A Jewish Philosophy
A Brief Treatise by Rabbi Abba Engleberg
I'm posting this brief philosophical essay by a dear friend and cherished colleague with his permission. Rabbi Engleberg is an Orthodox Rabbi living in Israel and working in an academic environment. He is a retired U.S. Air Force chaplain. Although in Jewish life generally there is a bias against such 'in a nutshell' -type formulations, I think that they can be very helpful to the layman. Enjoy!
Note: Each stage is a prerequisite for the next stage.
Stage 1: Man is created with the basic instinctual feeling for what is right from a moral point of view. The ability to love family members is extended to other human beings, which leads to the concepts of charity and acts of kindness, which lead to a repugnance for acts of theft, murder, and rape. Of course other emotions which are also instinctual to human nature, such as jealousy, domination, and striving for satisfaction frequently conflict with the positive inclinations, and lead to situations in which an individual or even an entire nation exhibit immoral traits. Even for the atheist, then, the challenge of life is to live a life in accordance with those traits which instinctually are looked upon as being right, proper, and respectable.
Stage 2: Not only is there a right way to live – the moral way – but there is a G-d and He wants us to live in that way. Being willing to live as G-d desires pre-supposes instinctual morality. Otherwise, even if I know for a fact that G-d wants me to behave in a given manner, why should I do so? Should it be out of gratitude for the fact that He has created me and sustains me – but gratitude is itself a moral value. Should it be because I am afraid of some punishment that G-d might mete out to me or of not having a good life. But certainly I have the right to take a chance and suffer the consequences, if there are any, unless we acquiesce to the impropriety of harming a human being, including oneself – again a moral value. In Hebrew, the necessity of morality preceding our acceptance of G-d as our supreme commander is formulated as follows:
דרך ארץ קדמה לתורה
(Derekh Eretz kedma leTorah//Common morality comes before Torah)
Stage 3: The three monotheistic religions believe that in order to totally succeed in achieving the high moral level required by Stage 1, they must create a framework to nurture the members of their religion. In Judaism, some believe that every word of the written and Oral law were dictated to Moses by G-d at Mount Sinai, some believe that something happened at Sinai which has come down to us in various versions which were combined into one version (hence Biblical criticism) by an unknown redactor (Ezra?) with the entire process being divinely inspired, others believe that the entire literature was a figment of man's literary, philosophical and moral ability and imagination, but again under the guidance of a Supreme Being, with many intermediary positions being taken by various practitioners. (Those who do not believe in any Divine involvement are not at Stage 3)
Why am I describing the 3 stages?
1. To answer how G-d judges fairly those who have had a wonderful Jewish (or Christian, for that matter) education together with those who have had no religious instruction. The answer is that everyone is expected to fulfill stage 1, with the requirements for stage 2 or 3 varying with the individual's background and will to do what he believes to be right.
2. To bring religious and secular Jews closer to each other. I assume that most Jews believe in basic morality. Many sources tell us how important morality is to the religious Jew, for example:
רמב"ם – הלכות חנוכה בסוף – גדול השלום שכל התורה כולה לא ניתנה אלא כדי שיהיה שלום בעולם שנאמר דרכיה דרכי נועם וכל נתיבותיה שלום
גמרה שבת – מאמרו של הלל – מה דעליך שאני, לחברתך לא תעביד
(Rambam - Laws of Hanukkah at the end - Great is peace, in that the entire Torah was given only that there could be peace in the world, as it is written: Its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths [lead to] peace.)
Since a very large proportion of the mitzvot are moral in nature, religious Jews should realize that in their basic beliefs, they are not that far from secular Jews, and they should highly respect those secular Jews who achieve a high level of morality. Secular Jews should realize that the rituals of orthodox Jews are meant in a large part just to enable them to adhere more closely to those moral guidelines to which they themselves attach such great importance. This might increase their respect for the rituals of Judaism, even if belief-wise they remain at stage 1 or 2. Also, if they realize that the very morality they believe in is a prerequisite to the Torah that the orthodox believe in, they might feel a greater closeness to [those] believers.
3. Because of the primacy of morality (Stage 1), no religious law or weltanschauung ('worldview') can contradict basic moral values. One cannot murder civilians and claim that his religion tells him to do so, nor can he maliciously keep a woman in a state of Aguna. Members of all religions must relate to seemingly immoral behaviors indicated in their own holy scriptures and perhaps advocated by many of their own religious ministers.
4. Because of the common challenge to excel at even Stage 1, every person must respect every other person independent of race, gender, or religion as one more creation of G-d who is striving to fulfill the same agenda. By the same token, he should rightfully denigrate any person who flagrantly flaunts basic moral values.
