DEUT1663 ... law contributes to morality, and the interaction between them has an influence in both directions. This is especially important when we are trying to understand Judaism, which went so far in trying to deal with moral issues in legal terms. The Jewish legal system, though, is specifically a religious legal system. Its laws are embedded in a broader, theological context that assigns to law both immoral and theological purpose. Even with a number of instances that challenge this doctrine, the Bible assumes that God's commandments are binding not only because God is powerful, but also because God is just: “The Rock! -- His deeds are perfect, Yea, all His ways are just; a faithful God, never false, true and upright is He. (Deuteronomy 32:4) Given that overriding biblical view of God, the biblical verse that motivated the title of this book (“Do the right and the good in the eyes of the Lord”) states Jewish law’s theological context and its moral and theological purposes explicitly. Some practitioners of Jewish law fail to keep these underlying tenets and goals in mind when interpreting and applying it. In their hands, Jewish law is likely to incur the disadvantages of a legal approach to morality and to miss many of its benefits. Thus the decision to take a legal approach to moral matters is only the beginning of the story; one then has to adopt a philosophy and methodology of Jewish law that minimizes the risks of using law for moral decisions and maximizes its benefits. (I discuss the parameters of such an approach elsewhere (Dorff, “The Covenant: The Transcendent Thrust in Jewish Law.” The Jewish Law Annual 7:68-96. 1998), 404-417). Can one, though, gain the advantages of a legal approach to morality without law altogether? Paul, especially in the New Testament's book of Romans, thought so. He actually went further, claiming that law is in some ways detrimental to attaining spiritual goals. Much of Christendom has adopted his view (For a conspectus of Christian views on this matter and an argument for the traditional, “Lutheran” interpretation of Paul as making salvation dependent not on deeds, but on faith alone, see Westerholm, Israel’s Law and the Church’s Faith: Paul and His Recent Interpreters, Eerdmans Publishing, 1988). In practice, however, Christian denominations often have specific rules. Historically these canons have been enforced with punishments as harsh as torture and death, and some groups of Christians still imposed excommunication. The Jewish tradition, in contrast, has consistently and unreservedly maintained that law is essential for the life of the conscience and the spirit, in part for the reasons delineated earlier. Moreover, from the Jewish perspective, God demands obedience of the law. The content of the law may change over the course of time, but the corpus of the law, however it is defined in a given time and place, is obligatory. The modern Reform Movement does not accept this binding character of Jewish law and many contemporary Jews do not abide by it. For these people, Jewish law clearly cannot function in the ways described here. Only those who obey it can expect to reap its rewards. For those who do abide by it though, Jewish law remains a powerful mechanism through which one can learn of God’s ways, be motivated to follow them, and come into contact with God. It transforms one's actions into a quest for the right and the good -- and, indeed, for the holy.