Q&A: Ultimate Values
Ultimate Values
Question
Hello Rabbi, I wanted to ask how values can be prioritized, so that in a case of conflict we can decide how to act. I assume the answer to this has to be long and complex, so I’d be happy even just for a window into an answer.
In particular, I’m asking from a “religious” standpoint, in which I assume that the highest value (I’d be happy to be corrected if that term is not right in this context) is the observance and study of Torah, fulfillment of commandments, and acts of kindness. And what I mean to ask in this context is: from where do those values derive their importance?
Another question, which I think touches on this, is the attitude toward mundane matters, things that do not add or subtract from a “teleological” standpoint. I know there are approaches that hold there is no such domain (Duties of the Heart), and others that hold that there is (the Raavad, if I remember correctly). If there really are neutral things, is there legitimacy in engaging in them when they use up time that could have been spent on teleological things?
I should note that I mean engaging in them not for peace of mind or in order to study better and the like, but simply because they interest me and so on, even though service of God in the narrow sense would not be harmed at all if I did not engage in them.
Thank you very much.
Answer
Actually, it’s not long. There is no way to do this systematically. It is mainly a moral intuition. When it can be done systematically, that is only if we are not dealing with values but with instrumental norms.
The second question touches on the laws of Torah study. As a result of the contradiction between the passage in Menachot 99 and the discussion in Berakhot regarding the dispute between Rabbi Ishmael and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, several later authorities set out criteria for reasons that justify neglecting Torah study. My opinion is that any reasonable activity justifies neglecting Torah study. And certainly if you are occupied with things of value (such as studying various secular fields). Of course, it is proper to engage in things of value as much as you can, but a person is supposed to live in a normal way, including education, recreation in a reasonable measure, and the like. Let me sharpen the point: I do not mean activities whose purpose is to improve one’s study and commandment observance, but those activities in themselves.
Discussion on Answer
See some elaboration in my article on reasoning:
Thank you very much for the answer, but I’d appreciate a bit of elaboration. I don’t understand why a person is supposed to live in a normal way for its own sake; why does that receive validity and value? On a simple view, we are in this world for a certain purpose, and recreation and the like (when they do not come to provide rest but for their own sake, as above) seemingly do not advance that.
And what is the meaning of “instrumental norms”?