DEUT41 Does God interfere with the mechanisms of volition and the decision-making process that is within man? One would think that to do so would surely compromise the integrity of man's freedom and the inviolability of his very selfhood! Yet the Torah records several instances of what is described as God "hardening the heart" of an individual or nation [this verse, Joshua 11:20]. The classic case of this is, of course, the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Time after time, God hurls devastating plagues upon Pharaoh and Egypt, but no sooner is the plague removed in response to Pharaoh's plea, than he reverts to his stubbornness and refuses to let the Israelites go. But if Pharaoh's stubbornness is due to God's "hardening of the heart," and not to his own volition, how can he continue to be punished for his refusal? In response to this problem, Maimonides develops a new doctrine to the effect that sometimes, in punishment for a particularly grievous transgression, God indeed removes a person's freedom, making it impossible for him to repent. Nevertheless, the blows he continues to receive are deserved because of the evils he performed while he still had his freedom (Rambam, Hilkhot Teshuvah 6:3). A number of other writers, however, are uncomfortable with the idea that God should ever deprive any person of his power or interfere with his freedom (See Abarbanel). Therefore, they interpret the "hardening of the heart" to the contrary; not as interfering with his volitions but actually as making it possible for Pharaoh to carry out his true inclinations. The earlier plagues had created personal and social pressures which Pharaoh would have found hard to withstand. One more blow and Pharaoh would have released the Israelites, although he did not really want to and was thoroughly unrepentant of the cruelty he had committed. Thus, the "hardening" did not constitute the actual decision but merely was an artificial stiffening to offset the corrosive effects of the plagues so that Pharaoh could again do what he wanted to do.

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DEUT42 See [[NUM256]] Numbers 20:11 struck SINAI3 192-3

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DEUT43 See [[NUM250]] Numbers 20:10 listen SINAI2 162

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DEUT44 ... the Torah and, even more, the later rabbinic tradition spell out in very specific terms the morals God requires of us. Although this last point is the subject of debate among Jewish thinkers, I am among those who maintain that the inherent morality of God requires rabbis in each generation to apply the law with moral norms in mind. This requires some explanation. Deuteronomy 17:8-13 says that when a Jew has a question about God's law, he or she should go to the judge of the time and obey that person's instructions. That passage established the authority of human judges in each generation to interpret and apply God's law. Because the Torah, unlike the American Constitution, specifically forbids amendment in Deuteronomy 4:2 and 13:1, the Rabbis used their judicial power expansively to establish Jewish law to deal with new circumstances and remain relevant through time. In this process, I contend, rabbis from the time of the Mishnah to our own era have been properly and importantly influenced by the understanding of God as morally good, for that requires that they interpret God's law in ways they construe to be moral. That is, Jewish theology has, and should have, a direct effect on Jewish law. The extent to which that is true, if it is at all, and how moral concerns should enter into legal debates are both matters of considerable debate among contemporary rabbis and Jews generally. I maintain that Jewish belief in a moral God has an important role to play in shaping the law and in motivating us to live by its demands.

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DEUT45 It would be wrong to regard the many customs and observances that have been derived from Biblical Commandments as illegal additions coming under the ban of not adding to or subtracting from that which is written in the Torah [this verse]. This interdiction, as is plane from its context, applied only to individuals, not to the Sanhedrin or judges who were authorized to expand existing laws and to frame new ones, after they had carefully examined the changing conditions of the times. The stipulation was that they must conform to logical rules in harmony with the spirit of the Torah. R. Johanan b. Zakkai made new decrees after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. Basing himself on Deuteronomy xvii. 8-11, he invested the Sanhedrin he established with supreme authority to present to the perplexed and despairing people a Jerusalem reinterpreted and adapted to the catastrophic change that had taken place in their national life. Furthermore, the Talmudic sages themselves declare that so decisive should the decrees of a Beth Din be that even when they inform us "that our right hand is our left, and our left our right", we must listen to them. (Continued at [[DEUT703]] Deuteronomy 15:2 remission LEHRMAN 181-3)

