Q&A: Good and Evil
Good and Evil
Question
Rabbi, hello,
Leibowitz used to keep saying, “Why do you serve God? Because you want to serve Him.” My question is: why would I want that in the first place, and what exactly is meant by “wanting,” and what does it stem from?
These topics are so abstract that I don’t understand how it’s even possible to have a firm opinion about them. I’d appreciate your help.
Thank you.
Answer
Leibowitz, in keeping with his positivist approach, was not willing to accept an unsupported claim as true. From his perspective, it is arbitrary. And therefore every basic assumption is arbitrary. But that is nonsense, of course. We are talking about an intuition that does not require explanation or justification.
I serve God because it is clear to me that this is what one ought to do. There is no need to justify that. Every justification itself rests on basic assumptions that you will not be able to justify. Therefore, one must look for the fundamental claims about which one is sufficiently certain, and that is enough. In my view, commitment to God’s command is such an assumption.
On Leibowitz, see my article here: https://mikyab.net/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%A6%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%91%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%A0%D7%AA%D7%95-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%91%D7%95%D7%91%D7%99%D7%A5-%D7%A4%D7%95%D7%96