GEN222 A doctor is obligated to heal the sick to the best of his abilities. Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 336:1  One may ask, “Since healing is in the hands of Hashem, why does the doctor have an obligation to heal?” Hashem created a world of “cause and effect” directed by Him alone. [this verse]  This reality gives a human being the most basic aspect of his humanity: free will. Because a person eats, he feels satiated; therefore, he can choose to do the mitzvah of feeding the hungry. Because he has money he can buy food and clothing; therefore, he can choose to give tzedakah to the poor and alleviate their plight. A disease is cured by a certain medication; therefore, a doctor can prescribe it and perform the mitzvah of healing the sick. This is the purpose of creation: to choose that which is right and to avoid wrong. Deuteronomy 30:15 Thus, the world of “cause and effect” is the framework within which a person can operate his “free will.” If a person wrongly exercise free will by recklessly exposing himself to disease or danger, he violates the basic injunction to guard his life and health which were Divinely bestowed to accomplish his life’s tasks. He then deserves the effect of illness or accident that he chose to bring upon himself. Talmud, Ketubos 30a However, Hashem may decide to bring illness even on a person who acted very responsibly, and directs the cause and effect toward that end. If Hashem wants a person to be fed, He will cause him to meet his kindly benefactor Similarly, if Hashem wants an ill person to recover, He will cause him to meet the doctor who will heal him However, if Hashem does not wish the person to be healed, He will direct “cause and effect” that way. Thus, Hashem alone directs “cause and effect.” Our task in life is to exercise free will. A doctor can choose to treat a patient, exercising his free will for “right”; he has chosen to fulfill Hashem’s mitzvah of returning a person to life and health. Yoreh Deah ibid. If he chooses “wrong,” and does not treat the patient, his negligence is considered tantamount to murder. Talmud, Nedarim 40a  JOURNEY 520-1

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

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

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN224 See [[GEN28]] Genesis 1:12 grass TEMIMAH-GEN 8

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN225 It was taught: “Why is a cloud called ‘ed’? [i.e. mist - AJL] Because it ‘breaks” those who inflate prices.” [When there is ample rain, there is ample food, and prices are lower] Yerushalmi, Taanith 3:3.  TEMIMAH-GEN 15

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN227 A man labors long, with the sweat of his brow, and only to provide for and to honor his father as befits a good and devoted son. Is it conceivable that he will even for one moment entertain the possibility that this man is not his father? … there is a feeling in a man’s heart  - a firm, steadfast, crystal-clear feeling – that his father is indeed his father, without the slightest shadow of a doubt. … And this, too, leads to an inexorable conclusion. If the Holy One Blessed be He has implanted it within the nature of a son to feel and to recognized that he is the son and that this is his father, how much more so must it reside within the feelings of a man’s soul to know, understand and acknowledge what is implicit in [this verse] – concerning which our sages of blessed memory say, “One who blows does so from within himself.” How much less, then, is it conceivable that a Jew, who is called a “son” of God, would not feel this and would not know his Father in heaven! And this is what underlies the prophet’s plaint, “Children I have made great and raised up and they have rebelled against Me.” Is this conceivable? Can it not be seen and understood that even an ox knows his owner and an ass his master’s crib through the nature that I have given him? How is it possible, then, that Israel does not know? BUILD 196-7

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN226 And the dead are destined to be brought to life … Pirkei Avot IV:29  In Scripture’s majestic account of Creation, we read how man as a physical organism was created from the dust of the earth and animated by the breath of Divinity [this verse].  It is to be expected, then, that what comes from the earth should return to the earth, once man loses his ability to live forever in his physical state.  Adam is told, “you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19  Man’s physical portion, his body, decomposes and disintegrates after he expires.  But part of the human being is spiritual; his soul comes not of earth but from the supernal realms of Divinity.  That returns to its place of origin, to live on, until at some future time, by the grace of the life-giving God, it will again acquire physical form and live once more within a body.  This is one of Judaism’s most central and fundamental beliefs. Not every human being, however, will enjoy this privilege. Only those who are worthy will merit to undergo resurrection, return to life.  For example, those who refuse to repent and return to the faith they have abandoned, those who deny that the Torah teaches this doctrine of Resurrection and anyone whose life is too vile to be continued, will not live again. They are punished in much the same way as a reprehensible citizen who is deported from his country. His life has become so debased and his behavior so dangerous that his country forbids him to ever re-enter his land. So too will a person, if he is wicked or evil enough, be unable to rejoin the living once he has departed this earth.  SINAI2 197

