חדש באתר: NotebookLM עם כל תכני הרב מיכאל אברהם

Q&A: Morality and Jewish Law

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This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

Morality and Jewish Law

Question

“And you shall keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the nations, who shall hear all these statutes and say: Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”
This verse seemingly indicates that the Torah is something understandable, and not as you distinguish between morality and Jewish law.

Answer

I was already asked this here, and I said that according to Maimonides in the Guide for the Perplexed, it indeed seems that this is how he understood it, but that is implausible. We can plainly see that this is not about morality, and these matters do not contain logic that is self-evident to everyone, neither then nor today. Such a priori claims cannot change facts. Beyond that, morality and intelligibility are not synonymous terms.
When I was asked, I suggested that perhaps the meaning is that they will see the product of those who engage in Torah—the Jews, their wisdom, and their contribution to humanity—and understand that this product was born from the Torah, and indirectly see how wise it is. After all, the term “statutes” used here refers specifically to things a person does not understand and that the nations of the world taunt us over. That strengthens my suggestion that the wisdom the gentiles see is not in the statutes themselves. Like Kishon’s well-known article, “The Knitted Kippah,” where exactly this argument appears.

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