Q&A: Regarding the Debate with Yaron Yadan
Regarding the Debate with Yaron Yadan
Question
Hi Dr. Rabbi Michael,
I listened to your debate with Yaron Yadan. Overall, I agree with your comments.
With all due respect, I’d like to disagree with this:
In your debate, you said to him:
“If you were to hear it from God Himself, you would be prepared to do so even though it contradicts morality. But if it is only the opinion of the Sages, you would not, because the Sages can make mistakes.”
Here I want to comment: if the Sages can make a mistake, why keep the exact 39 primary categories of labor on the Sabbath, since in the Torah itself it only says, “You shall not do any labor,” and only the Sages define it with that definition?
In my opinion, in both cases we need to follow the Torah even blindly, even if it contradicts morality:
1) Explicitly stated in the Torah
2) The Sages’ understanding of the Torah
Sincerely,
Answer
Greetings,
I’m writing in Hebrew because I assume you understand it.
Thank you for your letter.
First of all, factually: do you disagree that the Sages could make mistakes? The Torah has the law of the bull brought for an erroneous ruling, and in the Talmud itself there are mistakes made by Sages. If you agree that they can make mistakes like any person, then indeed there is always some concern for error. Now I can address your question.
A concern is not a certain error. In the normal case, I follow their instructions because there is no reason not to. Why assume that a mistake was always made? Beyond that, they have authority by virtue of “You shall not deviate,” and therefore they must be obeyed despite the possibility of error—not because they are necessarily right, but because they possess authority.
But when there is a severe moral cost to the Jewish law in question, the possibility of error must be taken into account. It is not right to act in such a problematic way if that is not truly the correct Jewish law, but only something followed because of considerations of authority.
As an aside, in many cases the halakhic decisors themselves simply find a way to circumvent the halakhic instruction through interpretation, through claims that our power is not strong enough, for the sake of peace, desecration of God’s name, and so on.
Take, for example, saving the life of a non-Jew on the Sabbath, and look at what the halakhic decisors say on that matter. Beyond that, what would you do if the arguments raised by the halakhic decisors were not available? Most people would work around it themselves in some way.
The only question is whether one is prepared to admit out loud that this is what one does, or whether one denies it while in practice behaving that way.
With blessings,