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The Torah and the Introduction – a question that has been nagging at me for a long time

שו”תCategory: generalThe Torah and the Introduction – a question that has been nagging at me for a long time
asked 5 years ago

Hello Rabbi,
I have been wondering for a long time about the compatibility of life in our era with some of the messages of the Torah, and I would be happy if you could settle my heart on the subject.
There are details in certain laws in which there is no doubt that the Torah advanced the world morally. For example, on the subject of slavery, the treatment and care for women, and more. Over the generations, the world has indeed established and adopted these moral ideas, which have led to a seemingly more improved situation than the situation to which the law referred. Human trafficking is today considered abhorrent, as is the baptism of minors, the bearing of several wives, etc. This is not true for all of humanity as a whole, but it is certainly not acceptable and inappropriate today in the world of Jewish morality, as well as in most of the “Jewish-Christian” – Western – advanced civilization. When we study the laws that speak of the ancient world morally, are we not taking the world back? For example, “laws of slaves”/”consecration of minors,” etc., do they not represent a retrogression of human morality? It is clear to me that we do not want to “go back.” After all, we have no ambition to bring back slavery, or the situation where we are forced to sanctify a little girl, or for a king to have 18 wives. It is true that the halakha would be correct, assuming that human culture as a whole would regress morally and savage slavery would return. But this does not seem to be the trend. Does teaching that it is possible in principle to buy a person from captivity and sell his children to another master not undermine the absoluteness of the morality that human trafficking is abhorrent? In short, studying Torah is supposed to advance us, not set us back…
What is the Rabbi’s opinion on the matter?
 
Best regards, M.

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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 5 years ago

See column 15 on my website, and in particular the third book in the trilogy at length. In my opinion, there is no connection between Halacha and morality. The Torah expects us to be moral, and at the same time dictates certain religious norms. See ibid. and ibid.

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