Q&A: What Is Right and Good in the Eyes of the Lord — A Command to Be Moral?
What Is Right and Good in the Eyes of the Lord — A Command to Be Moral?
Question
Hello,
You said that there is a “command” from the Torah to be moral as it says, “and you shall do what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord”. That surprises me! When you read the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), there is a difference between “each man does what is right in his own eyes” (apparently: natural morality) and “what is right in the eyes of the Lord”, which apparently means the commandments and not natural morality!
Answer
I never said there is such a command. It is an expression of the Torah’s will, but not a halakhic command. If you like, it is a moral command.
“What is right in his own eyes” is not natural morality, but simply whatever he feels like doing. It is no accident that they said, “what is right and good in the eyes of the Lord,” and not merely, “each man does what is right in his own eyes.”