Q&A: The Validity of Morality
The Validity of Morality
Question
The Rabbi has argued in several places that morality has no validity without God.
I would be glad to understand why it does have validity through God.
Where did God command morality? Maybe all the commands are only to perform the commandments in a dry, formal way, and “do not murder” is a commandment just like putting on tefillin, not because of its moral validity. If so, then when something is not explicit but only understood in a straightforward way, it is not moral—so what gives its prohibition any validity?
Answer
First of all, the Torah says, “And you shall do what is right and good.” And the Prophets elaborated at length about moral conduct, and likewise in several places in the Torah itself (“Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here?” and more). But I am not speaking at all about a command from the Torah. I understand on my own that this is what He demands of me. My conscience is the ‘Torah’ in which this appears.
Discussion on Answer
I don’t understand this discussion. I explained that it is written in the Torah, repeated in the Prophets, and stated a third time in the Writings. I explained that my conscience understands that there is a moral obligation, and since without God such an obligation cannot exist, then apparently it is God who implanted this sense of obligation in me and legislated the duties.
You wrote that we are not speaking about a command from the Torah, so I would like to clarify whether you mean that ultimately the validity of morality is built on the fact that I have a moral intuition in my heart.
If so, then how do we know that God implanted it there as a command?
For example, I have an intuition to love sweets—does that also give reason to see this as some kind of divine will that I eat sweets?
You do not have an intuition that there is an obligation to love sweets. You simply love sweets. That is a fact, like the fact that I am tall.
By the way, I wrote that there are also verses in the Torah, but they too are not commands. It is no accident that those who enumerate the commandments do not count “and you shall do what is right and good.”
What makes you understand that this is His command to you?
Especially based on what you argue, that for the validity of morality all that is needed is some kind of minimal God, just a deterministic entity that has the power to command me.