Weekly Torah portion: Tazria-Metzora
In parashat Lekh Lekha (Genesis 17:9-12) we read: “God further said to Abraham: As for you, you and your offspring to come throughout the ages shall keep My covenant. Such shall be the covenant between Me and you and your offspring to follow which you shall keep: every male among you shall be circumcised…And throughout the generations, every male among you shall be circumcised at the age of eight days.” Now, in parashat Tazria (Leviticus 17:2-3) we read: “Speak to the Israelite people thus: When a woman at childbirth bears a male, she shall be unclean seven days… On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.” Interestingly, it is this latter verse that the sages view as the halakhic source of the mitzvah of circumcision.
In the Mishna (Hullin 7:6) we find the following statement concerning biblical repetition: “R. Judah said: Was not the thigh muscle forbidden from the time of the sons of Jacob…? They answered: It was enjoined from Mount Sinai, but recorded in its place.” The answer appears to state that although the subject of the thigh muscle is recounted in the context of the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel, where we read “That is why the children of Israel to this day do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the socket of the hip, since Jacob's hip socket was wrenched at the thigh muscle” (Genesis 32:33), that is not the source of the halakhic prohibition.
In his commentary to the Mishna, Maimonides explains:
Take note of this important principle stated in this mishna in stating that it was prohibited at Sinai, which is that you must know that all that we are prohibited from doing or that we do today is done only because of God’s command through Moses, and not because God commanded it to prophets who preceded him. An example of this…we do not circumcise because Abraham circumcised himself and the members of his household, but rather because we were commanded by Moses to circumcise as did Abraham of blessed memory, and so in regard to the thigh muscle, we do not follow the prohibition of our father Jacob, but rather because Moses commanded it.
In addressing the question “Why should Jews observe the mitzvot?” Prof. R. Elliot Dorff writes:
The Bible gives several answers to that question, but by far the most common one is simply that God commanded us at Sinai to do so. There He revealed (showed) His will to us…More importantly, that event made the law binding on Jews for all generations to come: “It was not with our fathers that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, the living, everyone of us who is here today. Face to face the Lord spoke to you on the mountain out of the fire. (Deuteronomy 5: 3-4)”. (Elliot N. Dorff, Conservative Judaism: Our Ancestors to Our Descendants)
After reviewing some of the approaches to why Jews should observe the halakha, Prof. R. David Golinkin writes:
There are many other possible replies to the question ‘why observe the halakha?’ but in the final analysis, in Judaism, “the chief thing is not to expound the Law but to do it” (Avot 1:17). Professor Louis Ginzberg pointed out long ago that halakha is far more fundamental in Judaism than haggadah (non-legal material), for ideas are volatile, but practices endure. If Jewish practice goes, virtually nothing remains. (David Golinkin, Halakha for Our Time, 16).
- What is the importance of tradition in Jewish life? Does tradition impose obligations? Is tradition enough? Can Judaism be fully realized, personally and communally, exclusively on the basis of customs and traditions?
- Why did the sages feel the need for a source of obligation in addition to tradition? What is the importance of being “commanded”?
- Is being commanded sufficient? What is the relationship between the tradition and the command?
- What is the importance of the concept of “covenant” to the obligation to observe the mitzvot? Is the concept of covenant important in ways other than “commandedness”?
Iyunei Shabbat is published weekly by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, The Masorti Movement and The Rabbinical Assembly of Israel in conjunction with the Masorti Movement in Israel and Masorti Olami-World Council of Conservative Synagogues.
Chief Editor: Rabbi Avinoam Sharon
