Wednesday 17 September 2008

Self and Torah

In my latest Commentary article, Footsteps - Chanoch L'Na'ar Al Pi Darcho - which can be accessed through the home page on the Nishma website, www.nishma.org -- in discussing the movement of individuals out of the Charedi community, I raised the issue of the relationship between human nature and the observance of Torah. The resulting bottom line question would be whether the observance of Torah is suppose to result in one being happy.

If one assumes that human nature is dominated by the drives that generally result in not abiding by Torah and if we define happiness as a consequence of the satisfaction of our human nature, then we can say that observing Torah will not generally make us happy. If, on the other hand, we maintain that human nature is actually more in line with the drives that are connected with the observance of Torah, then observing Torah will make people happy. What if, though, human nature cannot so easily be defined? What if aspects of human nature are in the former category and aspects are in the latter? What if, on a more basic level, the two categories are actually very difficult to define.

There are those who maintain that happiness is not necessarily suppose to be a factor in relating to our observance of Torah. We do Torah -- whether it makes us happy or not, whether it is a reflection of our personal nature, is not an important issue. There are those who maintain that Torah, though, is indeed suppose to make us happy, being happy is even a value to search for in our observance of mitzvot. There are, though, two ways of understanding this perception. One is by defining human nature in such a way as yielding a certain form of mitzvah obsevance and arguing that all people, or specifically all Jews, inherently possess this nature. Thus in stating one should be happy in doing mitzvot, one is actually also being told to get in touch with his/her true nature which is the nature that would find happiness in this behaviout. But this may not be the only understanding of how one is to find happiness within Torah observance. Perhaps, in directing people to be happy in observing Torah, they are being directed to bring their self in their observance of Torah.

We can question whether human nature is to connect with Torah or not. If we believe it should -- and thus happiness is a factor in Torah observance -- there are two ways of approaching this directive. One is by believing that just as Torah observance has one standard, all human beings should ideallly have one common nature that is in line with this standard. The belief would thus either be that all people really do have this common nature, they just have to get in touch with it or all people can develop this nature. they just have to change themselves to adopt it -- and the job of someone trying to bring them to this happiness level would be to make them realize and recognize or move toward this common. nature of all people.

But there could be another understanding of the goal of Torah observance being pleasant or resulting in individual happiness. Torah observance is not built on one standard but there are many different ways of bringing Torah observance into fruition. If so, in stating that happiness is a factor to considered in Torah observance, we must bring our personal and distinct human nature, our self, into the analysis of how we should observe Torah. This is, I'll admit, inherently risky and over application of this principle could result in halachic decision making losing its necessary objective base. There is also obviously a role of Torah in refining our natures, our selves, our drives. Yet, if happiness is to be a factor is our observance of Torah, it may not mean that we all have to adopt the same standard and the same nature but what it may really mean is that the Torah does present shivim panim, 70 faces that reflect different paths within Torah, because the unique self of every individual is to fine the path of Torah that is specifically suited to him/her.

Rabbi Ben Hecht

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

thank you; I wonder though how far this principle might actually extend. Of recent, certain Charedi Rabbonim have described, in print, the Modern Orthodox derech as NOT a Torah movement - albeit perhaps one with Torah ideals. If we are compelled by Divine dictate ('daas toyrah'), or sociological conditions (we concede in everything else to the Charedim, why not their rabbis?), to accept their authority, what, aside from appeals to a slightly-more-open Divine Shulchan Arukh, can save us from cleaving even Observance away as a standard for determining Kashrut of a derech? It seems allegiance to certain ideologies or deferment to them (or giving them our money or our children), is the measure. When Charedi settings tolerate the non-observant among them, allow them in their synagogues, their schools, their shabbat tables, respect and accept the mitzvot that they do, etc., they are considered When modern orthodox settings tolerate the non-observant among them, allow them in their synagogues, their schools, respect and accept the mitzvot that they do, etc., they are considered a treif movement.

Anonymous said...

sorry; the last section left out a few words, it should read;

"When Charedi Kiruv settings tolerate the non-observant among them, allow them in their synagogues, their schools, their shabbat tables, respect and accept the mitzvot that they do, etc., they are considered saints".