Q&A: Several Questions That Came Up
Several Questions That Came Up
Question
Hello to the Rabbi, may he live long and well.
1) Hillel the Elder says that the entire Torah stands on: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow,” and this is very difficult, since that makes it the Torah’s foundation; and it is even more difficult according to your approach, since you say that morality and Jewish law are separate matters.
2) Can the dimensions of Jewish law broadly be summarized like this:
Explicit verses (or that the Sages changed their intent) + basic interpretation from Sinai and laws given to Moses at Sinai.
Torah-level laws that emerged over the generations through the thirteen hermeneutical principles.
Various enactments and decrees of the Sages.
If I’m right about this pyramid, I’d be glad if you would explain to me from which stage the Sanhedrin can change the Jewish law.
3) The Rabbi’s approach on matters of providence and prayer is well known and famous. I too, insignificant as I am, agree with the Rabbi that this world was handed over to randomness, but I disagree with him on the point that the Holy One, blessed be He, hardly intervenes in it. In my opinion He intervenes quite a lot relatively speaking. But the question is whether there is a more hidden dimension in which there is individual providence over every single thing in creation, in the style of the Baal Shem Tov, as Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto explains in Da’at Tevunot—that there is a hidden attribute whose purpose is to bring creation to its perfection. Does the Rabbi think it exists?
4) The Rabbi says that from the Hebrew Bible it’s impossible to learn anything, whereas Jewish law is something fixed in which there was one view, etc. But it’s not true that it’s impossible to learn anything from the Hebrew Bible. True, everyone fits the interpretation to his own agenda, but doesn’t the Hebrew Bible still give you some new perspective on that agenda? For example, if my view had been that there are dozens of forces operating in nature, the Hebrew Bible comes and tells us that there is one force that is the source of all forces, and so on. The same applies in Jewish law—for example, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef developed an approach that one should be lenient in this generation, so he found halakhic decisors and lenient approaches. In Jewish law too, the agenda wins.
Thank you very much, and all the best.
Answer
- There are other commandments that appear moral as well, such as the prohibition against murder and theft, honoring parents, and more. My claim is that this is the addition of a religious layer on top of the moral foundation. The same applies here. By the way, one can discuss whether the love that is desired is love in the heart or actions that express it, and that too is connected to this discussion.
- The Sanhedrin can change everything. In rabbinic law they must be greater in wisdom and number, and in Torah law not even that. Of course, what is written in the Torah or a law given to Moses at Sinai cannot be changed, unless they interpret it differently.
- I don’t understand what you said.
- I never said anywhere that there is one halakhic view. What I said is that there is halakhic truth, but not every halakhic decisor arrives at it. In certain cases there may be several true views even in Jewish law.