Q&A: Morality and Torah
Morality and Torah
Question
I recently heard you say that there is a contradiction between Jewish law and morality—and that this is a contradiction like between any two other values.
It would seem from your words, apparently, that you do not see the Torah’s command as always being something moral.
I assume that God is an entity that is wholly good, as is said in the Torah that was given to us by Him at Sinai.
If so, I think it follows from this that it is impossible that He would give His people a Torah that does not reflect absolute moral values.
A. Does a person who claims that “there is a contradiction between Jewish law and morality” not believe that God is absolute good?
B. How can one claim that there is a contradiction between Jewish law and morality and explain the verses,
“And what great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this Torah,”
“See, I have set before you today life and the good,”
in an appropriate way?
Answer
I explained this at the beginning of the third book of the trilogy. See also briefly in Column 15 here.
In principle, my claim is that Jewish law is directed toward religious values, not moral values. Moral values are important too, but their goals are spiritual, not moral-social. Therefore, contradictions between Jewish law and morality can arise—not because the Holy One, blessed be He, is not moral, but because He also demands religious values, and sometimes the fulfillment of a religious value overrides a moral value.
Think about an argument over whether to eat chocolate. One person says to eat it because it is tasty, and the other says not to eat it because it is fattening. Who is right? Both of them. It is both tasty and fattening. So too, for example, it may be that the requirement that a priest’s wife who was raped must separate from her husband is not moral, but it comes to achieve a religious value or a religious purpose, and that overrides the moral problem.