Q&A: Commandment
Commandment
Question
1) You said more than once following Maimonides that someone who fulfills a commandment because of rational judgment does indeed perform a moral/good act but not a religious act. If so, then seemingly it is possible to say also the opposite, that someone who fulfills a commandment (which in this case is also a good act) such as honoring his parents because it is a commandment and not because it is moral is indeed a religious person but not a moral person!?
2) When you and Maimonides write that one must fulfill a commandment because we were commanded through the Holy One, blessed be He, do you mean this in the formal sense—that I simply fulfill it because the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded it—or in the essential sense, that I fulfill the commandment because of the reason in the matter that the Holy One, blessed be He, instructed/revealed to me? For example, does “I do not cook a kid in its mother’s milk because it is cruel” equal “I do not cook a kid in its mother’s milk because the Holy One, blessed be He, forbade it to me” (assuming that the Holy One, blessed be He, forbade us to cook a kid in its mother’s milk because it is cruel)?
Answer
- Definitely.
- The formal sense. The essential sense is a utilitarian matter; the will of God only revealed to me that this benefit exists.
Discussion on Answer
What’s the problem? He should do the act on the basis of both reasons. Meaning: even if each one stood alone, he would do it. From his perspective, each of them is a sufficient reason (even if not a necessary one).
Ah okay, very good. So to sum up, in Maimonides’ terminology:
– someone who fulfills it because of rational judgment is wise
– someone who fulfills it because of the divine command (at Sinai) is pious
– someone who fulfills it both because of rational judgment and because of the divine command is wise and pious
Right?
Indeed
If it is in the formal sense, that only strengthens my first question even more. But you already answered that. What still isn’t clear to me, then, is how to be a religious person and at the same time a moral person when I fulfill honoring father and mother, for example?