GEN223 Laws and Ethical Doctrines: The Difference.  As we shall be citing many laws of Judaism in order to discover their moral background, it is right at this stage to venture some distinction between doctrine and law. The first category of precepts teaches the eternal principles of Justice, Love and Moral piety as the standard of duty. Law, on the other hand, is the embodiment of these principles and their application to life. Judaism issues this warning: a life that is shaped by the rules of Ethics, without the sanction of religion, tends gradually to become one of weariness, pettiness and frustration.  To free man from this sense of disillusionment, our laws, governing every action of our lives, seek to impart an aspect of “something more” to our thoughts and deeds, teaching us that life is a part of eternity and duty an indivisible law of the universe. Only when laws and ethics are combined indivisibly does Jewish life become sacrosanct, endowed with a vitality sufficiently potent to glorify trivial duties until they are performed as nobly as deeds upon the battlefield. These laws and ethics must be wisely blended if Judaism is to achieve its purpose of perfecting human nature. Take an example. In our philosophy, Mercy and Justice are not opposites. Mercy, if exercised without due consideration for the demands of justice, will hurt the recipient. Every sensible parent knows that in the training of the child, too much yielding to its petulant and querulous demands may result in effects that are undesirable and injurious. A sense of justice, that is, a knowledge of what, in the long run, will be good for child must control the emotions flowing from parental love. That is why our prayers for material blessings are not always answered.  In fact, they are answered; for “No” itself is an answer.  Only our Heavenly Father knows what is good for His children on earth. On the other hand, strict Justice unsoftened by the chastening effect of Mercy will be equally unbearable. In the second chapter of the Torah [this verse] God taught us this lesson of blending inextricably law and ethics. There the name Adonai is used of God before that of Elohim.  The Rabbis deduced that the change of name was due to the fact that He saw that this world of ours could not be governed by the norm of rigid Justice (Elohim) untempered by Mercy (Adonai). The latter word means that He is Master over us, and makes allowances for shortcomings on our part. Elohim expresses the idea of a powerful Judge intent that Justice be done at all costs. Here is an illustration. Suppose that God did not “remember mercy in His anger” (berogez rahem tizkor) [Habbakuk 3:2 – AJL] but punished each man as soon as he sinned, how many would be alive to-day? Again, if He rewarded each of us as soon as we performed a noble deed, much, if not all of the ethical content of the Mitzvah joyfully performed, would be destroyed. Good would then be done, not for goodness sake, but for the thought of the material reward.  One of the prime incentives of ethics (lishmah) [i.e., for its own sake – AJL) would then be destroyed.  With mercenary motives as the spurs to good deeds, a valuable tool in the carving of character would be blunted. In Judaism, themoral character of man is considered fundamental as a measure of the true value of his life. Salvation is not through creed but through deed. The character of the motive colours the value of the action.  LEHRMAN 144-5