14. Torah as Values
Taking Torah and Mitzvos as the sources of our values
Applying To Life
Imagine you were approached as a consultant for a totally new community that was being developed. They have a number of important, fundamental questions that will determine the nature of the institutions they will be building.
What sort of schools should we develop? Should they be mixed-gender or separate? Should time be spent on secular studies, or fully dedicated to the study of Torah? If we are learning secular studies, which ones? For how long? Taught by what sort of teachers — do they have to be religious, or can they be secular or non-Jewish? Should we instruct our teachers to teach to the top, bottom, or middle of the class? Should we provide extracurricular opportunities? What type — competitive sports, creative arts, practical skill development?
What is our approach to charity and welfare? Should we levy a heavy tax in order to fund a communal charity and relief fund, or leave such issues up to each individual? What is of higher priority — homelessness, unemployment, or lack of food? How do we determine triage in situations where we have limited funds to disburse? Do we agree to support people who refuse to search for employment, thus perpetuating their need to rely on handouts?
What type of people do we want in our community? Should we only allow those who will maintain a certain level of fidelity to halachah? Should we institute policies that limit conspicuous spending (size of houses, types of cars, ostentatiousness of celebrations), or allow for a spectrum?
Similar questions come up for individuals trying to navigate the challenges and opportunities of life:
How do I strike the balance between spending time on my career, spending time with my family, and advancing in my own personal development? Especially if we assume that one’s career is not only a means of putting food on the table, but an opportunity to make an impact on the world (which itself is an important question), it becomes that much more difficult to share the available time between them. In other words, should I spend a Sunday afternoon in the office, the park with my kids, or the beis medrish?
How do I navigate the challenges of social media? Is the concept of sharing my thoughts, feelings and experiences with a faceless public an opportunity to influence the broader culture and be enriched by other people’s experiences, or a breach of the value of privacy?
Many people seem to take advantage of the “grey areas” of certain secular laws, especially in the realm of finances. If I do my best to stay clearly on the side of legality, am I a chump giving away my hard-earned income to the government for no reason, or am I acting appropriately by sacrificing for honesty?
In both the communal and personal realms, how is a person meant to navigate these questions? In general, these are issues which don’t have well-defined, hard-and-fast answers; they are often not addressed by pesak halachah. Rather, they are questions of values, ideals, and perspectives. What should our value system be? Where are we meant to look for guidance on these types of issues?
Out of the Sources of Halachah…
The Halachic Mind, one of the Rav’s most difficult and least appreciated works, concludes by addressing the system of Halachah in Jewish thought. The Rav argues that the only meaningful source of a uniquely Jewish worldview is the Halachic system. “To this end there is only a single source from which a Jewish philosophical Weltanschauung could emerge; the objective order – the Halakhah” (pg. 101). Using the nuanced, complex and detailed system of Halachah, we have the opportunity to clarify how Hashem intended for us to think, feel and act. In all areas of life, from religious to interpersonal, from business to pleasure, mitzvos, properly understood, can act as our guides not just for what we must do, but how we should think. In the Rav’s immortal words: “Out of the sources of Halakhah, a new world view awaits formulation” (pg. 102).
The Rav answers that a deep understanding of the underlying principles of each mitzvah provides just this sort of guidance. For example, sugyos about tzedakah don’t only teach me how much I must give and to whom I must give it; they are meant to teach a deep sense of responsibility for others and a recognition that charity is not just a kindness, but an obligation. Dinim such as hezek re’iyah convey not just zoning laws describing the fences that can and should be built between neighbors, but the assumption that every person is entitled to their private domain, and encroaching on that constitutes a form of damage. The laws of gittin and kiddushin lay out both the technical process as well as the philosophical underpinnings of marriage and divorce — the creating and dissolving of a family unit. Each area of halachah has its own message, with layers of depth to match the nuance of the difficulties of real life.
In addition to this more reactive function, giving us the perspective to navigate the challenges that crop up over the course of one’s life, Torah also incorporates an educational curriculum all of its own, a set of principles Hashem wants us to learn through doing. Shabbos and the Moadim are a perfect example of this instructive function: to drive home the awareness that Hashem is ultimate Owner of all creation, we have a weekly shevisah from creative, world-altering melachah. To remember Hashem as our Savior, Law-giver, and Protector, we observe Pesach, Shavuos and Sukkos, respectively. Rather than teaching us how to navigate classic human challenges, these institutions give us opportunities to reflect on unique, fundamentally Jewish ideas and incorporate them into the way we see the world.
Indeed, “Out of the sources of halakhah, a new world view awaits formulation.”1
I attempt to explore a number of topics from this perspective in my Halachic Worldviews.
>>>Using the nuanced, complex and detailed system of Halachah, we have the opportunity to clarify how Hashem intended for us to think, feel and act. In all areas of life, from religious to interpersonal, from business to pleasure, mitzvos, properly understood, can act as our guides not just for what we must do, but how we should think.
I wonder if you've fully considered the position you are taking. The Torah promotes misogyny, child abuse and genocide. Females are treated differently than males as it relates to property ownership, contract rights, marriage and divorce and court proceedings. It is permitted to sell one's female child into bondage, and the idea behind this was to find a spouse for the daughter so that even poor girls could get married. And the women and children...ostensibly the non-combatants...of Amalek were to be slaughtered, but for what reason? Surely the children had not erred.
So sure, Judaism 2.0 of 2024 is much better than it used to be 1000 or 2000 or 3000 years ago. But that's because of how it has rubbed up against modernity and been forced to adapt, rather than any inherent morality. According to Judaism, the words of god are, by definition, moral, and so the argument that the Torah is immoral, from a Jewish perspective, generally fails to gain momentum.
But you're asking here how we think we ought to build a society or a community, and to cherry pick the nice things from the Torah perspective and leave the bad ideas aside is admitting that the Torah didn't get it right. We would not condone many of the things the Torah suggests as good behavior and we still condone many of the things that the Torah requires, such as a lack of egalitarianism when it comes to women's rights and the racist and tribalism that follows from the illusion of being an עם סגולה.