Q&A: Moral Commandments
Moral Commandments
Question
In honor of the crown of our head, may he live long. The Rabbi argues that morality and Jewish law are separate, and that even in moral commandments there is the moral layer and, on top of that, the halakhic one. But I don’t quite understand this. If so, why were all the commandments between one person and another written out? Let them be only commandments between man and God, and let God command morality in a general way. I thought of a possible solution, though it doesn’t fully satisfy me: maybe just as in every other area of life there are halakhic definitions, so too in agriculture there is a halakhic framework, and therefore there should also be one in morality. Still, in commandments between one person and another, the Jewish law is the morality itself. In any case, I’d be glad if the Rabbi could expand a bit on this matter.
Answer
First, a matter that can be arrived at by reason, Scripture nevertheless took the trouble to write down. Second, the purpose of the moral commandments is religious. These commandments were written in order to say that these prohibitions have a religious-halakhic dimension as well, and not only a moral one. When it says “You shall not murder,” it is saying that murder is religiously objectionable and not only morally objectionable. And there is a difference between them, since the parameters of the halakhic prohibition of murder are not identical to the parameters of the moral prohibition (indirect causation and confining someone so that death results, prior warning and witnesses, etc.).