Law, Ethics and Jewish Divorce

Law, Ethics and Jewish Divorce - Rabbi Mordecai Finley - Spiritual leader, Ohr HaTorah Synagogue

[Below is my response to Rabbi Finley. Please see link above for complete article and our posts to each other.]

I understand your point Rabbi and I hope you understand that I meant no disrespect at all. The lessons that we learn from the Torah are, however, supposed to be eternal lessons. Unfortunat­ely our interpreta­tions of those laws sometimes get caught up in deference to our elders instead of constantly learning and building upon the knowledge of those who came before us.

Would Beethoven only use a piano if he were alive today? I doubt it. Today the ‘classics’ are rightfully revered, but shouldn’t we also understand that those people used the most advanced instrument­s known to them at the time? Isn’t it that way throughout mankind’s history in all segments of our population and all industries­? Why did we all of a sudden stop expanding our horizons and stunt our growth? Why do we feel that we are showing the utmost respect to our elders or teachers who came before us, if we simply follow in their footsteps and claim that they were smarter and therefore we cannot change what they have taught us? That seems like an insult to those great minds instead of respect. I apologize in saying this but I feel that we have become intellectu­ally lazy by NOT continuing to grow. I look at this as a parent does with their children. We impart our knowledge to them in the hopes that they not only avoid the mistakes we made but also to learn and go further in their developmen­t than we were capable of doing ourselves.

Isn’t it about time that we begin to interpret “man” to be “mankind”? Shouldn’t our understand­ing of equality be extended to our understand­ing of the Torah?

P.S. You say “virtuous behavior is the desired norm”. I couldn’t agree more!!