JULY 27 • 2023 | 55
higher standard than the law
strictly requires. It seems as
if Ramban is telling us that
there are aspects of the moral
life that are not caught by the
concept of law at all. That is
what he means by saying “It
is impossible to mention in
the Torah all aspects of man’s
conduct with his neighbors
and friends.”
Law is about universals,
principles that apply in all
places and times: Do not
murder. Do not rob. Do
not steal. Do not lie. Yet
there are important features
of the moral life that are
not universal at all. They
have to do with specific
circumstances and the way
we respond to them. What
is it to be a good husband
or wife, a good parent,
a good teacher, a good
friend? What is it to be a
great leader, or follower, or
member of a team? When is
it right to praise, and when
is it appropriate to say, “You
could have done better?”
There are aspects of the
moral life that cannot be
reduced to rules of conduct
because what matters is not
only what we do, but the
way in which we do it: with
humility or gentleness or
sensitivity or tact.
Morality is about persons,
and no two persons are alike.
When Moses asked God to
appoint his successor, he
began his request with the
words, “Lord, God of the
spirit of all flesh.” (Num.
27:16) On this the Rabbis
commented: What Moses
was saying was that each
person is different, so he
asked God to appoint a
leader who would relate
to each individual as an
individual, knowing that
what is helpful to one
person may be harmful
to another. This ability to
judge the right response to
the right person at the right
time is a feature not only
of leadership, but of human
goodness in general.
Rashi begins his
commentary to Bereishit
with the question: If the
Torah is a book of law, why
does it not start with the
first law given to the people
of Israel as a whole, which
does not appear until Exodus
12? Why does it include
the narratives about Adam
and Eve, Cain and Abel, the
patriarchs and matriarchs
and their children?
Rashi gives an answer
that has nothing to do with
morality — he says it has to
do with the Jewish people’s
right to their land. But
the Netziv (R. Naftali Zvi
Yehudah Berlin; 1816-1893)
writes that the stories of
Genesis are there to teach
us how the patriarchs were
upright in their dealings,
even with people who were
strangers and idolaters. That,
he says, is why Genesis is
called by the Sages “the book
of the upright.”
Morality is not just a
set of rules, even a code
as elaborate as the 613
commands and their
rabbinic extensions. It is also
about the way we respond to
people as individuals. The
story of Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden is at least in
part about what went wrong
in their relationship when
the man referred to his wife
as Ishah, “woman,” a generic
description, a type. Only
when he gave her a proper
name, Chavah, Eve, did he
relate to her as an individual
in her individuality, and
only then did God make
“garments of skins for Adam
and his wife, and clothed
them.” (Gen. 3:21)
This, too, is the difference
between the God of Aristotle
and the God of Abraham.
Aristotle thought that
God knew only universals
not particulars. This is
the God of science, of the
Enlightenment, of Spinoza.
The God of Abraham is the
God who relates to us in our
singularity, in what makes us
different from others as well
as what makes us the same.
JUSTICE AND LOVE
This ultimately is the
difference between the
two great principles of
Judaic ethics: justice and
love. Justice is universal.
It treats all people alike,
rich and poor, powerful
and powerless, making no
distinctions on the basis
of color or class. But love
is particular. A parent
loves their children for
what makes them each
unique. The moral life is a
combination of both. That
is why it cannot be reduced
solely to universal laws. That
is what the Torah means
when it speaks of “the right
and the good” over and
above the commandments,
statutes and testimonies.
A good teacher knows
what to say to a struggling
student who, through great
effort, has done better than
expected, and to a gifted
student who has come
top of the class but is still
performing below their
potential. A good employer
knows when to praise and
when to challenge. We all
need to know when to insist
on justice and when to
exercise forgiveness.
The people who have had
a decisive influence on our
lives are almost always those
we feel understood us in our
singularity. We were not,
for them, a mere face in the
crowd. That is why, though
morality involves universal
rules and cannot exist
without them, it also involves
interactions that cannot be
reduced to rules.
Rabbi Israel of Rizhin
(1796-1850) once asked a
student how many sections
there were in the Shulchan
Aruch. The student replied,
“Four.”
“What,” asked the Rizhiner,
“do you know about the fifth
section?”
“But there is no fifth
section,” said the student.
“There is,” said the
Rizhiner. “It says: Always
treat a person like a mensch.”
The fifth section of the
code of law is the conduct
that cannot be reduced to
law. That is what it takes to
do the right and the good.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (1948-
2020) was a global religious leader,
philosopher, the author of more than
25 books and moral voice for our time.
His series of essays on the weekly
Torah portion, entitled “Covenant
& Conversation” will continue to be
shared and distributed around the
world.