Q&A: Is Jewish Law Moral?
Is Jewish Law Moral?
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I saw in a video from about three years ago, on Yaron London's program, that the Rabbi said the halakhic prohibition on homosexuality is anti-moral. I would be glad to know why.
In addition, this is a clear Torah-level prohibition, not a rabbinic reasoning that prohibits male same-sex intercourse.
What is the difference between morality and Jewish law?
Jewish law, as I understand it, is a practice that expresses, among other things, divine morality in reality…
And is the Rabbi speaking about divine morality, or subjective human morality? Thank you very much.
Answer
Because harming people for no reason is immoral. What is there to explain here?
The fact that it is immoral does not mean the prohibition is invalid. It can be valid but still immoral. See Column 15.
There is no such thing as divine morality and other such inventions. There is morality, and by definition it is universal. Exactly what we ourselves understand as morality.
Jewish law and morality are two completely independent categories (and that includes the laws that deal with morality, such as the prohibitions against murder and theft, etc.). I explained this in detail at the beginning of the third book in my trilogy (Moves Among the Standing Ones).
Discussion on Answer
That depends how glad you'll be. If it would make you very glad, I refer you to the above-mentioned book, in the fourth conversation.
In my opinion, no commandment has any moral implication or any connection to morality. See the beginning of the third book in the trilogy, and Column 541 onward.
Thank you very much. Following that, I would be glad to know what the Rabbi's definition of morality is, and whether morality is absolute, even if it is determined by universal consensus.
After all, what we ourselves understand as morality changes.
The morality of the 20th century is not the morality of the 19th century. It also seems that humanity is gradually arriving at the moral conclusions found in the Torah, starting from the cornerstones of theft, murder, and forbidden sexual relations, and extending to the attitude toward the individual.
It seems that most commandments have direct moral implications… I do not understand what the concept of morality is grounded in.