by Rabbi Alan J Yuter
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are that of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the Union for Traditional Judaism, unless otherwise indicated.
Jewish Law, like any legal system, consists of a Basic Norm, a rule that says/commands that the individual obey the Commander. Jewry is commanded to obey God’s covenantal laws that are [a] recorded in the Written Torah [b] as they are filtered by the Oral Torah. There are Torah and Rabbinic norms that command positive action, forbid outlawed deeds, and when silent, permit, authorize, and empower personal and communal autonomy. Torah law’s are measured by the severity of penalty to be exacted for non-compliance. Rabbinic laws include taqannot, “to do” acts that generate commandment blessings, gezeirot, “do not do” acts, and hanagot, positive practices that do not generate commandment blessings because they are not commandments. Only commandments generate holiness, hanagot/customs do not, at least according to the Orthodox Judaism encoded within the Oral Torah.
Sometimes, real everyday life challenges our community’s ethical instincts. How are we to treat the outsider, the non-Jew, the she or he who is nisht fun unzer? How Jewry treats the outsider is the window of what is inside the individual Jewish heart.
The Jewish Tradition, responding to different realities, often speaks with multiple voices. The same Judaism that forbids doing favors for non-Jews [Deut. 7:2] commands, in the Oral Torah, that Jewry provide material support for non-Jews in order to foster “the ways of peace” [bGittin 61a]. I suspect that when relations are good between Jew and Gentile, or policy requires in times of tension, Jews are commanded to feed their non-Jewish neighbors. But when hostility characterizes inter-communal relations, group solidarity might preclude what is taken at that moment to be misplaced charity. We know that Cyrus was a pagan from the Cyrus cylinder, but Ezra 1 portrays him to as someone who revered the Lord because he was good to, and for, the Jews.
For those who do not have access to Torah revelation and Law, how are they judged by God? Cain’s killing of his brother, the generation of the flood, the citizen’s of Sodom, and all other biblical characters are all subject to Divine judgment without being informed by what benchmarks they are to be judged. After informing the reader that Abraham embodies “the way of the Lord” [Genesis 18:19], committed as he was to do the right thing, he actually challenges God. Abraham “knows” that God does justice, kindness, and denies to Godself sovereign immunity, indicating that nobody and no body is above the law, not even God. Hence, Abraham is not only allowed, he is as a moral agent obliged to challenge God, asking as he did, “will the Judge of the whole world not dispense judgment” [Genesis 18:25]? This “way of the Lord” ethic is memorialized at mSota 1:7, “the way [=measure, criteria] that a person judges others is the way that person will be judged.” The flaws one finds in oneself should not be criticized when they appear in or projected upon an “other” [See bBaba Metsi’a 59b]. This value concept found in these Rabbinic sources is also attested in Christian Scripture [Matthew 6:12 and 7:1-3]. It is the ethic that believing Jews and Christians share. God hates double standards [Leviticus 19:36]; God allows people to chart their ethical course, but they will held to account by the benchmark of their own accounting. If humankind behaves kindly, humankind will be judged with kindness; if humanity behaves like low lives, in an unkindly way, i.e. with violence [Genesis 6:11], God treats an inhumane Humankind by bringing it low, in destruction [Genesis 6:13]. God “desires” humankind to choose to be kind to humanity. When God commands that one should love the “other” as one love’s oneself [Leviticus 19:18], God actually guides us to discover the image [tselem] or shadow [tsel] that is implanted within us.
Noah was a decent fellow, and was, by dint of his decency, worthy of being saved, as was the morally mediocre lout called Lot. The letter of the Law legal positivism provides for Judaism’s enforceable moral minimum. But following the models of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, we should strive to be ethically all that we can be; by choosing to “do that which is straight [=right] and the good” [Deut. 6:18]. How good might we be? We were initially made to be “a little lower than the angels” [Psalms 8:6]. But we are also commanded to choose to be moral agents when we were commanded to “choose life” [Deut. 30:19]. If we choose to obey this higher ethical command, the sky is literally the limit.
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Educated and first ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Rabbi Alan J. Yuter earned additional ordinations from Yeshiva University, supervised by Rav Moshe D. Tendler, and the Israeli Chief Rav Mordecai Eliahu. He further received Yadin Yadin from Rav David Weiss Halivni and earned a PhD in modern Hebrew Literature from New York University.
A founding member of the UTJ, Rabbi Yuter served as a faculty member at the UTJ’s rabbinical school and has held multiple pulpits, including extended stints in Springfield, NJ, and Baltimore, MD.
Rabbi Yuter is a prolific writer on ritual and philosophical issues, underpinnings of halakha, Biblical criticism, and much more. His essays can be found on UTJ’s Viewpoints . He is also a frequent contributor for The Institute of Jewish Ideas and Ideals.
In addition to his activities with the UTJ, Rabbi Yuter teaches at Torat Reva in Jerusalem and is associated with the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding, affiliated with Ohr Torah Stone in Efrat.
Rabbi Yuter and his wife Linda reside in Israel.