Q&A: Was the Torah given to bring peace into the world?
Was the Torah given to bring peace into the world?
Question
Have a good week, Rabbi,
Maimonides writes in the Laws of Hanukkah:
If one has before him a lamp for his home and a Hanukkah lamp, or a lamp for his home and the sanctification of the day, the lamp for his home takes precedence, on account of peace in his home; for even the divine name is erased in order to make peace between a man and his wife. Great is peace, for the entire Torah was given to make peace in the world, as it is said: “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace” (Proverbs 3:17).
I seem to remember that your view is that the purpose of the Torah is a religious one and not a moral one—that is, that it has aims beyond human welfare and peace. Does the above passage from Maimonides imply the opposite? Or perhaps he was speaking rhetorically and did not mean it literally?
Best regards,
Answer
It is clear to me that this is rhetorical. The fact that its ways are peace does not mean that this is its entire purpose. Though peace, in a broad sense, can of course include many things (harmony in creation, a perfected world).
Somehow I rolled my way in here and saw Rabbi Michael’s answer.
If I may respond: Maimonides does not use rhetoric of this kind.
Maimonides indeed holds—and this recurs throughout his writings—that the purpose of most of the commandments is to bring peace to the world. Peace in the simple sense: order in human society, people living properly with one another.
And what is Maimonides’ point in emphasizing peace?
Maimonides repeats this several times, because when people do not have to busy themselves with nonsense—that is, with their physical and emotional needs in this world—they will then be free to engage in Torah and wisdom! And that is the supreme purpose of the Torah.
Therefore, Maimonides’ words in the Laws of Hanukkah should be taken completely literally.
One only has to add that he is speaking in the majority of cases. Because most commandments are meant to create peace and order, not literally “all” of them.