Moral laws and logic

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asked 5 years ago

Hello Rabbi!
Regarding what is said in lesson 11 in Halacha and Musar
The rabbi said that the understanding that hurting someone is bad is like logic that God is “obligated” to.
Why not say that the understanding that hurting someone is bad was given to us by God?
Logically, I cannot understand such a statement, but morally, I can.

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מיכי Staff answered 5 years ago

The understanding was given to us by him, but the question is whether he himself could have created a world in which harming another was a good deed. I argue that no, because that is the meaning of the concept of good. In that sense, it is like logic. In a world like ours, harming others is bad. If he were to create a world with other creatures, for example masochists who enjoy harm, then harm would be good. But I argue that he could not create a world like ours, and still define that harming others is good. This of course relates to Euthyphro’s dilemma, as I mentioned there.

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דביר replied 5 years ago

I mean, he could have put it into our minds that the suffering of others is good (not a semantic game, but we would really believe that it was moral and honest)

מיכי replied 5 years ago

He can put everything into our minds. Even that one plus one is three. But he can't make it really be three and murder really be moral. Misleading us is another matter. That's not what the discussion is about.