Q&A: The Chazon Ish and Morality
The Chazon Ish and Morality
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Is it correct to say that the Chazon Ish understood that there is no need for human morality, and that the morality explicitly stated in the Torah and Jewish law is sufficient for us? And were the leading rabbis who disagreed with him doing so because they held that human morality is also needed, or because they held that one must find a more comprehensive Torah-based morality beyond dry Jewish law?
Answer
That is not correct. Superficially, that does seem to emerge from his booklet Faith and Trust, in the example of the teachers. But if you read there carefully, you will see that he holds the opposite. In the recorded lectures on the order of Jewish law and morality, I discuss this Chazon Ish.
The fundamental reason this cannot be the case is that morality and Jewish law are two independent categories at least in my view and the verse "and you shall do what is right and good" instructs us to act morally without defining what that is. The assumption is that natural morality is what the Torah expects of us.