Q&A: What Is a Person’s Obligation Toward the Creator
What Is a Person’s Obligation Toward the Creator
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I’ve been wrestling with this question for a long time: why, exactly, should I obey God?
I think I have a better-than-average familiarity with the Jewish bookshelf, but everything I’ve found boils down to: 1. reward and punishment (I believe in it, but I don’t care), 2. because He is the Creator and we are obligated to obey simply by virtue of being His creations (this is not at all clear to me—for example, am I obligated to fulfill every wish and whim of my father just because he brought me into the world?), 3. gratitude (I wish I felt there was something to be grateful for—people always say, “You could have been disabled,” “You could have been homeless,” so what? If someone slaps me, should I thank him because he didn’t hit me twice?)
Now, broadly speaking, there is also another niche of explanations of the type, “Such is the way of Torah… happy are you in this world,” namely that the way of Torah brings true happiness, and I’m inclined to accept that—but it’s just not enough for me.
I still generally keep the commandments because I believe this is the right path, and I’m not sure leaving it would make life easier for me, but it really weighs on me, and I’d be deeply grateful for an answer that makes sense.
Answer
As for reward and punishment, I find it hard to understand how you can believe in it and yet not care. You have no problem with being fried in Hell for eternity? Strange.
But reward and punishment are not supposed to be the reason for fulfilling God’s will. We find this also regarding idolatry done out of love or fear, for which one is exempt (see Maimonides, Laws of Idolatry 3:3).
As I understand it, the reason for halakhic obligation is twofold: 1. If God commands, His commands must be fulfilled. 2. Observance of the commandments brings some spiritual benefit to us and/or to the world (that is what the Torah says, if you believe it, even if you do not see what that benefit is). I am not talking about reward and punishment, but about the result or purpose of the commandments.
Reason 1 is explained in detail in my article on philosophical gratitude (search for it on the site). It is indeed similar in some sense to the obligation to honor one’s parents (although regarding God it is much stronger, because He is the source of the entire world and not just of me, and He did everything by His own power). And what you asked—that this does not justify obedience to whims—brings me to reason 2: here we are not dealing with a whim, but with something proper and right (even if we do not understand it). And if you yourself say that you accept the claim that the way of Torah brings true happiness (I neither see nor feel this), then I really do not understand why that is not enough.