Q&A: Is One Required to Keep the Commandments Nowadays?
Is One Required to Keep the Commandments Nowadays?
Question
Have a good week.
The Rabbi also agrees that God has an interest in this world through the commandments [as explained in the third book of the Rabbi’s trilogy, in order to advance spiritual matters], and therefore every time the Jewish people sin and so on, God reveals Himself to a prophet to tell him that they should repent of their evil deeds. But today, for more than a thousand years already [more or less], God has not revealed Himself to anyone. Seemingly this really undermines God’s interests, and in reality we see that most of the Jewish people do not keep Torah and commandments. Doesn’t the Rabbi think this shows, by plain common sense, that God decided that for a certain period one had to keep Torah and commandments, but from the time He stopped prophesying to us, one no longer has to keep them, but only morality? [Does the Rabbi know anyone with common sense who does not look after his own interests?] And as for what is written that the Torah is eternal and that God will return to prophesy, it should be said that this is if most of the people keep the Torah; but if the people stop recognizing the Torah and God, then He will act reciprocally and leave [who stays in a place where he is not wanted?]. I am not saying this is the only possible way to examine the matter; I am only asking the Rabbi whether this is a possibility?
Answer
He presumably has many interests. Not only that we keep the commandments, but among other things also that we choose this, and that we act on our own and not under influence. And since we have a received tradition that the Torah is not meant to be replaced, I do not see any basis here for rejecting that.
Discussion on Answer
Every option is possible.
This is not an interpretation of the Sages, and it also does not deal with reality. You really need to stop for a moment and think before you write messages.
It does deal with reality, because if this is the Sages’ interpretation of the verses, then they are claiming that the Torah will not be replaced; that is a statement about reality.
What does “we have a received tradition” mean? Where is it written?
According to your strange logic, the prohibition against murder is also a claim about reality: that the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded not to murder.
We have a received tradition, both in the tradition and in the verses, that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not change His mind (and on that basis the commentators asked about “And He regretted”).
The prohibition “You shall not murder” is the Torah itself saying about reality that it is forbidden to murder. But that the Torah will not be replaced is a statement about reality itself—whether God will replace the Torah or not. That is not a command.
If it comes from the verses, then it can be interpreted differently, just as the Rabbi himself holds that the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) can be interpreted in many ways. And what does the Rabbi mean by “tradition”—a law given to Moses at Sinai, or rabbinic interpretation?
Replacing the Torah means that in the future He will want something else. That is a factual claim exactly like the claim that in the past He wanted such-and-such.
Tradition is from Sinai.
It is not that He wants something else; rather, there are two sides here, God and human beings. God’s will remains one and the same, but only if human beings actually fulfill it; and if not, then He will not obligate them. So God’s will remains one and the same, but in practice in the world it is expressed according to the circumstances.
Where is this written? And perhaps, since in reality God does not seem to be advancing His interest, as we see at present, it should be said that this is not literally a law given to Moses at Sinai, but something like a law given to Moses at Sinai.
I didn’t ask whether there is a basis to reject it, but whether this is a possible option.
“We have a received tradition”?? Isn’t that ultimately just the Sages’ interpretation of reality? But the Rabbi taught that the Sages have no authority over reality.