Because I Said So
Rabbi Meir Kahane
According to the Talmud (Shabbat 88a), G-d lifted Mt. Sinai over the Jewish people’s heads and said: “If you accept My Torah, it will be good. If not, your burial place will be here!”
This passage seems nothing less than stupefying. What possible legal or moral obligation was formed here as a people looked helplessly up at the mountain over their heads, being forced to accept the Torah under penalty of destruction? What could the Almighty have possibly meant by forcing such an “acceptance”?
When Moses first entered the palace of Pharaoh and relayed to him the word of G-d, the Egyptian monarch replied: “Who is the L-rd that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the L-rd…” (Exodus 5:1–2). The goal, target, and aspiration of Judaism is to have man “know the L-rd.” To “know” the L-rd is to understand that “good” and “bad,” “true” and “false,” “ethical” and “unethical” are objective truths and realities that are understood only by the One who created them and that we sit humbly and quietly to learn these values and truths, to accept them, and to live them. One only “knows” the L-rd by accepting the yoke of heaven – unconditionally and totally.
A Reform Jew, who does not believe the Torah is the literal word of G-d, does not worship the L-rd but himself, his own intelligence, his own values, his own decisions. When he does not steal, it is not because the L-rd said not to, but because of his own ethical sense of values. We have here not Judaism but Goldbergism or Schwartzism or Cohenism.
Today, the personal and subjective standards of Goldberg happen to coincide with a particular Torah injunction, but tomorrow? What if tomorrow his own concept of adultery and theft changes? Why then, surely his practice will change, and what then of the mitzvah? Consider the essential differences between Torah morality and standards and so many of those that the modern, liberal, progressive Jew holds dear. Consider the Torah viewpoint on abortion, censorship, homosexuality, suicide, and the general principle of “victimless crimes” or “the right to do with my body that which I wish.”
A mitzvah is only a mitzvah when it is perceived as such – as a commandment from G-d – regardless of whether one agrees with it or not. This is why the Mishnah (Berachot 33b) warns against “praising” the mitzvah of allowing the mother bird to fly away before taking her eggs on the grounds of ethics and mercy. It may indeed be a merciful thing to do, and that is indeed what should be learned from this mitzvah – but that is not why the Jew obeys it. This principle also explains such Rabbinic teachings as, “Greater is one who is commanded to do a mitzvah and does it than one who is not commanded to do it and does it nevertheless” (Kiddushin 31a), and, “[A] man should not say: I cannot abide pork, I cannot bear to wear a garment of shaatnez, but should rather say: I can eat the pork and wear the garment, but what can I do if my Father in Heaven has decreed otherwise?” (Sifra, as quoted by Rashi to Kedoshim 20:26).
It is only when man is prepared to bow his head and accept upon his shoulders and neck “the yoke of heaven” that he can take the first step towards holiness and true freedom. And that is the purpose of the chukim. A chok forces the Jew to cry out: I do not know why I should not do it, I would like to do it, but what can I do? My Father in Heaven decrees otherwise. No greater weapon in harnessing the ego and raising one to humble holiness can there be.
And so, even though the Jew certainly stood at Mt. Sinai and shouted “na’aseh v’nishma” – declaring his willingness, his subjective approval of the Torah – the L-rd had to go further. He had to tell the Jew that while it was good that he wished, of his own volition, to accept the laws, it was urgent that he understand that even if the Torah is not acceptable to him – in whole or in part – he is obligated to accept it and obey it. The lifting of the mountain over the Jews’ heads is the lesson of the yoke of the kingdom of heaven. Do it because I tell you to, and only thus will you truly arrive at holiness.
That is why the holiday of Shavuot – commemorating that moment at Sinai – is called “the time of the giving of the Torah.” The emphasis is upon the fact that G-d gave us the Torah rather than our accepting it. Acceptance or not, it was given to us. Agreement or not, it is to be obeyed.
The Jewish Press, 1976