DEUT449 [Continued [[EXOD950]] from Exodus 25:40 pattern LEHRMAN 226-7] At a time when the contemporaries of Israel tolerated slavery, barbarism and blood-vengeance, the Jew was distinguished for his sympathy and benevolence. It was his Lawgiver who described God as righteous, merciful and holy, "who executeth the judgment of the fatherless and the widow, and who loveth the stranger by giving him food and raiment" [this verse]. The Rabbinic teachers developed this conception of the Deity and spiritualized the Jewish message, making piety and charity the concentrated aims of life, stressing the importance of motive in human conduct.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT450 In Judaism, the ideas about God are synonymous with right conduct, both being intertwined and expressing the ideal of holy living and holy doing. Ethics and Religion are one and the same. Man, in whose being divinity is reflected, must be true to the Law of God wherein he will be taught how to model his ways after the divine pattern. He will find in it and its precepts that the God whom Israel must revere is the apotheosis of all ethical qualities [this and preceding verse]. The Torah, true to its function, is an infallible guide to perfection, begins with an act of kindness -- God clothing Adam and eve--and concludes with another gracious act--the burial of Moses (Sot. 14a. In this connection, it must be pointed out that just to care for the dead, whilst being impervious to the needs of the living poor, is not to be Godlike. God not only buried Moses; He clothed Adam and Eve, too.)

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT514 See [[LEV1107]] Leviticus 26:3 If LEHRMAN 160

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT518 See [[EXOD399]] Exodus 20:10 cattle LEHRMAN 293-5

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT539 … Jewish Ethics penetrate the letter of the Law by asking its faithful followers to be undeterred by corrupt example, and to regard the whole of life as an attempt to bring earth near heaven [this verse]. As in the acquisition of genius, the gift of holiness can be acquired only by an infinite capacity for taking pains. To assist man in this holy quest, the sages of Judaism widened the "fence round the Law", [Abot i.I.) so that it confined the entire moral domain.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT542 From this comparative sketch of other ancient faiths, Judaism emerges ennobled. Opposed to Buddhist self-extinction on the one hand, and Hellenistic self-expansion on the other, Judaism strives for self-elevation under the uplifting power of a Holy God. The term which the Torah uses for moral conduct is significant: [this verse]; (Sifre Deuteronomy xlix.); a verse which the Rabbis explain thus: "As God is merciful and gracious, so be thou merciful and gracious; as God is righteous, so be thou righteous; as He is holy, so do thou strive in all ways to be holy." [Continued at [[EXOD158]] Exodus 12:23 home LEHRMAN 27-8]

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT600 See [[GEN430]] Genesis 3:21 clothed LEHRMAN 6

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT678 (Continued from [[DEUT1111]] Deuteronomy 22:3 indifferent LEHRMAN 67) Wherever we look at Jewish law, we see that ethics and religion are indissolubly linked. Take the command in [this verse]: "You shall not eat anything that died of itself (nevelah); for thou art a people holy unto the Lord." The characteristic Midrashic comment (Sifre Deut., §104 (95a) is: ["Sanctify yourself even in that which is permitted to you: things permitted to you but forbidden to others, do not regard as permissible in their presence"]. In which other Codes will we find such tender consideration for the feelings of others? And all this in the midst of an Halachah or Nevelah! (Continued at [[DEUT1332]] Deuteronomy 24:4 may not LEHRMAN 67)

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT703 (Continued from [[DEUT45]] Deuteronomy 4:2 add LEHRMAN 181) … Did not Hillel re-interpret the laws of the Shemitah [this verse, Leviticus xxv. 1-7)] with its remission of debts by introducing the Prozbul, when he saw the spirit of this humane institution thwarted by cunning and deceit? This document, drawn up by the Beth Din, made it possible for the lender to reclaim the debt from a fraudulent borrower even after the seventh year of Release had passed. When the aim of a Rabbinic command is to enforce Biblical ruling in monetary assessments of damage, or to strengthen the claims of a hired servant, the Rabbis are vested with full authority to read a new meaning into the command, as in the case of the Lex Talionis (Exodus xxi. 22-25. The compensation for an injured limb was an assessment in money, amounting to the difference between a man possessed of all his limbs and one bereft of the part of the body which had been injured. This difference in value was ascertained by the market value of a slave, possessed of that limb, or not.) Even in matters not strictly monetary such Rabbinic power was made manifest. Take the case of the Agunah, the anxious widow, whose remarriage was allowed on the corroboration of one witness only testifying that her lost husband was found dead. Even if that witness be a woman who elsewhere was incompetent in the eyes of the law to act as a witness, her evidence here was considered valid. The plight of such hard examples forced the Rabbis to re-interpret some of the Biblical laws on the grounds of the humanitarian reasons advocated by the Torah. (Yeb. 88a; Gitt. 3a) The Rabbis did not go beyond their constituted authority by their adjustments and correlation of life to Torah. They had as rooted an objection to reform as the most conservative in our ranks at any time. They felt no compunction, however, in adding new regulations and setting aside existing ones if these helped to clarify the Biblical injunctions and to foster the spirit intended, to a generation far removed from the period in which the commandment was first given. (Continued at Deuteronomy 21:3 heifer LEHRMAN 183-4)

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT704 See [[LEV960]] Leviticus 25:11 jubilee LEHRMAN 263-4

SHOW FULL EXCERPT