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN229 One manifestation of God's mercy is shalom (peace).  A nuance of this attribute that relates to [employer performance appraisal requirements] is the mercy God show us in preventing the outbreak of discord.  In this regard, R. Shimon b. Halafta observes that in the first five days of creation, God created an equal number of things for the heaven and the earth. On the sixth day, when He came to create man, He said: “If I create man as one of the upper elements of the universe, the upper elements will outnumber the lower by one created object, and if I create him as one of the lower created objects, the lower will outnumber the upper by one created object.” What did He do? He created man of the upper as well as of the lower beings: this is proved by what is written: The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground [this verse] i.e., out of the lower parts of creation; And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [this verse], i.e out of the upper spheres. Imitatio Deo, in the form of emulating God’s attributes of shalom, urges an employer to arrange his labor relations by means of a performance-appraisal system because doing so minimizes discord in the workplace.  CASE 311-2

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN228 Insofar as man is a physical being – “dust from the ground” [this verse], his heart inclines to the material. Therefore, he desires to “eat, drink, and be merry.” He loves wealth and fortune, and longs for honor and dominion. He is full of arrogance and seeks to delight in bodily comforts, running after worldly pleasures and debasing himself with every type of ignoble vice. Together with this, the inclination of his heart contemplates only negative thoughts during his every waking moment. This is the evil inclination, rooted in man’s spiritual component.  Shlomo Hamelech, the wisest of all men, depicted the yetzer hara with a compelling image.  We read in Koheles (9:14-15): “There was a small town with only a few inhabitants; and a mighty king came upon it and surrounded it, and built great siege works over it. Present in the city was a poor, wise man who by his wisdom saved the town.” In the Talmud (Nedarim 32a), Chazal explain that this verse is a description of man: “A small town,” this is the body. “With only a few inhabitants,” these are the limbs. “A mighty king came upon it and surrounded it,” this is the evil inclination. “Present in the city was a poor, wise man,” this is the good inclination.  This comparison teaches us that man must always be prepared to defend himself against an organized assault launched by the evil inclination, which seeks to swallow him into the bottomless depths of worldly desire and pleasure. Our enemy is a great and powerful king, who is free of all distractions. The yetzer hara has no wife and children and does not have to worry about supporting a family. Neither is he distracted by the vanities of this world. He does naught but fulfill the obligation for which he was created. He executes his tasks with extreme efficiency, with no sign of laziness or weariness.  What of man? He is weak like a worm, overwhelmed with toil and an unending workload. Because of this, his mind is confused and his intellect thick, and he gratefully slumbers in the beckoning arms of laziness. Through the siren call of base desires, he is stricken with blindness and confusion. How can he face his enemy and not fall slain at his feet in the heat of battle? What is the strategy to end the raging war against the evil inclination, and the secret to stop the spirit of desire that roars unendingly like a churning sea? Man’s only hope is to fortify himself with the fear of the Almighty God and His punishment. This fear is an impregnable fortress that can deliver him from every enemy and attach. It is mighty enough to bind his desires and prevent the evil intentions of his heart from bursting into a destructive rampage. Only it can serve as a valorous right arm to still the wild tempest of the evil inclination and allow man to emerge victorious in battle. All of this was revealed to us by the wisest of men, Shlomo HaMelech. It was he who taught us that the only effective weapon in the battle against the yetzer hara is the fear of Hashem, like arrows in an archer’s quiver. OHRYIS 69-70

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN230 It is clear from the Torah that the soul of man is supernal, [unlike an animal’s soul,] for it states that the animal soul is from the earth, as the pasuk (verse) says Genesis 1:24, “The earth shall produce living creatures.” Yet, when referring to man the pasuk says, “And He breathed into his nostrils the soul of life.”  I.e., An animal’s soul comes from the earth, while man’s soul comes from “the breath of Hashem.”  GATES 137-9

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN231 It is clear that man is made from two components: the earth as well as the soul he received from God. Both components make man what he is – his animal/earth side, along with his Godly side. And each side continually struggles for supremacy.  Perhaps this dual quality of man can best be seen in the two stories of Creation in the first two chapters of Genesis.  When man’s creation is first described, the human being is the last creation of a continuum that begins on the first day of Creation. Genesis 1:24-27 On the sixth day, all of the animals are created, and man is but the last of these creations. This demonstrates that man is an integral part of nature, part of the animal kingdom and the same as all other creations, as he has much in common with them.  But in the next chapter, the Torah speaks about creation and mentions just one creature that God created –that creation is man.  Genesis 2:4-8. Thus, man seems to be unique, the very purpose of creation itself, and its central focus. Both descriptions are correct, and man struggles daily with each part of his nature.  AMJV 93

SHOW FULL EXCERPT