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DEUT46 Ben Zoma said: ... Who is rich? -- he who is happy with his lot, as it is said: When you eat from the toil of your hands, happy shall you be, and it shall go well with you: (Psalms 128:2) happy in this world; and it shall go well with you in the world-to-come. Pirkei Avot, Perek IV, mishnah 1. … above all, a person can be happy with his lot in life only when he sees himself and his existence as part of some greater plan, when he knows that his task is to further those ultimate values which transcend petty human longings. Those who live only to gratify their own desires may soon belong among the wicked of whom the Talmud says that "even while they live they are ranked as dying." (T.B. Berakoth 18b; Midrash Rabbah, Genesis xxxix 7; Tanhuma, Yithro 1 and B'rachah 7 (ed. Buber 6). For these people, each day that passes is a day that has died, leaving nothing of lasting value behind. Each desire that is fulfilled marks a feeble emotional agitation that has perished. There is no build up or accumulation of anything significant, but only a countdown of many passions and whims that peter off into nothingness upon gratification. The wicked die a little bit each day. By contrast, says the Talmud, the righteous are called living even when they have passed beyond (T.B. ibid. T.J. ii 3; Midrash Rabbah, Ecclesiastes ix 4; Tanhuma, B'rachah ibid.). They go on living beyond the grave; as Scripture tells us [this verse]. One time the righteous person will care for a sick human being in need. The next day he may provide for some orphan. The third day, perhaps he raises funds for a school of Torah. His is not a life of attrition, a wearinGodown day by day; it is a life of building-up. His deeds add up to values and ideals that accumulate and increase in significance. The righteous person is alive each day because he furthers life each day. His presence contributes something lasting to this world, and this justly achieves for him immortality. To know that your life adds up to lasting significance, this indeed breeds happiness. Meeting a religious member of Jewry, you ask, "How are you?" The reply you receive is, baruch ha-shem, "Blessed is the Almighty": I am happy with my lot, thank the Lord. This is the rich man.

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DEUT49 On [this] verse: "But you who cleave to Hashem your God are alive every one of you this day," the Gemara (Kethuvoth 112a) comments: "Is it really possible to cleave to the Shechinah?--Is it not written (Ibid. v. 24): 'Hashem your God is a devouring fire?' The meaning is: Whoever gives his daughter in marriage to a Talmid Chacham and whoever engages in business with a Talmid Chacham (he invests the latter's money so that the scholar receives an income and is free to occupy himself with Torah study [Rashi], and whoever gives the benefit of his property to a Talmid Chacham is regarded by Scripture as if 'he cleaves to the Shechinah.'"

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DEUT48 Now, we do not fulfill our duty to the Almighty merely by being fine and decent to our fellow. Justice, righteousness and loving-kindness are indeed the "foundations of His throne" (Psalms 97:2). But there is a further area of purely religious values, the depth of Divine worship and personal communion with the Almighty, which must not be overlooked. The prophet Micah remind us: "Man has told you what is good and what the Lord requires of you: only to do justice, love kindness and humbly (vhatzne'a) walk with your God (Micah 6:8. This is usually translated, "He has told you, O man…" Or, "It has been told you, O man…" But the Hebrew can be equally rendered in the present translation.) The Hatham Sofer gives this ingenious interpretation: Man can tell you what is good and what the Lord requires of you. Human reason can perceive the worth of certain moral values and urge justice and kindness as the religious life. However v'hatzn'ea: they "conceal"; they omit; they are totally incompetent to develop the concept of "walking with the Almighty." Human reason cannot generate, fathom or validate a halachah, a normative way of life in which the Almighty delights, through which man will surely "cleave to the Lord" [this verse, Joshua 23:8]. And so Rabbi Judah haNasi teaches: is it a path that is right in the sight of man and beautiful in the sight of your Creator.

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DEUT47 Now is it possible to cleave to the Shechinah? Is it not written (24): "For the Lord your God is a consuming fire"? But, if one weds his daughter to a Torah scholar, or engages in business on behalf of a Torah scholar, or benefits a Torah scholar from his possessions, Scripture accounts it to him as if he would cleave to the Shechinah (Ketuvoth 111b)

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DEUT50 See [[EXOD516]] Exodus 21:1 rules DORFFWITO 14

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