Q&A: Leibowitz
Leibowitz
Question
What is your personal view regarding the worship/service of God?
I once heard Leibowitz say in a video that what guides him in observing the commandments is distinguishing himself from the beast.
For that purpose, you don’t need commandment observance; it’s enough that we are rational creatures. You don’t even need us to be educated, and not even moral. But if you want, you can live by a rigid morality that doesn’t change; even then you still don’t need commandment observance and rules for that—you can take from the Torah whatever you want. And if you say that a person is a social creature and is supposed to function within a proper society, then you can take everything connected to obligations between one person and another. [I heard in the name of Yaron Yadan that Leibowitz defined himself as an atheist who serves God; at the moment I have no other source for that.]
Answer
Nonsense. If he does it for that reason, then he has never fulfilled a commandment in his life. There is no need for reasons to serve God. It is a basic obligation. See Column 120 and also my article on philosophical gratitude.
Discussion on Answer
It seems you didn’t read.
You are starting from the assumption about a person that if he were asked whether to be born, he would choose yes. Or even if not, he admits that it isn’t worse, or he is nevertheless grateful for all the good there is, even though if it had been under his control he would have chosen otherwise. But someone who is not in that category—what does he need to be grateful for? I want neither your honey nor your sting. And besides, how is this different from parents who want their child to be a doctor or a lawyer, while he wants a different direction? There we would say that it’s not right for them to want that, and that he has a right over his own life, and that this has nothing to do with lack of gratitude for all the good his parents gave him. What do you think?