Right and Wrong Ways to Love of God

by R. Gidon Rothstein

Parshat Nitzavim

Followership is a Form of Love

When the Torah has Moshe command the Jews le-ahavah God, and to walk in His ways, 30;16, Ibn Ezra comments ha-ikkar, the main, on le-ahavah. He might have meant the Main, as in God, except the verse says et Hashem Elokecha. I think he wants us to know ahavah should be central, the ikkar, of how we relate to God.

For him, it seems to me, the rest of the verse explains how this love looks. To walk in God’s Ways—for Rambam and others a way to require us to emulate God to the extent possible—for Ibn Ezra it seems to mean not to change from the ways, actions, and mitzvot Hashem commanded, even if we do not know why Hashem commanded them.

Love of God, for Ibn Ezra, is faithful obedience regardless of comprehension.

Ferreting Out the Truth

The first verse of chapter thirty called for va-hashevota el levavecha, for us, in exile, to take to heart the blessings and curses that befall us. Sforno, like today’s translations, understands the verse to urge us to note the course of our history, and what it says about the necessity of proper service of God.

He includes an idea that is not obvious. He assumes there will be contradictory aspects to that history (blessing and curse, for example), and we will need to distinguish truth from falsehood. When we do, we will see how distant our de’ot (opinions or ideas; our worldview, I think he means) have taken us from God, as well as the customs we have adopted, non-Torah ones, more like the nations among whom we have been exiled.

This is the second week in a row we are seeing him disparage customs. It gives the impression he thought of customs as a barrier to his fellow Jews seeing the truth of their situation. “Taking to heart” would involve an unflinching account of where we’ve gone right, and where we have not.

The Jews Agree, Partially

I have always thought the last verse of chapter twenty-nine was said by Moshe Rabbenu, like the rest of the chapter. After having laid out the covenant the Jews were to enter that day, as they stood before God, with warning of what would happen to those who violated it, the last verse reassured or comforted. They would not be responsible for sins the miscreants hid from the public, only for what was out in the open.

Or HaChayim instead puts it in the mouths of the Jewish people, who agree with everything Moshe had said, as long as it does not include secret sins, for which they were not willing to accept responsibility. For open ones, they agreed to arevut (an idea we saw last week, too), the obligation for Jews to police each other, to address wrongs that might spring up.

For their children forever, too, the verse says. Those who think Moshe is thoe one saying this need not be surprised; for Or HaChayim, the verse presents significant new information, the Jewish people committing on behalf of their descendants, in perpetuity.

Moshe says a bunch. Here, according to Or HaChayim, is where we agreed, except for any requirement to root out hidden evils we have no way to know.

Cleverness Isn’t Always a Gateway to Torah

Based on a puzzling passage in Rambam’s Commentary to Avot, R. Ya’akov Kaminetzky advances a very modern theory about verse 30;12. The verse itself says the Torah is not in Heaven nor across the sea. In context, it could be taken to comfort us that we need not do the impossible or extremely difficult.

In Eruvin 55a, R. Yochanan adds a layer, those who merchandise across the sea will not find Torah knowledge. Rambam (as R. Kaminetzky reads him; I am not going into the wording itself) saw reason to worry people would think business, and business travel was a net positive, would equip us better to study Torah.

Melachah, ordinary labor, has no intellectual content, fooling no one into thinking it is anything other than a way to support Torah in the rest of one’s life. [Ironically, some contemporary authors defend the intellectual value of manual labor, although perhaps only craftmanship. R. Kaminetzky is going in the other direction, waving off those who think business creativity a valuable onramp to Torah study.]

Because business takes thought and creativity, he says, so we might think it prepares us for better Torah study [I know businessmen who think this way]. For this reason, the Torah, and Rambam, make their disagreement clear. Those who travel all the time for business, spend their time in those involvements, are not helping their Torah study, they’re using up their time on those endeavors, should instead find ways to study Torah itself.

We think customs and business push us in the right direction, where love of God and adherence to the covenant start with (and stem from) obedience. Obedience we foster by looking out for each other, helping each other stick to the proper path.