EXOD1033 What is the nature of the obligatoriness of morality? Why should a person be moral? We indicated earlier that God is the source of the moral commands in the Bible. How shall we understand this? Does it mean that a certain rule is to be deemed moral because God has ordained it, or does it mean the reverse, that God ordains certain rules because they embody moral principles? The latter would appear to be the case in as much as the Torah identifies the "ways" of God by appealing to well-known and apparently approved moral traits. When the "Glory of God" is revealed to Moses, only moral attributes are listed, such as "mercy, long–suffering, and kindness" [this verse]. This would suggest that morality is prior to our knowledge of God not only in an epistemological sense but in an axiological sense as well. But insofar as man can know the essence of God's being, if what he gets to know is a moral essence, then morality would appear to be, in some sense, divine. Morality, therefore becomes obligatory for man, not because of the arbitrary fiat of Divine legislation but because morality, whose value in obligatoriness man has always dimly perceived, is now identified with God, who is absolute value, the prototype of all morality. (Y. Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel, trans. M. Greenberg (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960), p. 327) In a sense, God has no choice but to ordain moral rules. The moral God cannot command rules that are not moral. "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy." (Leviticus 19:2) Similarly, because He is moral, you should be moral. It is because of this logic that Abraham with complete confidence is able to confront God with a demand for justice: "Shall not the judge of all the earth do justly?" (Genesis 18:25) The ultimate purpose of man is to be moral but morality is divine. Hence, the ultimate purpose of man is to become like God, to seek fellowship with Him. One can start at the other end and come to the same conclusion. Man ought to seek self-fulfillment, but he is created in the image of God. Let him, therefore, strive to be merciful and righteous. It is in this unique concept of God as possessing a moral nature that there lies the key to our understanding of the grounds of the morality of Judaism.

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EXOD1034 See [[EXOD979]] Exodus 32:10 thee COHON 297

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EXOD1035 Though transcendent, God can be approached through moral conduct. The thirteen attributes of God, revealed in the theophany to Moses [this and next verses], set forth standards of human behavior. Haggadists, rationalists and mystics alike employ them to trace the chart of life for man. To be like God one must act like Him. [See also Is. 61:8]. (Continued at [[EXOD214]] Exodus 15:2 glorify COHOH 150-1)

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EXOD1036 The Torah notes that truth is one of God's thirteen attributes [this verse], while the Talmud teaches that "the seal of God is truth" Shabbat 55a; Sanhedrin 64a. Rabbi Louis Jacobs explains," in ancient times, a man would append his seal to a document as evidence of its authenticity [a king, for example, would apply his seal to an enactment of which she approved]." This is seal bore some distinguishing mark for identification purposes. Where truth is found, there is evidence of God's presence"; conversely, a lie indicates a lack of God's presence.

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EXOD1037 See [[DEUT47]] Deuteronomy 11:22 ways DORFFWITO 18-9

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EXOD1038 See [[LEV1137]] Leviticus 26:40 confess BLOCH 135

