Are the rabbis allowed to pick and choose which commandments are relevant today?
Question submitted to “Ask the Rabbi” by:
Name: VM
Full Question:
Dear Rabbi, This is a loaded question!
When it comes to.. personal issues .. whether:..Spiritual,.. Morals, .. Principles & Values … to governs one’s …numerous aspects of life, …would the Torah/Tanach .. be considered as ..Thee ..Final Authority (the True .. End-all ..&.. Be-all, ..biblical word as valid) …to structure one’s life around as their foundation of beliefs ..& follow-thru? And would they see the outcomes as indicated within the scriptures?
Since the Tanach does Not ..defy the laws of the land .. but the Tanach is superior …as guidance to adhere to… especially for the practicing Jew, .. would it be safe to say .. that if one chooses to firmly plant their beliefs within the principles of the Tanach, … can they truly count on God’s Written Word of instructions .. as TRUTH …and take those Words.. to Heart via ..digest & make it a part of their being .. in reality, ..both, physically, & spiritually?
Is the Tanach looked upon as .. Antiquated …even in the 21st Century?!?
Or, do the Rabbis & leaders pick-n-choose ..what’s relevant for today .. and dismiss the rest?
Shalom!
Rabbi Tully Bryks responds:
We look at the Torah as an eternal absolute guide for our lives. The morals and laws of the Torah apply in every generation.[1] As such, Rabbis do not have the right to pick and choose which Torah concepts they like and which they want to dismiss.[2] Rather, the laws and morals of the Torah are eternal. Once we give ourselves the right to pick and choose, we are in essence making ourselves G-d, as we now become the arbiters of right and wrong.
Admittedly, this approach does r
equire a great deal of humility. In addition, the subjective morals of a particular society in a particular generation will sometimes contradict those of the Torah. Our challenge is to stand up for what is right, even it may not be popular at a particular time. Time and time again, history and new scientific inventions seem to corroborate more and more of the Torah’s statements (See article on Torah and science). While trust and faith in G-d is still required, it would seem to require an even bigger leap of faith to reject the absolute value of the Torah and rely on the moral guidance of any given society, which tends to be replaced within a relatively short period of time.
Ultimately, it bears keeping in mind that Torah does not contain 613 suggestions. Rather, these are 613 commandments! The good news is that they are for our benefit (see article on the Purpose of Life)!
[1] Rambam (Maimonides), Mishne Torah, Yesodei Torah (Principles of the Torah), 9:1 and numerous references throughout the Torah
[2] Devarim (Deuteronomy) 13:1
2 Comments
I think it is worth noting that many of the 613 commandments are not observed today, though neither are they broken. For example, commandments regarding sacrifices in the temple are invoked only when such rituals are being practiced. Absent a central temple, the rabbis have judged that we are not obliged to follow the commandments regarding sacrifices today.
Similarly, the world’s Jews do not currently converge on Jerusalem for Pesach, Sukkot, and Shavuot — this despite the clear language in Devarim 16:16. My understanding is that this requirement to travel to Jerusalem for the festivals is one of the 613 commandments.
I think the questioner is right, in a way. When the temple was destroyed, the children of Israel did not receive instructions about what to do with the commandments that had become difficult or impossible to follow. So I suppose you could say that the rabbis decided how to observe those commandments. They did not set them aside casually, but they acknowledged that Jews could not convene at the temple if the temple doesn’t exist. Substitute ways of observing the commandments were created.
I have been told that even Bamidbar’s commandment to include tekhelet among the fringes of the tallit has been eased due to the loss of knowledge about what, precisely, tekhelet is.
Does your understanding correspond with what I have learned?
Every Mitzvah (commandment) has rules and parameters that G-d has set forth for its performance. There are actually only 6 Mitzvos (commandments) out of 613 that can be performed by any person at any time! These include:
1. To Know there is a G-d who created the world and is still actively involved with the world
2. Not to believe in other gods or powers
3. To know that G-d is One – Indivisible, infinite and all powerful
4. To love G-d
5. To be in awe of G-d
6. Not to be led astray by our heart and eyes
All other biblical Mitzvos have some sort of limitation. Here is just a sampling of the criteria:
TIME: Shabbos is once a week, Yom Kippur is once a year, Shmita is once every 7 years, Yovel is once every 50 years, etc.
LOCATION: One must be in Israel in order to perform the Mitzvos (commandments) of Trumah (tithing for the Kohen), Ma’aser (tithing for the Levi), Shmittah (letting the land rest every 7 years) and many others which are specifically connected to the land of Israel. There are other Mitzvos that can only be performed in the Bais Hamikdash (the Holy Temple), such as animal sacrifices, Olah b’regel (the Mitzvah to converge on the Temple 3 times a year), and many others, including various rules and roles for the Kohen Gadol (High Priest), Kohen and Levi.
OCCURRENCE: The Mitzvah to return a lost object only applies if you find a lost object. The Mitzvah to return a stolen object would only apply if YOU stole an object. Other examples include marriage, divorce, repentance and many others.
BIRTHRIGHT: The quantity of Mitzvos that one is obligated to perform depends on whether someone is a male or female, Jew or non-Jew, Kohen, Levi or Yisrael and the like.
While the rabbis are available to help us understand and apply the complex nature of each and every Mitzvah, they do not have the right to reject some Mitzvos to try to adhere to the social norms of their day. As such, we were still obligated to perform the Mitzvah of Bris Milah (circumcision) even in those countries and generations where it was considered barbaric.
It is also important to note that we are not perfect. So while the Jewish people have done a phenomenal job of maintaining our laws and traditions over time, some traditions were lost. As in the Techeles example you mentioned, there is no consensus among the leading Rabbis as to what one would use today to produce Techeles. Similarly, we have lost the tradition as to which birds are not Kosher, which has limited our bird cuisine to only those birds that we have a specific Kosher tradition for.