Parashat Ki Tavo
Love Is Not The
Opposite Of Hate; Law Is
Law is essential
to Judaism, establishing an external set of moral guidelines.
By Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson
The following article is reprinted with permission from University of Judaism.
Human beings never seem able to
express all their hatred for each other. Men and women war against each other;
blacks and whites, gay and straight, liberals and conservatives, city-folk and
suburbanites--there is no end to stereotypes, hostility and mistrust. In
response to this propensity to hate, Nobel laureate Elie Weisel organized an
international conference on hate in Oslo, Norway. The glittering list of
invited participants included four presidents, and 70 writers, scientists and
academics.
The two questions which shaped
their deliberations were, "Why do people hate?" and "Why do
people band together to express hatred?" Although the speeches were
beautiful and the resolutions were firm, the entire event was fairly
predictable, except for their primary conclusion, which seems so at odds with
common sense. Ask anyone what the opposite of hate is, and they will tell you
it's love. But the consensus of these most accomplished, powerful and
thoughtful people was that, "Only the belief in and execution of the law
can defeat hatred."
In other words, the opposite of
hate is law. The Prime Minister of Norway even bolstered that claim by quoting
from the statesman/philosopher Edmund Burke (18th century England) that,
"When bad men combine, the good must associate, else they will fall one by
one." While this insight might be news to the largely-Christian west, it
merely confirms the age-old conviction of Judaism that law is the indispensable
expression of love and decency. A people abandons law at the peril of their own
character, justice and survival.
Our Torah portion understands
that need for law, for mitzvot, insisting that, "The Lord your God
commands you this day to observe these laws and rules; observe them faithfully
with all your heart and soul." Why is law essential to Judaism? Without
clear standards of communal behavior and individual rectitude, each person is
forced to fall back on their own sense of right and wrong. Without external
guidelines, that sense can all too easily become simply a way to excuse ones
own predilections and to overlook one's own weakness.
Halakhah (Jewish Law) provides a "second opinion,"
integrating the claims of conscience with the will of God and the wisdom of the
sages. In addition to establishing a context for moral decision, halakhah also
allows for communal cohesion. Without a binding structure for maintaining
consensus, Judaism rapidly dissolves into a combination of nostalgia, good
intentions and contemporary politics. No longer able to hold together a people,
each individual fashions their own faith out of the inherited remains of the
past, and then everybody calls their own hodgepodge, "Judaism."
Halakhah cuts through that
solipsism, forcing people to integrate the needs of their neighbors and
coreligionists, an awareness of God and the sacred, and the highest ideals of
human morality. In an age of lonely individuals coming together to try to
foster a sense of meaning without impinging on autonomy, Jewish law forges us
into a community, with a framework to channel and guide our individuality.
Finally, halakhah extends the
realm of the sacred and the moral beyond a once-a-week (or once-a-year) peek
into a prayerbook or a synagogue. Instead, Judaism becomes the prism through
which we refract all the rays of light from every aspect of our lives, sanctifying
and elevating every moment, every deed and every place.
In the words of Rabbi Pinhas in
Midrash Devarim Rabbah, "Whatever you do, the mitzvot accompany you. If
you build a house . . . if you make a door . . . if you buy new clothes . . .
if you have your hair cut . . . if you plough your field . . . if you sow it .
. . if you gather the harvest . . .. God said, "Even when you are not
occupied with anything, but are just taking a walk, the mitzvot accompany
you."
Jewish law, then, is the
powerhouse that has maintained Jewish unity, purpose and vigor throughout the
ages. Through our halakhah, we reach beyond our drives to attain our
aspirations, beyond our flaws to embody our ideals. As they have been for
thousands of years, the laws of the Torah and the Talmud summon us to aim high,
to become the earthly representatives of the sacred and the sublime.
In the words of Midrash Derekh
Eretz Zuta, Jewish law allows us to let all our "doings be for the sake of
God, revering and loving God, feeling awe and joy towards all the
'mitzvot.'" Take a stand against hatred; do a 'mitzvah.'
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson is the Dean of the Ziegler
School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. He is the author of The Bedside Torah:
Wisdom, Dreams, & Visions (McGraw Hill).
For a free subscription to his weekly email Torah commentary, please
send an email request to bartson@uj.edu.