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EXOD1039 The Jewish tradition is confident that God will forgive both individual Israelites and the People Israel as a whole. In the Torah, God Himself proclaims that He “forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin,” and the Rabbis maintained that God's forgiveness exceeds kept his wrath five hundred- fold. (Exodus 34:7 and Tosefta, Sotah 1:4. Compare M.T. Laws of Repentance 1:3-4, 7:1-8, qualified, however, in 3:6ff). There are several reasons why God forgives. God is by nature a loving Father who, like any good parent, punishes transgression when necessary to correct our ways but who always hopes that we will return to Him so that He can instead forgive. (That God will discipline us: Deuteronomy 8:5. That God hopes that we will return to Him so that He can forgive: for example, Jeremiah 3:14, 22). After the Flood, God made a covenant with all children of Noah -- and, indeed, with all living creatures -- not to destroy the world again, however angry He becomes. (Genesis 9:8-17). Furthermore, as an expression of His special love for Israel, He has made a distinct covenant with Israel that obligates Him to forgive and sustain it even after fiercely punishing it for multiple and egregious transgression. (Leviticus 26:44-5 and Psalms 106:45). God remembers the merit of the Patriarchs; the relationship He had with them, and the promises He made them prompt Him to forgive their descendants. (God’s relationship with the Patriarchs as a motive for forgiveness: Deuteronomy 9:27. God’s promises to the Patriarchs as a motive for forgiveness: Exodus 32:13). Because failure to forgive Israel may lead others to underestimate the extent of God's power and goodness, God forgives Israel also to preserve and enhance His own reputation among the nations. (Exodus 32:12, Numbers 14:13-20, Deuteronomy 32:26-7, and Psalms 79:8-9). God forgives, however, only when human beings sincerely seek to make amends in both mind and deed. It is not enough to hope and pray for pardon or to perform the rituals associated with it (animal sacrifices, weeping, fasting, rending one’s clothes, donning sackcloth and ashes, etc.); people must humble themselves, acknowledge their wrongs, and resolve to depart from sin. (For example, 1 Kings 21:27-9, Isaiah 1:10-20 and 29:13, and Joel 2:13). Moreover, inner contrition must be followed by the outward acts of ceasing to do evil and then, in its place, doing good. (For example, Isaiah 1:15-7, 33:14-5, 58:3ff; Jeremiah 7:3ff, 26:13, and Amos 5:14-5). God’s forgiveness, however extensive, only encompasses the sins a person commits directly against Him; injuries to another human being are not forgiven, according to the Rabbis, until the victim has personally forgiven the perpetrator -- hence the custom of seeking forgiveness from those one may have wronged in the days before the Day of Atonement, without which proper atonement to God cannot be made. (M. Yoma 8:9). (Continued at [[GEN1098]] Genesis 20:17 prayed DORFFDRAG 189-90)

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EXOD1040 [Continued from [[EXOD32]] Exodus 2:6 pity TELVOL1 87] How, then, is one to explain the verse," [God] visits the iniquity of parents upon children and children's children" [this verse]? First, even if God does this, the Torah forbids human beings from acting similarly: "Parents shall not be put to death for children, nor children to death for parents: a person shall be put to death only for his own crime" Deuteronomy 24:16. Further, the Talmud explains that visiting "the iniquity of parents upon children" refers only to children who followed their parents' bad example Sanhedrin 27b. Therefore, if a young person of bad ancestry shows evidence of being a good person, we should give him the benefit of the doubt; God will not punish him or hold his parents' sins against him, and neither should we.

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EXOD1041 There is, on the face of it, a fundamental contradiction in the Torah. On the one hand we hear, in the passage known as the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, the following words: [this verse]. The implication is clear. Children suffer for the sins of their parents. On the other hand we read in Parashat Ki Tetzeh: "Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin" (Deut. 24:16) ... There is an obvious resolution. The first statement refers to Divine justice, "at the hands of Heaven." The second, in Deuteronomy, refers to human justice as administered in a court of law. How can mere mortals decide the extent to which one person's crime was induced by the influence of others? Clearly the judicial process must limit itself to the observable facts. The person who committed the crime is guilty. Those who may have shaped his character are not.

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EXOD1073 Another famous instance of questionable justice on G-d's part occurs when G-d responds to the incidents of the golden calf and the ten spies who recommend against going forward to occupy the land of Canaan. In both places, G-d reveals that He “visits the iniquity of the parents upon the children and children's children, upon the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18). Similarly, the generation of the spies was told that “your children [will] roam the wilderness for forty years, suffering for your faithlessness, until the last of your carcasses is down in the wilderness” (Numbers 14:33; emphasis added). Biblical scholars describe this doctrine as “vertical retribution,” in that G-d's punishment is transferred not horizontally in time to other members of one's generation, but vertically through time to those of generations to come. In its positive form, in which people receive benefits as a result of what their ancestors did, the Rabbis call it tekhut avot, “the merit of the ancestors.” This offends our sense of justice, for we think that people should be responsible only for their own deeds. In human legal proceedings, the Torah demands that courts judge exactly that way (Deuteronomy 24:16). Nevertheless, as discussed in the last chapter, this passage from the ten commandments describes correctly what in fact happens in people's lives, where we both benefit and suffer from what our ancestors have done and what our community is now doing; we do not live on isolated islands but are rather significantly affected by what other people do, however unfair that may seem.

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