חדש באתר: NotebookLM עם כל תכני הרב מיכאל אברהם

Q&A: On Morality

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This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

On Morality

Question

I listened to the Rabbi’s interesting series of lectures on Jewish law and morality. It was clarified in the lectures that morality too has a divine source, and therefore our obligation to it is equivalent to our obligation to Jewish law. In light of the words of Sefer Ha-Ikkarim, Part I, Chapter 8, about “nomian religion,” I wanted to ask:
1) If that is indeed the case, that the moral obligation is equivalent to the obligation to Jewish law, which morality obligates us? Is everything that now appears to us to be moral on par with a halakhic source? But tomorrow it may become clear to us that what we considered moral until now was actually a moral flaw.
2) In most cases there is no precise definition of the most correct moral act, especially when you get down to the details of time, place, and context. (What I mean is that every person with moral awareness is aware of moral values such as kindness, truth, and the like, but usually he cannot decide in a precise and objective way when one should favor one action or another in the context of those values. For example, a person who is late for work sees ahead of him an elderly woman who is having difficulty crossing the street—should he help her or not?) If so, how can we decide what the moral act is when we get down to practical details? (This is unlike Jewish law, which goes into exacting detail and gives definitions of time, place, and context.)
 

Answer

Every time anew I am amazed by people who ask this question: are there really unequivocal standards in Jewish law? Are there no disagreements there? Is there a clear ruling for every situation? A person has reason, and he must use it. The hope for certainty and unequivocal answers is childish and unrealistic.

Discussion on Answer

Yishai (2021-01-04)

But Jewish law has clear sources from which the law can be derived. In morality that is not the case. Most people act based on feelings. So why should it override Jewish law?

Michi (2021-01-04)

Yishai, are you sure you understood your question? I’m not. Read carefully what has been written here up to this point, and think again whether there is anything here that requires a further response.

The Final Halakhic Decisor (2021-01-04)

Every action a person takes contains good and bad. So when trying to decide which action to choose, you look for where the good outweighs the bad.
In cases where the gap between the good and the bad is large and obvious, there is no question.
In borderline cases, there is a question. But because it is a borderline case, where the amount of bad is close to the amount of good, the answer does not matter as much as it seems to you.

If you have trouble with borderline cases, flip a coin.

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