The Trefa Banquet, Cincinnati, 11th July 1883
"The Talmud speaks out of the religious consciousness of its age and for that time it was right; I speak out of the higher consciousness of my age and for this age I am right."
-Rabbi Dr. Samuel Holdheim, 1844
Progressive integrity, then, is about the freedom to choose what is right; ‘tsedek tsedak tirdof – you shall surely pursue justice’. The repetition of the word tsedek here might imply that the righteous path is one that will always need new thinking and new action, because the just or right path was never eternally fixed. We should also celebrate this integrity in choosing because Progressive Judaism is modern, it speaks to the individual. This is hard. It is hard to be one autonomous, choosing person. But it is nevertheless truthful. We can be nothing else. This I believe gets to the heart of progressive Jewish integrity; it is the potential of truly being one Self. I believe we engage this potential most fully in a kehillah, a community. This is where we wrestle Judaism into a fuller engagement with the present. We are honest about this act of choosing. Our Progressive integrity demands this of us.
(כז) וַיִּבְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אֶת־הָֽאָדָם֙ בְּצַלְמ֔וֹ בְּצֶ֥לֶם אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּרָ֣א אֹת֑וֹ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בָּרָ֥א אֹתָֽם׃(כח) וַיְבָ֣רֶךְ אֹתָם֮ אֱלֹהִים֒ וַיֹּ֨אמֶר לָהֶ֜ם אֱלֹהִ֗ים פְּר֥וּ וּרְב֛וּ וּמִלְא֥וּ אֶת־הָאָ֖רֶץ וְכִבְשֻׁ֑הָ וּרְד֞וּ בִּדְגַ֤ת הַיָּם֙ וּבְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וּבְכָל־חַיָּ֖ה הָֽרֹמֶ֥שֶׂת עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃
(27) And God created humans in the Divine image, in the image of God, God created him; male and female God created them.(28) God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth.”
...דאר"ח גדול מצווה ועושה ממי שאינו מצווה ועושה אמר רב יוסף מריש ה"א מאן דהוה אמר לי הלכה כר"י דאמר סומא פטור מן המצות עבידנא יומא טבא לרבנן דהא לא מיפקידנא והא עבידנא השתא דשמעיתא להא דא"ר חנינא גדול מצווה ועושה יותר ממי שאינו מצווה ועושה אדרבה מאן דאמר לי דאין הלכה כרבי יהודה עבידנא יומא טבא לרבנן
...As Rabbi Chanina says: Greater is one who is commandedand performs it than one who is not commandedand performs it.
Rav Yosef, who was blind, said: At first I would say: If someone would tell me that the law is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda, who says: A blind person is exempt from fulfilling the mitzvot, I would make a festive day for the rabbis, as I am not commanded and yet I perform the mitzvot. This means my reward is very great. Now that I have heard that which Rabbi Chanina says: Greater is one who is commanded to do a mitzva and performs it than one who is not commanded to do a mitzva and performs it, on the contrary: If someone would tell me that the law is not in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda, and a blind person is obligated in mitzvot, I would make a festive day for the rabbis.
גדול המצווה ועושה - נראה דהיינו טעמא דמי שמצווה ועושה עדיף לפי שדואג ומצטער יותר פן יעבור ממי שאין מצווה שיש לו פת בסלו שאם ירצה יניח:
Greater is the one who is commanded and performs - it seems that the reason that the one who is commanded and performs is preferred, is because they worry and pain themselves more lest they transgress compared to the person who is not commanded. That person has bread in their basket that if they wished to, they could take it off.
מי שאינו מצווה ועושה כך. שמשלם לו הקב"ה שכרו ששכר גדול יש למצווה ועושה שהוא מפני שמצווה ומקבל מרות המצות עליו:
The one who isn't commanded and performs - for the Holy Blessed One pays them their reward, but there is a greater payment for the one who is commanded and performs, since they are commanded and receive the dominion of the commandments upon them.
ואמר רבי חמא ברבי חנינא מאי דכתיב (דברים יג, ה) אחרי ה' אלהיכם תלכו וכי אפשר לו לאדם להלך אחר שכינה והלא כבר נאמר (דברים ד, כד) כי ה' אלהיך אש אוכלה הוא אלא להלך אחר מדותיו של הקב"ה מה הוא מלביש ערומים דכתיב (בראשית ג, כא) ויעש ה' אלהים לאדם ולאשתו כתנות עור וילבישם אף אתה הלבש ערומים הקב"ה ביקר חולים דכתיב (בראשית יח, א) וירא אליו ה' באלוני ממרא אף אתה בקר חולים הקב"ה ניחם אבלים דכתיב (בראשית כה, יא) ויהי אחרי מות אברהם ויברך אלהים את יצחק בנו אף אתה נחם אבלים הקב"ה קבר מתים דכתיב (דברים לד, ו) ויקבר אותו בגיא אף אתה קבור מתים
And Rabbi Chama, son of Rabbi Chanina, says: What is the meaning of that which is written: “After the Eternal your God shall you walk...” (Deuteronomy 13:5)? But is it actually possible for a person to follow the Divine Presence? But hasn’t it already been stated: “For the Eternal your God is a devouring fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24), and one cannot approach fire.He explains: Rather, the meaning is that one should follow the attributes of the Holy Blessed One.Just as God clothes the naked, as it is written: “And the Eternal God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21), so too, should you clothe the naked. Just as the Holy Blessed One visits the sick, as it is written with regard to God’s appearing to Abraham following his circumcision: “And the Eternal appeared unto him by the terebinths of Mamre” (Genesis 18:1), so too, should you visit the sick. Just as the Holy Blessed One consoles mourners, as it is written: “And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac his son” (Genesis 25:11), so too, should you console mourners. Just as the Holy Blessed One buried the dead, as it is written: “And he was buried in the valley in the land of Moab” (Deuteronomy 34:6), so too, should you bury the dead.
I know that “commandedness” in a strict sense is a mythic and social construct and that God never literally said to do these things. Nevertheless, I experience mitzvah observance as an obligation to God and the Jewish people. Whether this is because I was raised this way, or because something about the religion connects to my being, or some combination of these factors, keeping mitzvot and living a Jewish life feels like a fulfillment of divine command and not like a lifestyle choice, despite my abstract knowledge that it is almost certainly the latter.
Many of us who feel part of the mitzvah observant world do not experience daily “choices” such as “should I eat treif today?” or “should I put on tefillin this morning?” It could be that challenges come up here and there that bring such questions to the fore, but in general, these behaviors feel like obligations and not options.
To put it another way, the experience of commandedness is part of our identity as religious Jews. Identity is not a simple choice; it is a combination of upbringing, inclination, and life experience over time. It becomes an essential factor in how we parse the world...
In a relationship, you get back what you put in. If your life is enmeshed with that of your partner’s, then your identities become connected in a serious way and your lives are strongly affected by each other. If you have a partner that you see occasionally, this effect will be significantly diminished. That is not a moral judgment but a realistic observation.
For those of us who identity as Orthodox Jews, it means that we live in a monogamous relationship with Torah as interpreted by traditional Jews for millennia. We experience the commandedness of the mitzvot, the importance of Jewish continuity, loyalty to the Jewish people, the divine touch of the Torah, and a relationship with God.
And yet, the fact that Torah from heaven is a construct informs our need to make sure that this commitment is consistent with other equally strong commitments, such as morality, striving for truth, and making the world a better place. There is likely no perfect way to balance all of this, and the mix of commitments probably changes over time, but such is the eternal struggle of humanity trying to find its way in our vast and complex world.
-Rabbi Dr. Zev Farber, thetorah.com