TORAH PORTION
In Celebration of Its Twenty-Fifth Anniversary
THE BIRMINGHAM TEMPLE
proudly presents
We Are Moral Because
We Are All Brothers
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
Special to the Jewish News
0
ne of the frequent
questions a rabbi has
to face from a tough
audience is whether a belief
in God is a necessary pre-
condition for living a moral
and ethical life. Ethical
humanists and atheists argue
that each one of us should
Shabbat Noah:
Genesis 6:9-11:32,
Isaiah 54:1-55:5
mind his own moral business
and leave God out of the pic-
ture. A careful reading of the
life of Noah — the man who
survives a destruction — pro-
vides an answer to this ques-
tion because the terms of his
survival make his legacy rele-
vant for subsequent ages.
As Noah emerges from the
Ark, God announces a new
ethical code which now must
serve as a counter force to the
generations of corruption
culminating in the Flood, ". . .
he who spills human blood
shall have his own blood spill-
ed by man, for God made man
in His own image." (Genesis
9:6)
`In his own image' repeats
the phrase used when God
created Adam on the sixth
day of creation, but since then
a lot has happened, and in the
process the world was almost
destroyed.
One can view the journey
from the dream of perfection
in the Garden of Eden to the
nightmare of the Flood as a
pattern of any civilization
which rises on a blaze of glory
only to fall, struck by some
fatal or tragic flaw. And we
can easily imagine the 20th
century, with its abundance
of miraculous inventions and
discoveries as a potential
Garden of Eden facing a fork
in the road. But every time a
nation approaches a dream of
perfection it has to be wary of
the snake tempting it with
the words, ". . . on the day you
eat from it your eyes shall be
opened and you shall be like
God . ." (Gen. 3:5)
The human personality
likes the idea of being such a
wondrous creature so much
that he soon finds himself
convinced by the snake that
progress can never be
stopped. In the meantime,
conceiving of God embodies
Shlomo Riskin is rabbi of the
town of Efrat in the Etzion
Bloc.
the concept that man must
subject himself to this God,
and whether the command is
not to eat from a certain tree
in a certain garden, or to fast
on a certain day, this scien-
tific, brilliant genius of a
creature doesn't want to be
subjected by anything or
anyone. He wants to listen on-
ly to himself, and it's easier
to theorize that the universe,
instead of being created by
God, exploded into existence
on its own energies, and
because we humans are the
most complex creatures on
this planet, we write our own
scripts, moral and otherwise.
But if God created humani-
ty in His own image, morali-
ty is not subject to change. All
humans are linked together,
related to One Father, thus
our morality is based on an ir-
reversible fact. We are moral .
because we are all brothers,
and we are brothers because
we are created in the image of
God.
When we question the
"created in the image of God"
theory, positing instead that
we are "created in the image
of an evolutionary theory," or
that we're all the result of a
complex development of
amino acids, only the laws of
biology prevail — survival of
the fittest. Ethical codes are
reduced into modes of social
behavior and the individual's
right to survive, regardless of
price, is declared to be the
highest ethical value.
When Adam and Eve are
driven from the Garden of
Eden because they dabble
with the delicate balance be-
tween Creator and creature,
moving toward the idea of
self-enthronement, the grasp
for power has been unloosed,
and the inevitable result is
Cain murdering Abel. Who-
ever gets in my way must pay.
A rat, a mosquito, even
another human creature are
all nothing but momentary
annoyances to be sacrificed on
Ayn Rand's alter of
deification.
From Cain to the epoch of
the Flood, the idea of humans
created in the image of God
becomes less and less of a
driving force, and the result is
chaos and corruption. "And
the earth was corrupt before
God, and the earth was filled
with violence." (Genesis 6:11)
The Siporno explains this as
a cause-and-effect relation-
ship. Since the harmonious
balance between God and His
creation was corrupted,
subsequent violence was in-
evitable. In Noah's time,
AN EVENING WITH
MORDECAI RICHLER
— Internationally renowned writer
— One of the most gifted humorists
of our time
— Astute witness to American
Jewry's uneasy assimilation to
contemporary society
— Author and screenplay writer of
The Apprenticeship of Duddy
Kravitz and Joshua Then and Now
Presentation:
"How To Live As A Jew In A Gentile World"
Mordecai Richler will entertain questions and
comments following talk
MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 8:30 p.m.
Admission $5.00
Ticket Information
28611 W. Twelve Mile Rd.
477-1410
Farmington Hills
Congregation B'Nai David cordially extends an invitation to the community to
attend a very special afternoon. In conjunction with the formation of a special
adult group, on Tuesday, October 18th, at 12:30 p.m. we will be presenting a most
entertaining and surprising musical afternoon. The event will be within the
Rotenberg social hall at the synagogue. There is no admission charge.
Please call the synagogue office for reservations and transportation assistance.
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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