DEUT1665 See [[DEUT442]] Deuteronomy 10:17 favor DORFFDRAG

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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.

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DEUT1666 See [[EXOD516]] Exodus 21:1 rules DORFFWITO 14

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DEUT1667 The Jewish tradition affirms in many places that God is just and demands justice of us. So, for example, in his last address to his people, Moses proclaims, “The Rock, his words are pure, for all His ways are just” (Deuteronomy 32:4). Three times each day we recite this verse as part of the Ashrei, “The Lord (Adonai) is righteous in all His ways and faithful (kind) in all His acts (Psalms 145:17).

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DEUT1664 … Shlomo HaMelech, may peace be upon him, says (Koheles 12:14): For God will bring every action to justice.…" Just as the Holy One blessed be He does not allow any good deed, however small, to go unrewarded, He will not allow any bad deed, however small, to go unjudged or unchastised. The purpose of this verse, furthermore, is to counteract the thoughts of those who would be tempted to believe that the Master , blessed be He, will not include in His judgments the lighter offenses and will not require an accounting of them. But in fact, this is one of our fundamental truths (Bava Kamma 50a): "Whoever says that the Holy One blessed be He overlooks things will have his innards overlooked." And similarly they said (Chagigah 16a): "If the evil inclination says to you, 'Sin and the Holy One blessed be He will be forgiving,' do not listen to him!" This is self-evident and clearly spelled out because the Eternal is a God of truth. This is what Moshe Rabbeinu, may peace be upon him, said [this verse]: "The Rock, His actions are perfect, for all His ways are just. A faithful God, without injustice.…" Since the Holy One blessed be He wants [a world of] justice, it would be a violation of justice to turn a blind eye either to merit or to misconduct. Consequently, if there is meant to be justice, He must repay each person in accordance with his conduct and the results of his actions – both for good and for bad, with the strictest of precision. This is what our Sages of blessed memory said (Ta'anis 11a): "'A faithful God, without iniquity, righteous and fair is He' [this verse] – for the righteous [as well] as the wicked." This is the standard, and He judges everything and punishes each sin. And no one can escape from this. You might ask how the attribute of compassion enters into all of this, since in all cases justice must be precise. The answer is that the attribute of compassion is undoubtedly holding up the world, without which the world could not exist at all. Nonetheless, this does not rule out [the function of] the attribute of justice. For according to the letter of the law, the sinner should be punished immediately, subsequent to his sinful act, without any delay. Furthermore, the punishment should be [meted out] with anger, since it is directed against one who has rebelled against the words of the Creator, blessed be His Name, and there should be no way whatsoever to atone for the sins. (How, in fact, can a person rectify that which he has ruined once the sin has been committed? For example, if a person has killed another, [or] has committed adultery, how can this be rectified? Can he purge from reality the act which has been done?) The attribute of compassion, however, yields the opposite of the three things mentioned above: Time is extended to the sinner and he is not destroyed as soon as he has sinned; the punishment itself will not be total; the possibility of repenting will be granted to the sinner as an act of benevolence, so that the uprooting of the penitent's will, should be equivalent to the uprooting of the deed. This means that since the penitent recognizes his sin, admits his guilt and ponders his wrongdoing, repents and totally regrets all that he has done from the outset [as in the declaration of regret over a vow that was taken) so that his regret is so complete that he wishes the deed had never been done and he is filled with terrible anguish that it was done, and from he severs himself from it, and flees from it – then the willful uprooting [of the deed] will be like the uploading of the vow and it will be an effective act of atonement for him. This is what Scripture says (Yeshayahu 6:7): "And your iniquity will disappear and your sin will be atoned for." This means that the sin will literally disappear from reality and will be uprooted retroactively, as a result of one's current anguish and his regret over the past. This surely is benevolence, for it goes beyond the letter of the law. Nonetheless, it is a benevolence that does not undermine the attribute of justice completely. For it allows for the assumption that the satisfaction and pleasure derived from sinning have now been replaced with regret and anguish. Similarly, the extra time granted [between the sin and the punishment] is not an instance of tolerance towards sinful behavior, but rather a brief waiting period to allow one the opportunity to adopt corrective measures.

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DEUT1668 The problem of theodicy receives its fullest biblical treatment in the Book of Job. Here, as elsewhere in the Bible, the form in which the problem is presented is not such as to seek an explanation for suffering or evil in general, but rather to focus on the suffering of the righteous. Judaism never strayed away from the belief in the moral quality and purposive nature of God's will. However, men are compelled to question the justice of God, and indeed the entire world order, once we contemplate the fate of a Job. The challenge of Job's experience consists precisely in this. The tzaddik in Job believes in God. The thinker in Job accepts God's existence but demands that we separate God from ideas of morality and justice. For it appears clear that God's rule is not moral. The Book of Job rejects the separation. Once God appears to Job and causes him to experience the "grace of revelation," God's concern for the world is clear. Job is now able to accept the principle that God's ways are hidden from men. Out of an "immediate certitude of divine majesty," Job regains his faith in the meaningfulness of God's acts. The Bible's last word on the problem of theodicy is that, all experience to the contrary, the concept of God necessarily includes the moral idea. (Y. Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel, (trans. M. Greenberg (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960) p. 338; J. Guttmann, Philosophies of Judaism (New York: Holt, Rinehard & Winston, 1964) p. 15). "For all His ways are justice… just and right is He" [this verse].

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DEUT1669 See [[DEUT1580]] Deuteronomy 29:28 hidden DUTIES 387-9

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DEUT1670 Since it is impossible to perceive the Creator through the senses, the only way we can perceive Him is through truthful tradition or through proofs of Him that are drawn from evidence of His works. Since we are indeed served by such proofs from the signs of His works in the created things-- and His works are exceedingly numerous-- there are, as a result, numerous attributes ascribed to Him. The prophets and the pious have described Him in different ways. Moshe, our Master, said: “The Rock, His deeds are perfect, for all His ways are just” (Devarim 32:4); “He is God of Gods and Master of masters, the great, mighty, and awesome God... He executes justice for the orphan and widow, and He loves the stranger” (ibid. 10:17-18). God, May He be exalted, in describing His own attributes, said: “God, God, a God merciful and kind, slow to anger, abounding in love and truth. He keeps love for thousands [of generations], forgiving sin, rebellion, and transgression. He clears [the repentant]; He does not clear [the unrepentant]” (Shemos 34:6-7). The proof for all these attributes is in the traces of His handiwork in His creations, in the wisdom and power manifest in His works.

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DEUT1671 See [[GEN805]] Genesis 13:13 sinners GATES 169-71

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DEUT1672 R. Chanina b. Pappa said: If one derives benefit from this world without a blessing, it is as if he would rob the Holy One Blessed be He and the congregation of Israel, as it is written (Proverbs 28:24): "One who robs his father and mother and says that it is not a sin is a companion to the destroyer," "his father" being the Holy One Blessed be He, as it is written: "Is He not your father, who acquired you?" (Berachoth 35b)

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