day that the Lord made earth and heaven' (ch.2,4), where the earth is mentioned first. Beit Shammai do not give in so easily. What about Abraham, who is always mentioned before Isaac and Jacob? Again there is a ready verse to hand 'Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember'(Lev.26, 42). The discussion continues, mentioning that while the name Moses usually precedes that of Aaron his brother, even that is not always the case.
In the last part of this section, the Midrash raises the question of precedence in the command to honour father and mother. Once again, there is a verse to show that the mother is also mentioned first, 'You shall fear every man his mother and his father'. (Lev.19, 3). 'Our sages say', the section ends, that the father does precede the mother, since, in the verse just quoted, 'both the man and his mother have to do honour to the father' - in the command to honour father and mother. The sages have the last word here. If we take their view to reflect the view of their society, we see that they do not reflect the meticulous concern for equality of worth accorded by the Torah.
Kristallnacht - A Torah Response
Author: Esther Ehrman, Cheshvan 5765/Nov 2004The Jewish people remember the events of Kristallnacht when Jewish properties throughout Germany and Austria were smashed and Synagogues throughout the Nazi land were burnt to the ground.
Why do we commemorate such events? Might it not be easier, perhaps healthier to forget them and move on? What do we teach our children? Is there a Jewish response to the many attacks perpetrated from time immemorial on the Jewish people, by Pharaoh, the Romans, Haman, the Inquisition, pogroms, Hitler?
One answer lies in the promise made by the Almighty to deal with the perpetrators; 'He will avenge the blood of His servants and will render vengeance to His adversaries' (Deut.32,43) as Moses assures the people just before he dies. We know also from the blessing given to Abraham by the Almighty: 'I shall bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you' (Gen.2,3), confirmed by the blessing given by Isaac to Jacob: 'He that curses you shall be cursed and he that blesses you will be blessed' (Gen.17, 29). It is a theme that recurs throughout he Bible. We are sure that the injustice of attacking the defenceless people in a pogrom situation will be redressed by the Almighty.
There is another response. It is mandatory to read one particular section in the Torah to the entire congregation, men and women, in the Synagogue, every year. It is the following section:
'Remember (zachor) what Amalek did to you by the way, as you came out from Egypt. How he met you by the way and smote your rear, all that were weak and enfeebled in the rear, when you were faint and weary; and he feared not God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies roundabout in the land which he Lord has given you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heaven; you shall not forget' (Deut. 24, 17-19).
What is the function of that zachor (remember)? Is it enough to mark the date in the calendar? The Torah asks us to 'remember' a number of things. There is 'Remember the Sabbath' of the ten commandments. We take that to mean our formal sanctification of the Sabbath. If children have done something wrong, we say: are you sorry? Say so. There is a value in the formal acknowledgment. We are told to remember Miriam who was punished with temporary leprosy for speaking slander about her brother Moses. We remember it to stop ourselves from such activity. Most frequently, however, we are told to remember that we were slaves in Egypt. And we are told specifically that we must treat 'the stranger' well because we were strangers in the land of Egypt. In other words we know what suffering was entailed.
I would suggest that we are commanded to remember Amalek and everyone else who sought to destroy us 'when we were weak' to teach us that Jews must never do what Amalek did and what every other imitator of Amalek did. Justice will be meted out by the Almighty. The Jewish people must never behave like Amalek.